Quest for Quality 2023: North American Ports

Contributing editor Karen Thuermer joined us in January 2020 to take over Logistics Management’s port and ocean coverage from long-time executive editor Patrick Burnson, who stepped into retirement. Little did she know what was about to unfold.

“For my first three years I watched seaports face dramatic challenges due to the impact of the pandemic, China’s subsequent port closures and work slowdowns, overwhelming demand for consumer goods, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, inflation, then mounting concerns of recession and even heated labor negotiations,” says Thuermer.

The challenges that indeed unfolded made the biggest impact on the West Coast seaports, particularly the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where they felt the influence of erratic vessel schedules and missed bookings. “Due to all these elements, we watched ports on both the West and East coasts manage through some of the worst congestion in history,” says Thuermer.

It wasn’t until the end of 2022 that we saw the West coast reverse the market share decline versus top East and Gulf Coast ports. And now, a little past midway of 2023, U.S.-bound container import volumes saw a slight sequential decline from May to June, after growing from April to May, while volumes topped 2019 levels—indicating that things are becoming more stable.

And while North American ports have had to manage through some historic challenges, we’re happy to report that the 13 ports winning 2023 Quest for Quality gold have been able to maintain world class service in the opinion of Logistics Management readers.

And out of all this year’s North American port winners, we’d like to call out that the Port of Savannah put up the highest weighted score in the category this year (49.03).

2023 Quest for Quality Winners Categories

• 40th Annual Quest for Quality Awards: Service stars in the new era of collaboration
• LTL
• TRUCKLOAD
• RAIL/INTERMODAL
• OCEAN CARRIERS
• PORTS
• 3PL
• AIR CARRIERS and FREIGHT FORWARDERS