Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) said it has been ranked the best in the industry in online schedule tools, according to results of a July 2011 research by industry analyst SeaIntel Maritime Analysis (SeaIntel).
The Hong Kong-based liner said the company was the only one among the top 15 global carriers surveyed by SeaIntel to score full marks, “reflecting the ease with which (our) customers can access quality and comprehensive data of shipment schedule information.”
Based on user experience, SeaIntel rated the online schedule tools according to eight parameters: port-to-port pair search, schedule by vessel, listing of full service rotation, service map, gate-in cut-off times, cargo availability time at destination, easy drop-down help for port searching, and mobile solution.
Online news service IFW reported that the SeaIntel survey of the 15 international liners found that “scheduling tools are not very easy to use, with one carrier refusing SeaIntel access to its schedules because they were confidential.”
IFW added that SeaIntel also discovered that while almost all the carriers provided basic information such as service rotations, very few carriers supplied data on cut-off times and cargo availability.
Only six showed cut-off times as part of their schedules, only three showed cargo availability time as part of their schedules, and only two carriers offered mobile applications for schedules, IFW said.
Mr. Stephen Ng, director of corporate planning of OOCL, said the company will continue to invest in IT capabilities to provide “the most accurate, timely, informative and user-friendly online schedule tools.”
