How much confidence would you put in a booking confirmation?
With schedules moving around, what evidence would make you comfortable telling a customer that their container will sail this week?
All questionsShipments
9 replies
- I'd separate confirmed space from cargo readiness. A confirmed booking doesn't help if the factory, documents or container pickup aren't ready for the cutoffs.
- Ask for the specific vessel and voyage plus the latest terminal cutoff. A general weekly schedule is useful planning information, but it isn't a shipment-level commitment.
- For the customer, I would say 'booked for' until there's a confirmed load event. That's clear without making the update sound like a guarantee.
- Watch the document cutoff independently from gate-in. Those two deadlines get blended together surprisingly easily in a busy email thread.
- If the box is at the terminal, check whether any hold remains. Physical presence doesn't necessarily mean it's ready to load.
- I'd ask the forwarder what the fallback sailing is before the first one is missed. It's a much calmer discussion while there are still options.
- A roll history can help if it's from the same service and period. Broad carrier averages won't tell you much about this particular departure.
- Keep the planned and actual departure fields separate. Replacing the plan every time a date moves makes it impossible to learn which bookings were reliable.
- If sales needs a firm answer, give them the remaining conditions instead of a percentage pulled from the air. 'Ready, released, awaiting load confirmation' is useful information.
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