Maersk Spot unveiled as Danish carrier moves ahead with online box bookings

Maersk today unveiled the next chapter in its quest to lead liner shipping’s path to online container bookings.

With the launch of Maersk Spot, the Danish carrier said it aims to introduce a truly online product that can break the cycle of overbookings and offer a much simpler way to ship a container with load guarantee.

Fully digitally enabled, the new online product provides customers a cargo loading guarantee at a fixed price upfront.

“It is not uncommon to see overbookings to the tune of 30%, and often this leads to rolling of the customers’ cargoes since there is overbooking to compensate for the high downfall. This creates a lot of uncertainty for our customers,” said Silvia Ding, global head of ocean products at Maersk. “With Maersk Spot, we provide full visibility of the price and terms that will ensure cargoes get on board. Ultimately allowing customers to move their cargo in a much simpler and more reliable way.”

With Maersk Spot, customers can search and get rates online 24/7. The all-in price is calculated and fixed when the booking is confirmed, which happens instantly. This dynamic online pricing fixed at booking creates one transaction for the customer from quotation to booking confirmation, which Maersk said in a statement today “profoundly [simplifies] the buying process”.

“Maersk Spot radically simplifies the buying experience for our customers. Today’s offline process can be up to 13 individual steps, often involving a lot of communication and paper work from rate sheets to terms and conditions and surcharges, etc. With Maersk Spot, this cumbersome process is reduced to five simple and integrated steps – all online,” said Ding.

Maersk Spot is now available on all trades, except in and out of the US. Currently available as a BETA site, the product will be implemented on maersk.com at the beginning of August.