Operational disruption often starts with data that is incomplete, inaccurate, or misunderstood. This insight shows how everyday data errors, such as incorrect loading confirmations or stowage updates, cascade into delays, rework, and customer impact across the supply chain.
Recently, a terminal reported that a container had been loaded in a specific stowage position. The vessel later arrived at its destination, but the unit was not on board, and it had never left the port of loading.
The incorrect loading message led to a series of consequences, including the manual rechecking of references, document cancellations and amendments, with vessel planners and terminal teams correcting records, and customers facing delays.
The Senior Logistics Consultant at a European container shipping line referred to this as a “typical disruption,” caused when terminals report inaccurate moves or incorrect stowage positions, creating what planners refer to as “flying containers,” which are cargo that exist in the system but not in reality.
These errors are routine rather than exceptional. Operators at major terminals share the same experience: “I would say daily. With the bigger vessels and growing cargo volumes, incomplete and inconsistent data is a daily problem,” said Sven Burdorf, Ship Planner at HHLA. He continued, “The biggest problem is too many changes, additional bookings, cancellations. One cancelled booking can suddenly leave a cargo hold empty and change the entire stow.”
The issue is that terminals, vessels, and planning teams are not working from a shared, consistent view of key operational data in real time. About 90% of industry stakeholders report that real-time data access and information sharing are essential for operational efficiency, yet poor visibility remains pervasive across the ocean supply chain.
The relationship between terminals, carriers, and vessels is both operationally interdependent and structurally fragmented. The digital relationship between terminals and carriers remains uneven, advanced in some ports but still basic in others, and overall, less digitalised than much of the wider maritime industry.
As a Cargo Planner at a global shipping company explained, “We go everywhere from getting Excel sheets with information to getting quite good COPRAR or BAPLIE files, it’s a huge spectrum.”
A particular problem for the sector is the difficulty of enabling reliable, standardised, real-time data exchange. Making Just-In-Time arrivals work, improving berth productivity, optimising fuel usage, and maintaining network integrity all rely on accurate instructions from ports.
To discover what effective cargo data exchange looks like, and how it can be achieved in today’s port operations, read the full Thought Leadership report ‘Rethinking Cargo Data Exchange: Modernising Communication Between Terminals, Carriers, and Vessels’ produced in partnership with Kaleris.
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