Global Schedule Reliability Edges Up to 50.6% in September

Global container schedule reliability rose 0.9 percentage points month-on-month in September 2026 to 50.6%, the first improvement after three consecutive monthly declines that had wiped out 14.8 percentage points from the May peak of 64.5%. That is the headline finding of issue 182 of Sea-Intelligence's Global Liner Performance (GLP) report, covering vessels arriving through the end of September.

The modest rebound means barely half of all scheduled sailings worldwide still arrive on time, down from nearly two-thirds just four months earlier. For shippers and forwarders, the number matters directly: at 50.6% reliability, one in every two booked shipments risks missing its advertised arrival window, complicating inland transport planning, warehouse slots and inventory buffers.

How late are the late vessels?

Average delay for late vessel arrivals also improved in September, falling 0.30 days month-on-month to 6.65 days. The context tempers the good news. Sea-Intelligence notes that 6.65 days remains the second-highest September figure on record for the late-arrival average, meaning vessels that do miss their slots are missing them by close to a full working week.

Put differently, a shipper whose box travels on a late vessel in September 2026 should plan for roughly seven additional days of transit uncertainty on top of the published schedule — a spread that supply chain managers must absorb through safety stock or flexible delivery windows.

Which carriers performed best?

Maersk was the most reliable of the top-13 carriers in September, with schedule reliability of 64.8%. Hapag-Lloyd took second place at 60.4%, ahead of MSC at 57.7% and CMA CGM at 51.8%. At the other end of the table, Wan Hai was the least reliable carrier at 26.7%, meaning fewer than three of its ten scheduled arrivals reached port on time.

The month-on-month picture was broadly positive:

• Ten of the 13 carriers improved reliability compared with August.
• ZIM recorded the largest monthly gain, up 4.7 percentage points.
• Maersk, despite topping the table in absolute terms, posted the largest monthly decline, down 1.8 percentage points.

The year-on-year comparison is far less forgiving. None of the 13 carriers recorded an annual improvement in September 2026. PIL logged the steepest fall, down 27.3 percentage points, and was one of twelve carriers with a double-digit year-on-year decline — evidence that the industry-wide erosion since 2025 has spared virtually no operator, regardless of size or alliance membership.

What do the alliance numbers show?

For the August–September 2026 period, Sea-Intelligence measured MSC as the most reliable carrier alliance at 68.9% schedule reliability. Gemini followed closely at 68.4%, keeping the Maersk–Hapag-Lloyd network's hub-and-spoke model near the top of the table even as its anchor carrier slipped month-on-month.

Ocean Alliance trailed at 44.8%, while Premier Alliance was the least reliable grouping at 41.5%. The spread between the best and worst alliances — more than 27 percentage points — gives BCOs and forwarders a concrete basis for carrier selection when schedule integrity drives total landed cost, particularly on time-sensitive lanes where a missed rolling window cascades into missed fulfilment dates.

What happens next?

The September gain is marginal set against the scale of the summer slide, and with twelve of thirteen carriers still showing double-digit year-on-year declines in reliability or close to it, the recovery remains fragile. Whether October confirms a trend or marks a one-month pause will depend on how carriers absorb ongoing port congestion and capacity shifts through the peak season.