ETA
Also known as: Estimated Time of Arrival
ETA is the Estimated Time of Arrival, the expected arrival moment of the vessel, the aircraft or the trailer. In the customs chain the ETA drives the moment of pre-notification, T1 and import declaration.
What is the ETA in the customs chain?
ETA stands for Estimated Time of Arrival. It is the expected moment the means of transport arrives: the vessel at the quay, the aircraft at the cargo terminal, the trailer at the warehouse. It is a planning item, not a customs status. Without an ETA you do not know when the declaration must go out. Do not confuse this ETA with the Electronic Travel Authorization some countries ask of travellers. In this knowledge base ETA is the arrival moment of the cargo. The source is the transport document or the carrier: the bill of lading on sea freight, the airwaybill on air freight, the carrier's planning on road transport. Next to the ETA stands the ATA, Actual Time of Arrival. The ATA is the moment the means of transport has actually arrived. In many chains the ATA is the starting signal for the T1 or for the import declaration. The ETA is the starting signal for everything that must happen before that.
Why does the ETA drive the declaration?
Consignments liable to inspection must be pre-notified via CLIENT PD before arrival. You time that notification on the ETA, not on the ATA. A pre-notification that only comes in when the vessel already lies at the quay leaves the inspector no room. Code 2 then lands on a consignment that already stands still. The import declaration can also be prepared on the ETA: documents complete, POA valid, goods code set, MRN of any T1 known. You file only once the goods are there or once the procedure allows it, but the file must stand ready. An ETA that shifts, shifts that getting-ready with it. Terminals and warehouses plan unloading on the ETA. A customs file that only goes green after ATA misses the unloading that was planned on the ETA. Demurrage and waiting hours arise on that difference, not on the declaration itself.
Where do you get a reliable ETA from?
On sea freight from the shipping line planning and from Portbase or MyTerminal, not from the B/L alone. The B/L carries an original ETA set at departure. That shifts. Portbase and MyTerminal give the current terminal planning. MyTerminal is more up to date per terminal and requires a licence. Portbase is the port community system the rest of the chain runs on. On air freight from the airwaybill and from the status of the airline or the handling agent. An AWB has a flight number and a planned arrival. That arrival shifts on a missed connection or a rollover to the next flight. Without an update of that AWB status you work on yesterday's ETA. On road transport from the carrier's planning. There the ETA is often a window, not a time, and it moves with congestion, ferry and rest times. Do not build it in as a fixed clock. Build it in as a signal that the file must be complete before the trailer stands at the gate.
What is the difference between ETA and ATA?
The ETA is an expectation. The ATA is a fact. Customs counts time limits from actual arrival and from opening of the T1, not from what the shipping line thought three days earlier. A T1 period of fourteen days runs from departure or from the set limit, not from the ETA. Operationally the ATA is the moment automatic steps may fire: opening a T1, preparing the lossingsvergunning, shooting in the IMA if the agreement is that the declaration goes out on arrival. Do not fire those steps on the ETA. A vessel that arrives twelve hours later otherwise produces a T1 or an IMA for goods that are not yet there. The ETA remains needed for everything that is preparation. The ATA is the switch for everything that is filing. Anyone who swaps those two roles files too early or pre-notifies too late. Both mistakes show up in the mail as refused too early or as an inspection that hits the planning.
How do you watch shifting ETAs?
Subscribe to the source that moves the ETA, not to the copy in the file. For containers that is Portbase or MyTerminal. For air freight the AWB status. For road transport the carrier's update. An ETA that is only locked at intake is a lie within a day. Link the shift to the open actions. If the ETA shifts a day, the pre-notification, the inspection appointment and the truck booking shift. If it shifts into the weekend, a possible physical inspection shifts to Monday. The declaration itself is then the least problem. The inspector and the driver are the problem. Set a limit on old ETAs. A shipment whose ETA has passed without an ATA is either delayed or the status is not coming in. In the second case the source is dead: no Portbase subscription, no AWB update. Fix the source, not the declaration. Without an ATA nothing happens downstream.
What goes wrong if the ETA is missing or wrong?
The pre-notification goes out too late, the IMA is not ready on arrival, and the T1 is opened at a moment that does not fit. The chain then runs behind the facts. Each next link inherits the delay of the ETA. An ETA that is too early is almost as damaging. The inspection declaration goes out, the inspection body plans, and the vessel is only there two days later. The inspection has to be redone, or the consignment falls outside the planned window. Update the ETA three times rather than once too firmly. An ETA without a source is an estimate from the client. That may sit in the file as an indication, not as a trigger. Let automatic steps (T1, IMA, CLIENT PD) run on the carrier status, not on what stood in the mail at booking. The bill of lading and the airwaybill are the anchors. The mail is not.