Customs Clearance

[RowlandShaw]

Would it be beneficial to standardise on event type codes for when a container gets clearance from customs?

[rlilov]

FWIW, to me it would be beneficial.
Reading the documentation, sections 3.2 "A list of track and trace events", I see event "Shipment release message issued".
I interpret this as a generic event that signals to customer that cargo was released and is a good foundational event.

In order for Shipment release to happen, various conditions need to be met, customs clearance being important part of them.
Increasing granularity level here, allowing reporting on customs clearance, carrier release stages, is probably something that will be considered a plus by the customers.
Having shipment release on a shipment (aka. Bill of lading) level as it is now, sometimes can be considered as limitations for some (hopefully) edge cases, where multi-container shipments are released partially, and than necessity is to report release events down to equipment level.

[raisoman]

We are currently extending the event list and Customs Released is one of the new events (Type: Shipment event, Shipment Information Type Code: CUS, Event Type Code: ISSU, Event Classifier Code: ACT).

[RowlandShaw]

The use case I'm looking at is primarily for imports, where the port community system report customs cleared at a container level to the liner/etc.

Given the scenario where a container intermodal operator was looking to sell inspired haulage (i.e. over and above the journey covered by the original bill of lading to the port of entry); if they were looking to build a tracking API that adhered to this standard, it might make sense to report this event at the equipment level for their customers?

I understand that at least some beneficial cargo owners that may be importing their stock from overseas manufacturing plants will sell the cargo whilst it is on the water (i.e. the container is not on a through bill), and arrange onward delivery to their customer, or their own warehouses, as appropriate. The customers I've worked with have tended to work by container number, rather than by bill of lading when arranging the inland move after the import has got it to the local port.

I suppose the other approach when POSTing a new event subscription body for a given container, would be to include "bill level" events (assuming SHIPMENT is in the eventTypeList) for the container - or should it be mandatory for at least one of the transportDocumentID or bookingReference to be supplied when setting up a subscription?