U.S. Ranked 15th in Global Logistics Performance Survey

The World Bank has ranked the world’s nations in supply chain and logistics performance and infrastructure, and the United States ranked 15th in the world, dropping one place from the 2007 rankings.

Western European nations dominated the survey, with Germany taking the #1 spot. The previous top-ranked nation, Singapore, dropped to #2, with Sweden, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Japan, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Norway rounding out the Top 10. The U.S. also ranked behind Ireland, Finland, Hong Kong and Canada.

The survey polled international freight and third-party logistics management companies and ranked 150 nations. Nations were graded on the following criteria:

• Efficiency of the customs clearance process.
• Quality of trade and transport-related infrastructure.
• Ease of arranging competitively priced shipments.
• Competence and quality of logistics services.
• Ability to track and trace consignments.
• Frequency with which shipments reach the consignee within the scheduled or expected time.

While the United States’ performance on the survey was not disastrous, it does indicate that U.S. business and government leaders should be keenly attuned to our competitive advantages and disadvantages in the global supply chain. The World Bank report shows that many of our toughest economic competitors are ahead of us in this critical area, and we need to catch up.

-- Greg Chabon