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Container Milestones

Understanding Container Milestones in Terminal

Namita Dodeja avatar
Written by Namita Dodeja
Updated over a week ago

What are container milestones?

- Container milestones represent the significant events in the container's lifecycle that can be used as a standard for monitoring.

What do these milestones mean?
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1. At the Port Of Lading:

  • Empty out - means an empty container has left the terminal (at the port of origin - so it goes to the shipper to get filled up)

  • Full-in - means a full container has arrived from the shipper to the port of origin

  • Vessel Loaded - the full container has been loaded onto the ship.

  • Vessel Departed (ETD) - The date and time that the vessel leaves the port. This is an estimated milestone until it becomes actual.

2. During the Voyage

  • Transshipment Arrived - When cargo or a container is moved from one vessel to another while in transit to its final destination.

  • Transshipment Discharged - When a container is unloaded from one vessel and in preparation for loading it onto another vessel which may or may not be the vessel that will reach the discharge port.

  • Transshipment Loaded - The act of loading a container from a previous vessel onto another vessel which may or may not be the vessel that will reach the discharge port.

  • Transshipment Departed - Transfer of a shipment from one carrier, or more commonly, from one vessel to another while in transit.

3. At the Port Of Discharge

  • Vessel Arrived (ETA) - Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) is when a ship or vessel is expected to arrive at a specific destination.

  • Vessel Berthed - it means that it has reached its intended destination and is securely tied up or anchored to the designated berth or mooring point.

  • Vessel Discharged - Where a vessel is off-loaded and cargo discharged.

  • Not Available - container has not been cleared of holds and not available for pick up yet

  • Available - container has been cleared of holds and available for pick up

  • Full-out - This means a full container leaves the terminal. This occurs at the destination

  • Empty Returned - Occurs after the shipper has received the goods and returned an empty container to the terminal, at the destination port

4.) On Intermodal Rail to the Inland Destination

  • Rail Loaded - container is fully loaded onto a railcar for transportation.

  • Rail Departed - departure of a loaded railcar from the port of discharge.

  • Rail Arrived - the arrival of a railcar at its final destination.

  • Rail Unloaded - container has been unloaded from a railcar upon its arrival at the destination.

  • Not Available - container has not been cleared of holds and not available for pick up yet.

  • Available - container has been cleared of holds and available for pick up.

  • Full Out - a full container leaves the inland destination terminal and heads to the warehouse.

  • Empty Returned - occurs after the shipper has received the goods and returned an empty container to the terminal

How to view a container's milestones

1.) Go to the shipment's page and toggle down the arrow down button prior the container number
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2. ) You'll see the container's milestones from different data sources:

  • Rail Carrier History

  • Container History At Terminal

  • Container Milestones from Shipping Line

Notes:

  • The time zones are local to where the event happens.

  • The rail milestones mentioned above are for early access. More will come later!

  • Rail milestones are available with Terminal49's Rail Visibility add-on. Should you wish to make the rail data available to your account, please reach out to [email protected].

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