The shipments spreadsheet
You have containers coming from three countries with two forwarders. Someone keeps a spreadsheet: supplier, PO, container number, vessel, departure, ETA. It is updated when the forwarder emails, when someone checks a carrier website, or when sales ask where something is.
The ETA in the spreadsheet says Tuesday. The vessel was delayed at a transhipment port last week, but nobody updated it. Sales have told customers stock arrives this week. The warehouse has booked extra staff for the unload. The container arrives nine days later.
Why nobody trusts the ETA
Shipment information is spread across forwarder emails, carrier portals, booking confirmations and supplier messages. Each has its own reference numbers. The spreadsheet depends on someone copying updates across, and changes often come quietly, as a new date on a portal rather than an email. So the spreadsheet is always a little out of date.
- Container numbers, bookings and POs are not linked in one place.
- Delays show up on carrier sites before anyone emails.
- Sales and the warehouse each keep their own version.
- Nobody is alerted when an ETA moves.
What unreliable ETAs cost
Customers are promised stock that is not there. Warehouse labour is booked for containers that do not arrive. Reorder decisions are made on stock that is weeks further away than it looks. And someone spends a large part of each week checking websites and emailing forwarders instead of doing their actual job.
Delays also have knock-on costs at the port. If nobody notices that a container has arrived earlier than planned, or that it has been discharged and is waiting, haulage is booked late and the free days at the terminal start running down. A tracker that nobody trusts is how containers end up sitting at the port longer than they should.
The shipment tracker we build
- Each shipment is recorded once, linking supplier, purchase orders, booking reference, container numbers and vessel.
- Status and dates are pulled from forwarder or carrier data feeds where they exist, or from tracking services that aggregate carrier data, and from forwarder emails by an extraction step where they do not.
- When an ETA changes by more than a threshold you set, the right people are alerted: buyer, sales and warehouse.
- A shared view shows every shipment on the water, in port and cleared, with the lines and quantities each one carries.
- Expected arrival dates flow to your stock system as incoming stock, so sales see realistic availability.
- Delivered shipments are closed and kept, so you can see how long each route and forwarder actually takes.
| Spreadsheet | Shipment tracker | |
|---|---|---|
| Data source | Copied from emails | Pulled from feeds and emails |
| ETA changes | Found when someone checks | Alert when a date moves |
| Who sees it | Whoever keeps it | Buyer, sales, warehouse |
| Link to stock | None | Incoming stock by date |
The week after it goes live
Nobody opens a carrier website unless something looks odd. Sales check incoming stock in one place and give customers dates that reflect the latest information. The warehouse plans unloads from live arrival dates. And your buyer has a record of transit times by route and forwarder, which helps plan the next order.
Is this your shipments spreadsheet?
- Someone checks carrier websites every day.
- Your ETA spreadsheet is often out of date.
- Sales promise stock based on old dates.
- Warehouse staff are booked for containers that do not arrive.
- Different teams have different arrival dates for the same container.