A sea shipment usually travels in containers that belong to the shipping line. The line lends each one for a number of free days after it is unloaded, and charges for every day after that until the container comes back empty. That charge is one of the largest avoidable costs of an import, and the day that decides it is printed on no paper you keep. Beelocity works it out for each container of a dossier.
List a dossier’s containers
- Open the import dossier, then its Containers tab. The tab is not shown on a dossier whose goods travel by air.
- Press New. Type the Container number as the bill of lading prints it, spaces included,
such as
CSQU 305438 3. Pick the Container type, such as 40-foot high cube, and add the Seal number, the Number of packages and the Gross weight in kilograms if you have them. - Press Save. The number is kept as its eleven characters.
The app checks the number the way the international standard does: four letters, the fourth U,
J or Z, then six digits and a check digit worked out from the ten characters before it. A number
mistyped by one character is refused, which saves you chasing a container that does not exist. The
same container cannot be listed twice on one dossier.
Record each container’s days
As the container moves, open it from the tab and press Edit:
- Discharged on: the day it came off the ship, or the truck, at the place of discharge. The dossier must be marked shipped first, and the day cannot come before the goods left.
- Delivered on: the day it reached your warehouse, not before it was discharged. This and the return day are asked once the container has a discharge day.
- Returned empty on: the day it went back to the shipping line, not before it was delivered, or discharged when the goods were unloaded where it was discharged.
See which containers are running late
The dossier’s Free days are the days the shipping line granted. From them and each container’s discharge day, the Containers tab and the container’s own page show:
- Free time ends: the last free day. The free days are counted after the discharge day: a container discharged on 1 September with ten free days is free until 11 September. If your line counts the discharge day as the first free day, enter one day fewer on the dossier.
- Days late: the days past that end until the container went back empty, or until today while it is still out.
Neither figure is shown until the container has a discharge day and the dossier has its free days. Correct the free days on the dossier, and every container follows.
What the app refuses, and why
- A container number of the wrong shape, or with the wrong check digit. Check it against the box or the bill of lading.
- The same container twice on one dossier.
- A discharge day before the goods shipped, or on a dossier not yet marked shipped.
- A delivery before the discharge, or a return before the delivery.
- Containers on a dossier whose goods travel by air, and changing a dossier that lists containers to air.
- Changing the containers of a closed or cancelled dossier. They are its history.