A trade lane (or trade route) refers to a specific pathway along which goods are transported between two or more locations, typically across international borders. Trade lanes are established based on the flow of goods and the economic relationships between countries or regions. They encompass both maritime and air routes and play a crucial role in global supply chains by facilitating the movement of goods and fostering international trade.
Transit time refers to the duration it takes for goods or shipments to travel from their origin to their destination. It is a crucial metric in supply chain and logistics management, as it directly impacts delivery schedules, inventory levels, and customer satisfaction. Transit time encompasses the entire journey of a shipment, including transportation, handling, and processing at various checkpoints along the route.
Transloading refers to the process of transferring goods or cargo from one mode of transportation to another, typically from one type of truck or railcar to another, or from rail to truck and vice versa. This logistical practice is often employed to optimize transportation routes, reduce costs, and improve overall efficiency in supply chain operations.
A Transportation Management System (TMS) is a specialized software solution designed to streamline and optimize transportation and logistics operations within supply chains. It provides functionalities to effectively manage and control the movement of goods from origin to destination.
Transportation lead time refers to the duration it takes for goods to be transported from the point of origin to the final destination. It encompasses the time required for transportation activities, including loading, transit, and unloading, across various modes of transport such as road, rail, air, or sea.
A transshipment is the process of transferring goods from one transportation vehicle or vessel to another during their journey from origin to destination. It typically occurs at intermediary points along the supply chain route, where cargo is transferred between different modes of transportation, carriers or vessels.
Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) is a standard unit of measurement used in the shipping industry to quantify the cargo-carrying capacity of container vessels. It represents the volume of a standard twenty-foot-long shipping container.
An Ultra Large Container Vessel (ULCV) is a massive container ship used on major trade routes, capable of carrying over 14,000 TEUs.
Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) is a supply chain management strategy where the supplier or vendor takes responsibility for managing the inventory levels of their products at the customer's or retailer's location. In this arrangement, the vendor monitors the inventory levels based on agreed-upon criteria such as sales data or inventory levels, and initiates replenishment as needed.
Verified Gross Mass (VGM) is a term used in the shipping industry to refer to the total weight of a packed container, including its contents and packaging materials. It is a crucial requirement mandated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) under the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention to enhance safety in maritime transportation.
A floating structure with its own mode of propulsion designed for the transport of cargo and/or passengers. In the Industry Blueprint 1.0 "Vessel" is used synonymously with "Container vessel", hence a vessel with the primary function of transporting containers.
A vessel sharing agreement (VSA) is a cooperative arrangement between shipping companies that allows them to share space and resources on vessels for specific routes.
Vessel bunching refers to the situation where multiple vessels arrive at a port simultaneously or within a short period, leading to congestion and delays. This clustering of vessels can overwhelm port facilities, causing extended wait times for berthing, loading, and unloading operations.
A vessel call sign is a unique identifier assigned to a ship for radio communication purposes. It is used to distinguish the vessel from others in maritime communication systems, including VHF radios and satellite communications.
A vessel omission (sometimes called a port omission) occurs when a scheduled vessel does not call at a planned port during its voyage. This disruption means that the vessel skips the port entirely, which can impact the transportation and delivery schedules of goods.
In cargo shipping, vessel rotation is the planned sequence of port calls that a shipping vessel follows on its route to optimize cargo loading and unloading operations.
The timetable of departure and arrival times for each port call on the rotation of the vessel in question.
A journey by sea from one port or country to another one or, in case of a round trip, to the same port.
Warehouse utilization is a logistics metric that refers to the effective use of available warehouse space for storing goods and inventory.
Order for specific transportation work carried out by a third party provider on behalf of the issuing party.
Logistics yard management refers to the process of overseeing and controlling the movement of trucks, trailers, containers, and other vehicles within a yard or distribution center. This includes tasks such as scheduling, tracking, and coordinating the arrival, departure, and storage of these vehicles.
May 2024 Product Roundup: Discover Beacon Hub
This month, the Beacon platform experience is getting a new look and feel with the launch of Beacon Hub.
With this latest update, we’ve redesigned the user journey to make it easier to create and access your Live Boards – putting seamless data sharing, live chat and document management just a click away.
Keep reading for a full rundown of Beacon Hub and what it means for you.
What is Beacon Hub?
Beacon Hub puts Live Boards at the core of your user experience. Replacing the existing homepage, your Beacon Hub provides a direct gateway to your Live Boards, reducing the time needed to access order and freight tracking updates and collaborate with your customers and supply chain partners.
New Live Boards can be created directly from your Beacon Hub with just a few clicks, using the same powerful search and filter capabilities you've come to know. Once created, you can share your Live Boards, subscribe to shipment delay notifications, chat with your supply chain stakeholders, manage documents and more.
Why the change?
We introduced Live Boards in 2023 to allow users to create dedicated workspaces to track and collaborate on specific shipments and orders. We have received an overwhelmingly positive response on Live Boards and as such have decided to focus the platform experience around Live Boards.
Common Live Board examples
Delayed shipments
An absolute essential – a Live Board for delayed shipments gives you on-demand insight into the risk in your supply chain. You can share this information with supply chain partners and use the chat functionality to manage exceptions, coordinate action plans and mitigate the fallout.
Customer dashboards
Custom fields allow you to attach important data points such as customer name to orders and shipments. You can then create a Live Board for each of your customers to give them on-demand access to the latest order updates. Embedded chat, notifications and document sharing mean you can greatly reduce the number of inbound queries managed by your customer service team.
Warehouse dashboards
Warehouses need to know what’s coming so they can be prepared to process it efficiently. Add warehouse locations to your Address Book, then create warehouse-specific inbound freight dashboards and share them with the on-site teams.
Containers at risk of incurring detention or demurrage
Beacon can help you control demurrage and detention expenses by giving you better insight into at risk containers. Configure your D&D settings, then create a Live Board that shows containers that are nearing (or exceeding) the applicable number of included free days.
Product category dashboards
When a shipment is delayed or disrupted, impacted buyers and merchandising teams need to know. Create a custom field for the product category, then create Live Boards for each and share them with the relevant stakeholders so they have the information on-demand, whenever they need it.
Try Beacon today
Ready to rethink how you collaborate and share information across your supply chain? Create your account to get full access to Beacon for your first 20 shipments, absolutely free.