“The survey results reinforce the opinion already expressed in the recent ESC Position Paper and in the message addressed to the EU Directorate-General for Competition on the Consortia BER that more transparency is needed from maritime carriers,” said Jordi Espin, ESC Maritime Transport Policy Manager. “Service levels, performance targets, market improvements, and price structuring should be set with a focus on clarity and an open observation analysis,” Jordin added.

“It is very clear that clarity of prices and surcharges has become a key topic for shippers and forwarders – particularly medium-sized ones. Starting from the 2018 emergency fuel surcharges and continuing with the current uncertainty over post-IMO 2020 fuel surcharges we expect the conversation between carriers and shippers to remain ongoing in 2019,” said Philip Damas, head of the logistics practice at Drewry.

“In the short term, carriers ought to be more transparent in their new BAF matrices and formulae and need to address their customers’ growing needs for predictability and visibility of carrier performance in the long run if they want to reach good levels of customer satisfaction,” added Damas.