Recently, I realized that one of our past ocean carrier partners had taken my name off of their “Notifications” email address listings. This surprised me.
Normally I must unsubscribe to the email “spam” I don’t want (if the filter hasn’t caught them), the sender just doesn’t delete me. I was truly surprised, until I realized why.
The sender of these “Notifications” emails is an ocean carrier that has vessels with an average age of somewhere around 30 years old.
In the shipping industry, that’s old. As vessels age, similar to an automobile, they start developing mechanical issues, and sailing schedules become harder to maintain, due to “mechanical” problems. Schedule delays mean shipping delays and problems.
Because of the delays in their service, and our policy of offering a “Best in Class” service, we at DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express no longer use them and have switched to a competitor. What’s worse, in my opinion, is that their competitive disadvantage will continue – there is no end to the issue in sight for them; they don’t have the funds to replace the vessels.
Occasionally, in sales calls our sales professionals will say “We use xxxx, because Brand Y has unreliable, older vessels and we promise the best quality of service. Best in Class is a mission for us.” Apparently, this information got back to Brand Y, and their reaction was to remove me from their email listing.
Funny thing is, others in our company forwarded their last message to me, because they were surprised by the message content.
Where in the past “Brand Y” had always given an explanation as to why a vessel is late, now they do not. A lack of information is not good in the shipping business, particularly when you are a Customer trying to ascertain your supply chain weaknesses and risks. The last notification just stated “the vessel will be late” and discussed how it impacted their transfer cargo at destination. We wonder why there's no explanation.
We use the promotion line “Dependable from Start to Finish”, and we at DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express, DGX and DAX are here to help. Visit us. Call on us. Depend on us. We’re the supply chain partner you can Depend on!
My advice to you: Caveat Emptor.
