A sea shipment usually travels in containers that belong to the shipping line. The line lends each container free of charge for a number of free days after it comes off the ship. After that, the line charges for each day until the container comes back empty. That charge is one of the largest costs of an import that you can avoid. No paper that you keep prints the day it starts, so Beelocity works it out for each container of a dossier.
The Foreign trade officer and the owner of your organization can list the containers and record their days.
List a dossier’s containers
- Open the import dossier, then its Containers tab. A dossier whose goods travel by air has no such tab.
- Press New.
- Type the Container number as the bill of lading prints it, such as
CSQU 305438 3. You can keep its spaces. - Pick the Container type, such as 40-foot high cube. Copy it from the bill of lading.
- Add the Seal number, the Number of packages and the Gross weight in kilograms if you have them. Copy each one from the bill of lading.
- Press Save. Beelocity keeps the number as its eleven characters, without the spaces.
Beelocity keeps the seal, the packages and the weight for your records. No other screen uses them.
Beelocity checks the number the way the international standard does. The number has four letters,
and the fourth is U, J or Z. Six digits follow, and then a check digit that the ten characters
before it give. So Beelocity almost always refuses a number with one wrong character, and you do not
chase a container that does not exist. You cannot list the same container twice on one dossier.
Record each container’s days
As the container moves, open it from the Containers tab and press Edit. Fill in each day when it happens:
- Discharged on: the day the container came off the ship or the truck at the place of discharge. It cannot come before the dossier’s Shipped on day. If the dossier has no Shipped on day yet, press In transit on the dossier’s road first.
- Delivered on: the day the container reached your warehouse. It cannot come before the discharge day.
- Returned empty on: the day the empty container went back to the shipping line. It cannot come before the delivery day. If the container has no delivery day, it cannot come before the discharge day.
The form asks for the last two days only after you fill in Discharged on.
See which containers are running late
The dossier’s Free days are the days that the shipping line grants. Beelocity reads them with each container’s discharge day. The Containers tab and the container’s own page then show two figures:
- Free time ends: the last free day. Beelocity counts the free days 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 after that last free day, until the container went back empty. While it is still out, Beelocity counts until today. The return day counts as a day late, so the container in the example is 2 days late if it goes back on 13 September.
Both figures show a dash until the container has a discharge day and the dossier has its free days. If you correct the free days on the dossier, every container follows. You can correct them until the dossier is closed or cancelled.
The Foreign Trade page also lists these containers under Containers to return. It shows each container still out whose free time ends within three days or has already ended.
What the app refuses, and why
- A container number of the wrong shape, or with the wrong check digit. Check the number on the container or on the bill of lading.
- The same container twice on one dossier. The same container can come back on another dossier.
- A discharge day before the goods left, or on a dossier with no Shipped on day yet. If the dossier has no Shipped on day, press In transit on the dossier’s road first. Otherwise, correct the discharge day. If the dossier’s Shipped on day is wrong, correct it on the dossier.
- A delivery before the discharge, or a return before the delivery. If the container has no delivery day, Beelocity refuses a return before the discharge.
- Containers on a dossier whose goods travel by air, and the transport mode Air on a dossier that lists containers. If the goods go by air, delete the containers on the Containers tab first.
- Any change to the containers of a closed or cancelled dossier. They are part of its history. The tab then offers no New and no Delete.