Quality ocean carriers steam ahead of the fleet by going out of their way to provide personalized service for their shipper customers. One survey respondent this year offered this description of steamship line excellence: "The ability of a carrier to conform to my specific needs, rather than giving me the same service as everyone else when it doesn't work for me."

Along with customized service, logistics managers comb the waterfront for carriers that offer frequent sailings. "In the performance area, I consider the number of sailings to be important," wrote one reader. "If they have only one sailing a week, that can be a problem."

Carriers also command shippers' admiration when they signal any delays or problems. In fact, one ocean shipper wrote that his company finds it important that "relevant information is provided on a timely basis. If something hinders service, there is prompt notification."

This year 19 steamship lines raced ahead of their competitors to win awards, compared to 18 last year. Fifteen of the liner companies taking part in this year's parade of ships did so last year: Cast North America, Hyundai Merchant Marine, ANZDL, Hamburg-Sud (which includes the former Crowley American Transport and Columbus Line), MOL (Mitsui OSK Lines), Maersk Sealand, Matson Navigation, APL Ltd., Hapag-Lloyd, Atlantic Container Line, "K" Line, Crowley Liner Services, NYK Line, Evergreen Line, and Yang Ming Line.

Carriers welcomed into the regatta this year include: Canada Maritime, P&O Nedlloyd, FESCO, and Zim Container Service. Several of those carriers had won in previous years.

This year the weighted score for ocean carriers lost some ballast, sinking from 31.65 to 30.83. Marks keeled over in three categories: Performance sank from 9.51 last year to 9.30; value from 7.79 to 7.37, and customer service from 6.16 to 5.83. Scores in two attribute categories were buoyant this year: information technology sailed ahead from 3.53 to 3.56, while equipment and operations floated up from 4.66 to 4.77.