Logistics and shipping are complex processes that demand careful planning, coordination, and precise timing to streamline operations. However, only around 52% of the vessels dispatched for liner services actually arrive as per the planned schedule. Such inaccurate arrival times further lead to supply chain disruptions and environmental inefficiencies.
With the advent of global trade, tracking cargo arrival times has become even more important. As a result, there has been a need for standardized maritime shipment tracking acronyms and definitions. ATA is one such significant acronym that logistics professionals encounter frequently.
Understanding the meaning of ATA is essential for efficient operations. Whether you are a beneficial cargo owner anxiously anticipating the delivery of your shipment or a logistics service provider attempting to satisfy client needs with timely deliveries, ATA plays a crucial role.
In this blog, we’ll break down the ATA meaning, how it differs from ETA, and its importance for different stakeholders in shipping.
What is ATA in Shipping?
Simply put, ATA stands for Actual Time of Arrival. It refers to the actual time a shipment, vehicle, or vessel arrives at the intended destination port. This is recorded at the point of delivery and is a key metric in shipping and logistics operations.
Example: If the shipment was expected to arrive in Los Angeles on December 17, but the vessel arrived late on December 22, then the ATA for this shipment is December 22. This could be due to factors like vessel speed, route taken, diversions (if any), and other variables like weather, port congestion, and customs clearance procedures.
Tracking the ATA allows businesses to monitor real-time shipment tracking, ensuring the shipment is progressing as expected.
Difference Between ATA and ETA
The difference between ATA and ETA can seem subtle, but it plays a significant role in logistics and shipping. Here's how:
Real-time tracking data through 140+ different data sources can help ensure that ATA closely aligns with ETA, allowing for better forecasting and decision-making. The closer ATA is to ETA, the better.
Understanding why and how ATA matters in the shipping process is crucial to fully realizing its meaning in freight tracking.
Why ATA Matters in Shipping?
The Actual Time of Arrival (ATA) is extremely important in logistics and shipping. It influences everything from real-time shipment tracking to inventory planning. Here's why knowing and leveraging ATA is critical for shipping and logistics professionals.
- Real-Time Tracking: ATA is crucial for precise tracking of goods, providing shippers and consignees with an accurate timeline for goods delivery. This real-time visibility enables firms to plan for unloading, transportation, and storage of items ahead of time.
For instance, consider a manufacturing company expecting a shipment of raw materials. If the ATA reveals an earlier or later delivery date than anticipated, the company can modify its production schedule to avoid downtime or excessive holding expenses.
- Avoids delays: Unexpected changes to ATA, including delays due to weather, traffic congestion, or port backlogs, can interrupt delivery schedules and result in additional costs such as demurrage charges or lost sales opportunities. You can mitigate such risks using shipment tracking APIs or advanced telematics systems. This will keep you up to date on any changes and help you adapt plans accordingly.
- Port management: Knowing when vessels will arrive helps port authorities plan and organize unloading activities, allocate berths, and avoid congestion.
- Performance Analysis: ATA acts as a critical performance indicator for logistics partners, measuring their efficiency and punctuality in deliveries. Analyzing ETA and ATA disparities yields valuable insights about carrier or delivery service performance and reliability.
- Inventory Planning: Knowing the ATA enables businesses to plan inventory more effectively. It helps you avoid stockouts, manage just-in-time (JIT) inventory systems, and cut carrying costs caused by overstocking.
Once you understand the importance of ATA, I’m sure you’ll want to know more about how it can impact the operations of various parties in your logistics tracking. Learn more about it in the next section.
Impact Across Key Stakeholders
Many problems surround precise estimated times, which have a domino effect across entire supply chains. Therefore, a clear picture of the ATA meaning is crucial for all stakeholders.
- Beneficial Cargo Owners (BCOs)
You can identify patterns and delivery barriers by monitoring the difference between the ETA and the ATA of the ships carrying your goods over a while. This will help you decide whether to stick to your current logistics service provider or look out for better options. In this manner, you can avoid needless costs arising from delays.
- Logistics Service Providers
If you’re a logistics service provider, then understanding the ATA meaning and recording real-time ATA can help you in the following ways:
- Performance Measurement and Benchmarking: You can measure performance against expectations by tracking the ATA over time and comparing it with the ETA. For instance, deliveries that routinely arrive later than expected reveal inefficiencies in your transportation procedures.
- Identifying Barriers and Delays: By monitoring ATA, you can further identify persistent delays that impact delivery schedules. For instance, do specific routes, periods of the day, or weather circumstances contribute to the frequent differences between ETA and ATA? Are the ships moving much slower than the speed required to comply with green shipping standards? Is there some labor or equipment shortage in your shipping process? By monitoring the ATA data, you can identify why these delays are occurring.
- Real-Time Operational Adjustments: With ATA data, you can take proactive steps to reduce delays after they are detected. This may include streamlining delivery routes, modifying dispatch timetables, or implementing operational adjustments to guarantee more precise ETAs and, eventually, on-time deliveries. Let’s say one of your vessels is running behind schedule. Then you can inform the warehouse to delay the unloading process or adjust subsequent deliveries to reduce disruption. This flexibility helps maintain a smooth flow of goods through the supply chain.
- Improving Customer Satisfaction: Always remember that your clients expect transparency and reliable, real-time tracking information in addition to on-time deliveries. Monitoring ATA can give you more accurate updates and build transparency and trust.
- Port Authority
Port authorities require exact timings to improve safety, ease traffic, better manage resources, and increase port competitiveness. This enables port officials to lessen truck traffic outside the port and congestion in port waters.
Imagine a situation where a ship arrives at a port on schedule but has to wait days to dock and berth as other ships arrive late. If port officials are aware beforehand, they can better schedule arrivals and reroute vessels.
Similarly, activities for all operations can be more effectively coordinated when the precise times are known. Additionally, less carbon dioxide is released when traffic is less congested, which also benefits the environment.
Achieve Precise ATA Tracking with Vizion
ATA (Actual Time of Arrival) is an essential measure for any supply chain or logistics management. Although it may sound quite overwhelming to track real-time ATA data regularly, with Vizion, you’re covered. At Vizion, we provide a container tracking API and user interface that brings real-time ATA data along with standardized and detailed tracking events. By combining track and trace insights like ATA to logistics performance insights like port performance, port pairing, and port activity, Vizion customers can make data-driven decisions about the throughput of their container lifecycle.
Are you ready to discover the benefits of ATA tracking and improve your supply chain visibility? Book a demo to get started with Vizion.
