A price war between the planet’s leading carriers has cooled but another battle may be brewing in the increasingly competitive world of container shipping.

Ken Bloom, chief executive of online booking portal Inttra, believes enhanced reliability is one the keys to defeating market rivals in an industry where timing is everything.

“It has been said that reliability is the next rate war,” he told TradeWinds in an interview.“If we think about it from a shipper’s point of view he is experiencing other modes of transport, all of whom have [successfully] nailed the reliability issue.

“Ocean carriers are under enormous pressure to improve economics and are seeking a way to differentiate themselves and remove costs associated with handling exceptions. They can achieve both these goals while reducing the supply chain costs of customers by focusing on punctuality.”

Bloom described greater reliability as a “win-win” scenario for counterparties on both sides of the supply chain and was quick to point out that the timely global delivery of containers rose from 61% to 64% in June, a change that reflects improvements in handling.

The figures highlight the findings of report from Inttra and Danish analytics firm SeaIntel, which teamed up with the e-commerce specialist to collect and interpret data about vessel arrivals and door-to-door container delivery times involving different carriers, countries and trade lanes.

Of the 20 operators examined they found that Maersk Line and Hamburg Sud were in a “joust” for the title of “most reliable global carrier” at 92% and 88%, respectively, while Yang Ming made its first appearance in the top three with a score of 87%.

“Perhaps of even greater importance is the development seen from MSC,” SeaIntel wrote in an executive summary that praised the carrier for its performance in the Asia to Mediterranean segment as reliability rose from 19% to 62% in the first half of 2012.

“On this trade it places MSC’s performance in line with the median in the trade,” the report continued. “Hence, if this is sustainable we might this year be witnessing MSC’s transformation from a carrier known for its low schedule reliability to a stable performer in line with other main carriers.”

The applause preceded a report card that identified MSC as the worst of the containership companies that appeared on 12 monthly performance charts that define “on-time” as “same day” or “one day before” an agreed upon container arrival date.

In June 2012, the third place finisher was followed by K Line, Hanjin, Cosco, HMM, UASC, APL, MOL, Evergreen, Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGM, ZIM, CSAV, OOCL, CSCL, PIL and NYK in that order with MSC at the bottom with 52% of  its 1,507 arrivals declared “on-time”.

Inttra opened its doors 11 years ago and now processes 520,000 boxes a week, which represents around 18% of the world’s maritime container trade, according to Ken Bloom who said the company would not be in a position to make performance observations had it not secured this level of market share.

The booking portal identifies its investors as AP Moller Maersk, MSC, CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, Hamburg Sud, UASC, Kuehne & Nagel and ABS Capital Partners, which made TradeWinds headlines when it injected $30m into the digital platform back in 2010.

Check out the fact boxes and links located to the right of this article to learn more about Inttra and chief executive Ken Bloom.