Sailing Information
Sailing Information
Where the cargo is going and when it needs to move.
Fields
| Field | Required | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Port of Loading | Yes | Port search | Where the cargo is loaded |
| Port of Discharge | Yes | Port search | Where the cargo is discharged |
| Cargo Ready Date | Yes | Date | When the cargo will be ready to ship |
| Latest Shipping Date | Yes | Date | Latest acceptable date for the cargo to ship |
| Requested Carrier | No | Text | The preferred carrier |
| Requested ETD | No | Date | Requested estimated date of departure |
| Place of Receipt | No | Text | Where the carrier takes the cargo into their care |
Ports
Port of Loading and Port of Discharge are search fields. Results appear from the first character typed.
Search by port name or code. Where several ports share a city name, the code should be checked before selecting — this is the most common source of routing errors on a booking note, and it is easy to miss on a note created by extraction, because a document naming a city rather than a port gives the system nothing to disambiguate with.
The two required dates
Both are mandatory and both drive planning downstream.
Cargo Ready Date (CRD) is when the cargo will actually be ready for collection. It is checked for plausibility. A date in the past, or more than six months ahead, raises a warning asking for the value to be confirmed. The warning is informational and does not block submission, but it is worth a second look, because an implausible CRD is usually a misread date rather than an unusual booking. See Errors and Warnings.
Latest Shipping Date (LSD) is the last date the cargo can ship and still meet its commitments. It also raises a warning if set in the past.
On booking notes created from a document or an email, both dates may be filled in automatically, and the Latest Shipping Date falls back to the Cargo Ready Date when the source does not give one. A Latest Shipping Date identical to the Cargo Ready Date usually means the fallback was applied and the real value was never in the source, so it should always be checked. See How Documents and Emails Are Read.
The other places
These three describe the parts of the journey outside the sea leg. Place of Receipt sits in this section; Place of Delivery and Final Destination sit in General Information.
Complete them when the cargo's journey starts or ends somewhere other than the ports — an inland collection point, a door delivery, a final destination beyond the discharge port. Leave them empty for a straightforward port-to-port booking.
Requested Carrier and Requested ETD
Both are optional, and both express a preference rather than an instruction. Use them to communicate a preference to the Freight Forwarding Agent. Whether it can be met depends on the agent and the service available.