A recent survey of the reliability of scheduling in the sea freight industry has revealed worrying results. The survey examined sea freight schedules on a worldwide basis. It demonstrated that over 40% of the world's cargo carrying ships arrived at their destination at least a day late. In many cases ships arrived in port well over several days late.

The survey derived results from an examination of 3,300 ships arriving on 23 east-west and north-south routes. It was part of a quarterly review of the global sea freight industry.

Although the survey showed that nearly 60% of all container ships arrived on time, the overall results were not inspiring. 22% of all the container ships arrived a day later than their scheduled arrival date. Moreover, 21% of the ships that were tracked arrived more than one day late.

The results from the survey also showed that there were large variations in performance between the different sea freight operators. Between December last year and April this year, on time arrival ranged between 0% and 91%.

Chinese sea freight companies were least likely to arrive on time, according to the results of the survey.

The implications of the results generated by the survey are very concerning to all those working in the sea freight industry. They show that many companies within the industry do not offer the reliable service that their customers require.

It is true that there are external and uncontrollable factors that can affect a ship's schedule. For instance port congestion can impact on arrival times. However, the fact that companies' ability to meet schedules varied considerably even on the same route demonstrates that these factors are not the main problem.

The real problem seems to be that many sea freight forwarders do not give enough buffer time to external factors in their weekly schedules. In other words, they do not build in time for issues like port congestion and poor weather conditions.