Ports: Top service is common denominator in unsettled times
Over the past two years, so much of our ocean freight and ports coverage centered around the labor/management struggles at the U.S. West Coast ports as well as the pending opening of the expanded Panama Canal.
Amid much speculation, global shippers could do little more than wait and see how the results of those two situations would effect their operations and service levels.
Fast forward to August 2016 and the West Coast port dispute has long been settled, and we’re now more than a month past the opening of the canal expansion. What’s the result? Well, quite frankly, we’re actually seeing some of the more positive speculation turn into reality.
We’re now reading reports that several East Coast ports are already busy unloading larger, deeper-draft vessels without a hitch, and, to the surprise of some, the West Coast ports are handling more cargo than ever, attracting fleets of “mega-carriers” that the newly-expanded Panama Canal will never be able to accommodate.
And while the these two situations have yielded positive outcomes for many, ocean shippers tell us that the 17 ports walking away with Quest for Quality gold in 2016 were stepping up with world class service during a time when so much was still unsettled in the global ocean freight arena.
In fact, across the various port regions we find some of the highest weighted scores this year. In the South, the Jacksonville Port Authority put up an impressive 55.99, the highest score in the entire category. The Port of Milwaukee (55.11) posted the second highest, while Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority was third at 53.21.
2016 Quest for Quality Winners Categories NATIONAL LTL | REGIONAL LTL | TRUCKLOAD | RAIL/INTERMODAL | OCEAN CARRIERS | PORTS | 3PL | AIR CARRIERS and FREIGHT FORWARDERS |  home page |
