Most shippers entering into rate negotiations with shipping lines would not trust a price index created from data supplied by the lines themselves, suggests a poll carried out by a recently-launched international networking website for shippers.
The poll results come at a time when tensions are rising between shippers and the container shipping industry over the latter's plans to replace the soon-to-be-banned (in the EU) conference system with an 'information exchange' ¨C an idea already branded as anti-competitive by both the European forwarders' association CLECAT and the European Shippers' Council (ESC).
Preliminary results from the new poll, conducted by www.shippersvoice.com, are said to show that shippers are questioning the value of price indices for liner shipping services. A spokesman for the UK-based joint venture behind the website, Andrew Traill, commented:
"The poll is only a small one at the moment and we are still collecting responses but it seems to be revealing a degree of scepticism about the proposed development of price indices by the carriers' group ELAA (European Liner Affairs Association). This very much supports what shippers' representative groups are saying."
The Shipper's Voice networking website for shippers was launched in October and is said to be already attracting visitors from all over the world. Shippers need to be registered in order to complete polls and enter the forums and discussions. Non-shippers are also welcome to register and join in the forums. The sea freight poll (as well as air, road, rail freight and security polls) closes next week.
The Voice of the Shipper LLP is a joint venture between Traill's SV2 Ltd, freight and logistics research consultancy MDS Transmodal, and MissionMKG, a PR and marketing specialist in the freight and logistics industry.
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