[070315.EN.SEA] Skou: 'Daily Maersk' Dies Because Shippers Won't Pay For Premium Service

MAERSK's pricey "Daily Maersk" service touted as the shipping marvel of its time when introduced with great fanfare in September 2011, recently died from a lack of interest.

"It had not been a roaring commercial success," said Maersk Line CEO Soren Skou, of the attempt to provide shippers with guaranteed delivery times for a price.

Mr Skou said customers were not willing to pay a higher price for better service.

"Customers talk about the paying more for better quality services, but our experience was that we could deliver on our promises [a 95 per cent on-time rate], but the customers were not willing to pay for it," said Mr Skou.

While often confused with daily sailings, Daily Maersk really amounted to daily cut-off times for export cargo delivered to certain ports.

In a statement this week, Maersk said it had "scaled back" on offering Daily Maersk to its customers.

The service was built around a fleet of 70 ships operating between Ningbo, Shanghai, Shenzhen-Yantian and Tanjung Pelepas and calling at Felixstowe, Rotterdam and Bremerhaven.

Source : HKSG.