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Guide to North American Exports Visibility in OpenTrack
Guide to North American Exports Visibility in OpenTrack

Here’s how to go from reactive to proactive on your North American export shipments using OpenTrack’s data and exception management.

Christian Petroske avatar
Written by Christian Petroske
Updated over 2 months ago

In addition to North American imports, you can also track North American exports and international shipments in OpenTrack.

This guide will show you how OpenTrack Exports Visibility can help you shift from reactive to proactive across your North American export volume.

Tracking by booking number

OpenTrack natively supports tracking using the booking number instead of the Master Bill of Lading number. Just use the booking number in place of the MBL whenever you’re tracking a container in OpenTrack, and tracking will work the same as with the MBL.

Data and Data Sources

To see what data points are reported from which steamship line and terminal sources, please take a look at our North American Exports Coverage Map.

Exception Management and Alerting

When you activate OpenTrack Exports Visibility, you’ll see some new features:

  • The Exports Dashboard: Your home base for exception management

  • Receiving Window Change Notifications: A ping to your inbox when a port receiving window changes

Let’s dive into detail on these.

Receiving Window Change Alerts

Get notified when your receiving windows change, so you can stay ahead and avoid surprises.

How to access:

  • Go to Settings > Notifications

  • Activate the Receiving Window Changes notification

  • You can trigger it at any time by clicking Send

You’ll also see your latest Receiving Window Changes on the Exports Dashboard.

See below for more details on how the table’s results are produced.

Rolled and Split Booking Alerts

Get an alert have changed to a new loading vessel and/or ETD from port of loading. See the new vessel and its ETD alongside the previous vessel and its ETD.

How to access:

  • Go to Settings > Notifications

  • Activate the Rolled Cargo Alert notification and click the Exports Only option

  • You can trigger it at any time by clicking Send

Exports Dashboard

On the Dashboard page, look for the Exports icon on the top left of the page.

This is where you’ll find your exception management toolset.

Exceptions Overview

This section gives you an at-a-glance look at key shipment stages and incidents at origin. Click on each card to get a full list of the containers affected.

  • Empty Outgated: Containers that are currently out on the street

  • Cutoff Dates Coming Soon: Containers that have a Cutoff Date coming up in the next week

  • Receiving Window Changes, Past Week: Receiving Window Change events that happened in the past week

  • Potential Booking Issues: Containers that we haven’t received data on in a while, indicating a possible split booking

  • Missed Cutoff Date: Containers still on the street with Cutoff Date in the past

Vessel Departure Schedule

Vessels with estimated departure (ETD) coming up.

Receiving Window Changes

Shows vessels where the receiving window has changed in the past week. This table includes changes in the Early Return Date or (cargo) Cutoff Date at the ocean terminal. It will only include changes where the date has changed in one or both of these fields (so changes of only a few hours are usually not captured).

💡 Does OpenTrack track the inland rail ramp receiving window?
We report the Rail Cutoff date where possible, but our Receiving Window Changes alert doesn't include rail yet. However, port receiving window changes can still be useful: If the port receiving window changes significantly, then the rail window must move too.

Potential Booking Issues

This shows a list of containers for which we haven’t been able to get data in a while. This could mean it's a split booking, swapped booking, or damaged/rejected container.

Upcoming Cutoff Dates

Shows loading vessels with cutoff dates coming up in the next week.

Possible Rolled or Advanced Bookings

These bookings have changed to a new loading vessel and/or ETD from port of loading. See the new vessel and its ETD alongside the previous vessel and its ETD.

Feedback or questions?

We want to improve these features to better serve you. Send us a message in Intercom or an email at support@opentrack.co.

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