The Portcast platform provides comprehensive visibility into delays and incidents that can impact shipments. This article explains the key concepts of delay tracking, incident reporting, and their correlation, and how you can use these for better understanding shipment delay reasons.

What constitutes “delay” and when does it apply?

Delay tracking measures the difference between an originally provided time, typically by the carrier, and the actual time. Or if the voyage is not yet completed, then the difference between the originally provided time by the carrier and the current estimated time (either provided by the carrier or predicted by an AI-based model).

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The concept of “originally provided time” can vary depending on when the carrier first provided data, and when the upload of the shipment was first seen on the Portcast platform. An earlier upload typically will lead to a more faithful Originally provided ETA/ETD; if a shipment is uploaded ‘en route’, this baseline will be the first seen carrier ETA/ETD.

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Delay can, therefore, be reported and predicted at different stages of the voyage:

• Before the voyage starts, delay can be relative to the Departure time. Carriers will typically provide an Estimated Time of Departure (ETD) on their Sailing Schedules information, at which the vessel is planned to depart.

  In some situations, however, the Actual Time of Departure (ATD) is later than the ETD. This is typically reported on the Portcast platform as a “Delayed Departure” incident.

  Note that Delayed Departure events can happen at both the Port of Loading (POL), but also at any intermediate Transhipment port where the ATD is later than the original ETD.

  There can be various reasons for Delayed Departure i.e. vessel entered the port later than planned and hence departed late; infrastructure or resource delays at the port causing delay in departure; or completely unforeseen delays e.g. weather adversity.

• Once the voyage starts and is ongoing, the Portcast predicted ETA starts getting calculated based on real-world conditions like:

  • ATD from scheduled ports
  • The carrier vessel’s actual route and possible deviations, as compared with an ideal route scenario)
  • Possible voyage disruptions (incidents) affecting the vessel’s voyage progress, like port rollover or port rotation changes along the voyage (more on this below)
  • Congestion at departure, intermediate or destination ports
  • Seasonal events affecting port activity, weather adversity, etc.

  Therefore, a shipment which is undergoing a voyage will have its Predicted ETA being calculated dynamically in the Portcast platform for the entirety of its voyage; the “delayed by” time values displayed in the Portcast Web Application or API will reflect the difference between the Carrier’s original ETA (cETA) and Portcast’s predicted ETA (pETA) at that point of the voyage, and be continously updated (example: “Arriving Late by 9 days”).

• After the vessel has arrived at the end of its voyage in the Port of Discharge, the Portcast platform will report the shipment as “Arrived”; along with this status change, the actual observed delay between the Carrier’s original ETA (cETA) and the Actual Time of Arrival (ATA) will be reported on the platform. This allows a clear understanding of the actual delay that happened between what was originally planned and what ended up happening in the real world.

How is Transit Time calculated?

Transit Time measures the port-to-port duration of a shipment: the time between departure from the Port of Loading (POL) and arrival at the Port of Discharge (POD). On the container page, it is shown as two values:

• Initial: the transit time that was originally planned.
• Predicted (or Actual, once the shipment has arrived): the transit time based on the most up-to-date information available.

Initial Transit Time

Initial Transit Time = Planned arrival at POD - Planned departure from POL.

The planned arrival at POD is taken from the first available source, in this order:

1. The original ETA at POD you have shared with us (for example, through your shipment upload or custom fields)
2. The first ETA provided by the carrier
3. The first ETA from the vessel’s sailing schedule