Vessel Schedule Intelligence
Dockflow can track vessel arrivals and departures at two levels: per tradeflow or per vessel. Vessel Schedule Intelligence is the system that powers the per-vessel approach — building a single, unified schedule for each vessel by combining tracking data from all active shipments.
Two Ways to Track
Per Tradeflow (default)
Most clients track ETAs and ETDs per tradeflow. Each shipment has its own arrival and departure times, sourced from the carrier or forwarder handling that specific booking. This is the most common setup and preserves the data exactly as each carrier reports it.
Per Vessel Schedule
Some clients prefer to work with a single vessel schedule rather than individual tradeflow-level ETAs. In this model, Dockflow consolidates all available readings for a vessel into one unified timeline of port calls — regardless of which tradeflow or carrier the data came from.
Different carriers inherently report different ETAs for the same vessel. This is normal — carriers base their estimates on different information, update at different frequencies, and may prioritize different ports in their schedule. When Dockflow builds a per-vessel schedule, it produces a consensus view by weighing and combining these sources. This is a deliberate design choice: you gain a single, consolidated schedule, but you lose the per-carrier granularity. For clients who need to see exactly what each carrier reported, the per-tradeflow model is the better fit.
Why Per-Vessel Tracking?
Some logistics operations are organized around vessels rather than individual shipments. For example, a forwarder managing multiple bookings on the same vessel may prefer one schedule showing when that vessel arrives and departs at each port — rather than checking ETAs across dozens of separate tradeflows.
This approach works well when:
- You manage many shipments on the same vessel and want a single source of truth
- Your operations are structured around vessel rotations rather than individual bookings
- You want to benefit from cross-client data to get earlier or more reliable ETAs
It is less suitable when:
- You need to preserve exactly what each carrier reported
- Different carriers' ETAs carry different operational meaning for your workflow
- You rely on carrier-specific data for contractual or compliance reasons
How the Consensus Works
Collecting Readings
Every time a shipment is updated with a new arrival or departure estimate — whether from a carrier, an AIS provider, or a terminal — Dockflow records it. These readings accumulate over time for every port the vessel visits.
Cross-Tradeflow Intelligence
A single vessel often carries cargo for multiple Dockflow clients. When the platform detects multiple tradeflows referencing the same vessel at the same port, it combines all available readings to determine the most likely arrival or departure time.
- Actual readings always win — If any source confirms a vessel has actually arrived or departed, that takes priority over estimates
- Recent data weighs more — When only estimates are available, more recent readings carry more weight than older ones
- Multiple sources increase confidence — The more independent readings that agree, the higher the confidence score
Client A ships cargo on vessel MSC Anna from Rotterdam to Shanghai. Client B ships on the same vessel from Rotterdam to Busan. Both tradeflows contribute departure readings from Rotterdam — Dockflow combines them to determine the most likely ETD, benefiting both clients. However, if Client A's carrier reported a departure of March 10 and Client B's carrier reported March 11, the consensus will pick the most likely date — the individual carrier estimates are not preserved in the vessel schedule view.
Voyage Clustering
Vessels revisit the same ports on different voyages. The system automatically distinguishes between visits by detecting gaps in the timeline. If readings at the same port are more than 5 days apart, they are treated as separate voyages — preventing data from one voyage from incorrectly influencing another.
Building the Schedule
Once consensus is reached, the platform constructs a full port call schedule for the vessel:
- Port calls are paired arrivals and departures at each location
- Sequence numbers track the order of port visits
- Confidence scores indicate how reliable each reading is
- Speed validation flags implausible port-to-port transit times for review
Automatic Updates
The schedule recalculates automatically whenever new tracking data arrives. No manual intervention is needed — schedules stay current as new readings come in, and stale port calls are cleaned up automatically.
Summary
| Per Tradeflow | Per Vessel Schedule | |
|---|---|---|
| Data granularity | Exactly what each carrier reported | Consensus across all sources |
| Best for | Carrier-specific operations | Vessel-centric operations |
| Multiple ETAs for same port? | Yes — one per tradeflow | No — one consolidated ETA |
| Cross-client intelligence | No | Yes |
| Automatic updates | Per carrier/source | Across all sources combined |
Vessel Identification
To ensure accuracy, Dockflow automatically deduplicates vessels using a hierarchy of identifiers:
- MMSI number (most reliable)
- IMO number
- Vessel name (least reliable, used as fallback)
When a vessel is first seen, the platform enriches its profile with data from MarineTraffic, ensuring consistent identification across all tradeflows.
Vessel Schedule Intelligence works automatically in the background. You don't need to configure anything — as long as your shipments have vessel information, the platform will build and maintain schedules for you.