Secure the right service at the right price

Rate competitiveness is only part of carrier evaluation. Schedule reliability, blank sailing frequency, transit time consistency, and port-pair performance are equally critical, particularly for supply chains where a missed vessel directly triggers emergency air freight or stockout costs.

Xeneta integrates rate benchmarks with carrier performance data through Xeneta Schedules, allowing procurement teams to evaluate carriers on a cost-and-reliability matrix. This dual view is essential when presenting sourcing decisions to leadership, as it provides the evidence needed to justify selecting a slightly higher-cost carrier with materially better reliability, quantifying the total cost benefit rather than appearing to sacrifice savings.

 Carriers routinely quote transit times and reliability rates that reflect best-case scenarios rather than actual operational performance. Without independent data, procurement teams have limited ability to challenge these claims during a tender process. Xeneta Carrier Scorecard provides an objective benchmark: actual schedule reliability rates by carrier and trade lane, based on real vessel arrival data. If a carrier quotes 95% on-time performance but Xeneta's data shows 72% for that carrier on that corridor, you have the evidence to question the claim and factor realistic performance into your carrier selection. Customers use this data specifically to avoid awarding volume to carriers whose low bids mask poor service reliability. 

 Blank sailings directly disrupt supply chains by delaying cargo and forcing rebooking on already-constrained capacity. Carriers with high blank sailing rates on specific trade lanes represent a resilience risk that a lower contracted rate may not compensate for, particularly during peak seasons or supply chain disruptions. Xeneta Schedules provides blank sailing and schedule reliability data, allowing procurement teams to assess carriers not just on where rates are today, but on whether their operational track record justifies the volume award. For supply chains with low inventory buffers or time-sensitive products, reliability data is often the decisive differentiating factor. 

 Post-award carrier monitoring is where many procurement organizations lose the value gained during the tender process: once a contract is signed, performance tracking often reverts to manual spreadsheets and subjective forwarder feedback. Xeneta provides a continuous, data-driven performance monitoring framework, combining rate competitiveness tracking, transit time benchmarks, and schedule reliability scores, that can serve as the foundation for quarterly business reviews with carriers. This creates a structured, evidence-based conversation rather than a subjective performance discussion, and gives procurement teams the data needed to activate contractual remedies or trigger early renegotiation when performance deteriorates. 

 Transit time is directly linked to working capital cost. Freight in transit is inventory that has been paid for but not yet generating revenue. Reducing ocean transit time by even two to three days on a high-volume lane can materially reduce in-transit inventory holding costs, in some cases generating more financial value than a 5% reduction in the freight rate itself. Xeneta's transit time benchmarking data allows procurement teams to compare carriers on this dimension and to quantify the working capital benefit of choosing a faster carrier. This reframes carrier evaluation from a purely rate-based exercise to a total-cost-of-ownership analysis that resonates with finance leadership.