The real challenge lies in the use of the LPI in policy making. The LPI can be used in
policy making to paint the annual logistics performance of a country from a macro
perspective, and to measure the status of improvements. On top of that, in the case
of timeliness, a country can use the LPI database to identify causes of delays in
shipments. It is wrong to over-rely on the LPI, however. Caution must be exercised in
making cross-country comparisons using some sub-indicators of the LPI. For example,
the supply chain reliability indicator, which reports the percentage of shipments that
meet the internal criteria of surveyed firms, is very subjective. Internal criteria vary
across firms within a country and all the more across countries. Therefore, comparing
the reliability indicator across countries may give misleading results. For these reasons,
cross-checking and complementing the LPI with other logistics indicators is
important. There is no need to get frustrated if the LPI index does not improve
even if the government conducts significant logistics reforms, as there can be many
reasons – including sampling error and lack of awareness – behind such a result.