Photo Credit: Soundview Photography

The NWSA congratulates Swire Shipping and MSC on their commitment to voyage consistency.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) is pleased to recognize the top performing ocean services as part of its Voyage Consistency & On-Time Arrival Award Program. The Program recognizes high performing services who, through commitment to schedule reliability, have positive impacts across the gateway. The following ocean services completed 96% of their advertised proforma voyages to Seattle/Tacoma from May 2024 through April 2025:

• Swire Shipping's Westwood Service
• MSC's California Express
• Swire Shipping's Sun Chief Express

This award program is a testament to the importance the NWSA places on the gateway service delivery, including vessel schedule reliability. When ships arrive consistently and on time, there are positive downstream benefits for the entire supply chain. Consistent ocean carrier service can improve truck turn times at our marine terminal gates, minimize dwell times, increase capacity for exports, improve rail planning, and reduce costs of drayage inefficiencies.

The NWSA launched the Voyage Consistency & On-Time Arrival Award Program last year to recognize and reward ocean carriers for service reliability. To incentivize program participation, Managing Members approved $1 million in award money for the top performing services. The qualifying criteria for a monetary award, ranging from $200,000 to $500,000, were:

• Four or fewer blank sailings for a weekly service over a 52-week period
  • Two or fewer blank sailings for a fortnightly service
• And average delay vs. proforma ETA of less than 24 hours over a 52-week period

While the services met the voyage frequency condition, they did not meet the full criteria required for a financial award. Nevertheless, their commitment to schedule reliability and consistency deserves recognition in the marketplace. The NWSA values their many contributions supporting both the NWSA’s mission of best-in-class service and regional supply chain reliability and fluidity.

The NWSA is currently exploring options to continue the program in 2025. For more information about this program, please contact Steve Balaski at sbalaski@nwseaportalliance.com.