European shippers push EU to action
At the EU’s Maritime Forum at the end of March 2021, the European Shippers’ Council again put forward the shippers’ position on unreliability and peaking prices in the maritime container transport.
It is their conviction that, in reality, shippers, ports authorities, terminal operators and freight forwarders have had their efficiency gains on the maritime part of the supply chains nullified by a poor quality of service and higher costs at the ship/land interface.
For shippers, it was disappointing to have had no feedback or proposal for action from the European Commission, taking into account the months that the EC had been monitoring the situation and the fact that the EC initiated the forum. The shippers contend that a market which is only regulated by the consortium block exemption regulation (CBER), cannot be left alone in this crisis. (cd)