Changelog

Your container has arrived in Australia. Is it off the ship yet? Is it held, and by customs or biosecurity? When does storage start?

The shipping line can tell you the vessel arrived. Everything after that happens at the terminal, and finding out usually means logging into a different stevedore portal for each port, then waiting on your broker's email.

Terminal49 connects directly to container terminals at Sydney (Port Botany), Melbourne, Brisbane, Fremantle and Adelaide. The terminal's data sits next to the shipping line's milestones for every container you track, so you can see what is happening on the wharf in one place.

What you can see

Where the terminal reports it, each container shows:

• Availability: whether the box is ready to collect.
• Holds: each hold the terminal reports, labelled by type, so you know whether to chase customs or biosecurity.
• Storage start date: when the terminal's free time ends and storage charges begin.
• Fees: terminal charges, with amounts.
• Pickup appointments, discharge and gate-out: so your trucking company knows when to book a slot and when the box has left.

What each terminal shares differs, so here is the full list by port.

Terminals by port

Sydney (Port Botany)

• Hutchison Sydney International Container Terminal: availability, storage start date, fees, pickup appointment, yard location, discharge, gate-out and empty return. Holds are partial.
• DP World Sydney: import milestones, discharge and storage start date.
• Patrick Sydney AutoStrad Terminal: holds, fees, pickup appointment and gate-out. Availability is partial.

Melbourne

• VICT Webb Dock East: availability, storage start date, holds, fees, pickup appointment, discharge and gate-out.
• DP World West Swanson Dock: holds, fees, pickup appointment and gate-out. Storage start date and discharge are partial.
• Patrick East Swanson Dock Terminal: import milestones.

Brisbane

• Hutchison Brisbane Container Terminals: availability, storage start date, holds, fees, pickup appointment, yard location, discharge, gate-out and empty return.
• DP World Brisbane (Fisherman Islands): import milestones, discharge and storage start date.
• Patrick Brisbane AutoStrad Terminal: import milestones.

Fremantle

• DP World Fremantle: import milestones, discharge and storage start date.
• Patrick Fremantle Container Terminal: import milestones.

Adelaide

• Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal: availability, storage start date, fees, pickup appointment, yard location, discharge, gate-out and empty return. Holds are partial.

The terminal coverage table is the source of truth for every field, and for whether a terminal is enabled for your account.

Storage and detention are two different clocks

Both start when the container becomes available, not when you pick it up.

• Storage is the terminal's charge for a full box left on the wharf past its free time, usually about three working days.
• Detention is the shipping line's charge when the empty is not returned to the container park in time.

Terminal49 shows the storage start date where the terminal reports it. It does not show a dehire-by date today.

Two guides for busy lanes

Two new guides walk through tracking on lanes where importers ask the most questions. Each covers which number to use, what to expect from ship to wharf, which terminal has your box, and the charges to watch, including terminal access charges and VBS slots.

• How to track MSC containers into Melbourne
• How to track Maersk containers into Sydney (Port Botany)

Learn more

See what Terminal49 shows for Australian imports, port by port, on the Australia container tracking page.

Where is this container right now? What happened to it along the way? Questions like that used to mean stopping what you are doing and switching over to another tab, even when you are already in the middle of something else, like a conversation with ChatGPT.

OpenAI has reviewed and approved an official Terminal49 app for the ChatGPT app directory. It is not a workaround or a third-party plugin standing in for Terminal49, it is a sanctioned way to give ChatGPT access to your own account's freight data, the same connection Terminal49 already offers through its Claude connector.

What you can ask

A specific container or shipment

• Find any container by number, bill of lading, or reference
• Check its latest status, pickup availability, holds, and last free day
• Open the full shipment record connected to it

Why something is late

• Review the carrier milestone timeline for a container to see exactly where it changed or stalled
• See a container's full route and the vessel legs it will take

Your whole account, not just one container

• List every shipment, container, or tracking request in your Terminal49 account
• Ask which containers have holds or an approaching last free day, across the whole account

Checking a carrier, or starting to track

• Check whether a given ocean carrier is supported
• Start tracking a new container by number and shipping line, without opening Terminal49 at all

ChatGPT works from your own Terminal49 data, whether you are checking on something or setting up new tracking, right in the conversation you are already having.

How it works

The ChatGPT app connects the same way the Claude connector does. You sign in with Terminal49 and approve the one account you want ChatGPT to see. You never share your Terminal49 password with ChatGPT, and the app can only reach the account you authorized, not your whole company or every account you happen to have access to.

How to connect

In ChatGPT, open the apps directory, find Terminal49, and select Add to ChatGPT. Anyone on your team with a Terminal49 login can connect on their own, no admin setup required.

Add Terminal49 to ChatGPT →

A container is sitting at the terminal and something is stopping you from picking it up. Knowing only that much does not help you act. Is it a customs exam, a fee somebody needs to pay, paperwork still open with the carrier, or nothing blocking at all because the box is authorized to move under bond?

Which of those you are looking at decides whether you call the broker, pay a fee, or send a truck. Until now, answering it usually meant calling the terminal.

The POD Holds column now names every hold, shows whether it actually blocks pickup, and tells you which source reported it.

Every hold called by its name

Instead of one generic flag, each hold appears as its own chip with the name the industry uses for it.

Customs, Line and Freight are the holds that follow the bill of lading, so they apply wherever you pick the container up. USDA, TMF, CTF and Terminal are reported by the pickup facility and appear only while they are active, so a container in Long Beach carrying a Clean Truck Fee hold says CTF rather than leaving you to guess.

When nothing is blocking, the cell reads Released.

One rule worth knowing: anything that is not an explicit release still blocks. If a source has told us nothing about a hold, that is not treated as a green light.

In bond is not the same as held

A container moving under bond is not cleared at this port, but it is authorized to move. Showing that as a Customs Hold made a routine in-bond move look like a problem, and sent people chasing customs brokers who had nothing to fix.

Bonded movement now renders in amber and is labelled for what it is, In Bond or Permit to Transfer, instead of red.

The gate only turns amber when every condition holding it permits bonded movement. A single exam or open documentation item alongside it keeps the whole thing red, so this can never quietly downgrade a real block.

Where each hold came from

Terminal49 reads release data from both terminals and shipping lines, and the two do not always say the same thing. Hovering a hold shows every observation behind it.

Each row gives you the hold in plain language, the source that reported it (Terminal or Shipping Line), when it was observed, and the source's own wording underneath. That last part matters when you need to quote the terminal back to itself: if the feed said CTF_CONTAINER_HOLD or FREIGHT_BL_HOLD, that is what you see.

Availability

This is on for every account, and there is nothing to turn on.

If a saved view or a workflow keys off the old single hold flag, the underlying field is unchanged, so nothing breaks.

For API users

Nothing you rely on today changes. The existing holds field and the hold-related webhook events keep their shape and their values, including the established freight and VACIS names.

The richer per-hold records behind this view are available on the V2 container resource but are still settling ahead of a general release, so treat them as preview rather than something to build on yet. Send us a note at support@terminal49.com if you want to work with them early.

Read how each hold and fee is defined →

Checking on a container usually means stopping what you are doing and switching over to another tab, even when you are already in the middle of something else, like a conversation with Claude.

Where is this container right now? What happened to it along the way? Questions like that used to mean leaving the conversation to go find out.

Terminal49 now has an official connector in Anthropic's Claude connectors directory. It has been reviewed and approved by Anthropic, not a workaround or a third-party plugin standing in, so it is a safe, sanctioned way to give Claude access to your freight data.

What you can ask

Once your account is connected, you can ask Claude to:

• Check on any container, including holds, fees, and appointment details
• See a container's route and its full transport history
• Check which shipping lines Terminal49 supports
• Start tracking a new container, without opening Terminal49 at all

Claude works from your own Terminal49 data, whether you are checking on something or setting up new tracking, right in the conversation you are already having.

How to connect

In Claude, go to Settings, then Connectors, then Discover, find Terminal49, and select Connect to Claude. Anyone on your team with a Terminal49 login can connect on their own, no admin setup required.

Connect Terminal49 to Claude →

A terminal that isn't integrated yet is a blind spot, and you usually find out about it at the worst possible time: when a container is already there and nothing is updating.

Does your cargo move through Busan, Beirut, or Jakarta? Terminal49 now covers those, and roughly 26 terminals in total across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Newly covered terminals

• Europe: Belfast VT3, Dublin Ferryport, EUROGATE Hamburg, EUROGATE Bremerhaven, MSC Gate Bremerhaven, EUROGATE Wilhelmshaven, APM Terminals Gothenburg, APM Terminals Algeciras
• Latin America: STI San Antonio, Kingston Freeport KCT, Haina HIT, Santo Tomas EMPORNAC, APM Terminals Callao, APM Terminals Puerto Quetzal, APM Terminals Buenos Aires T4, APM Terminals Pecem
• Middle East and Africa: CMA Beirut BCTC, Jeddah RSGT, Jeddah DP World, Haifa Port Company, Aqaba Container Terminal, Suez Canal Container Terminal
• Asia: Busan BNCT, Hutchison Karachi SAPT, Jakarta JICT, Kao Ming KMCT

These integrations are live in Terminal49's production catalog. Whether a terminal is available by default or enabled for your account is reflected in the coverage docs; no client-side API or schema change is required.

Full coverage list

For the complete, current list of terminals Terminal49 supports, see the coverage docs.

How long do you actually have before demurrage starts, if the carrier hasn't posted a last free day yet? Until now, getting an estimate meant asking someone at Terminal49 to turn it on for your account.

Every account can now turn on Estimated LFD themselves, no request needed.

What it does

When a shipping line hasn't published a last free day yet, Terminal49 can estimate one from that carrier's standard free time and the day the container was discharged. It's always marked Est., and the moment the carrier publishes a real date, that replaces the estimate.

Turning it on

Go to Settings → Estimated LFD. From there you can:

• Turn it on for every supported carrier at once, or
• Pick only the carriers you want estimates for

Picking specific carriers is useful if you've negotiated your own free time with one of them, since the standard-tariff estimate wouldn't match your real terms there. Leave that one off and turn the rest on.

Nothing changes until you turn it on. If you're not seeing any estimates yet, that's why.

Availability

• Estimated LFD covers six carriers: CMA CGM, Evergreen, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk, MSC, and ONE.
• It's for the port of discharge only, inland destinations aren't estimated yet.
• Estimates are based on each carrier's standard published tariffs. If you've negotiated your own free time, treat the estimate as a floor rather than your actual deadline, or set your own date instead.

Learn more about Estimated LFD →

Every container has a Last Free Day, but the terminal, the carrier, and the rail provider do not always agree on what it is. That date decides how long you have to pick up a container before demurrage charges begin, so a disagreement is not a small thing.

Which date do you trust when the terminal says one thing and the carrier says another? How do you know a rail deadline is coming if only the terminal date is on your screen?

Terminal49 now gives you a more complete view. In addition to the Last Free Day data already coming from many terminals, carrier-provided Last Free Days appear for more containers, and inland rail LFD coverage is better too.

To make this richer data easier to use, the source-specific LFD columns have been consolidated into two: POD LFD for the port and IND LFD for the inland destination. And for the times when the carrier has not published a date yet, there is a new optional Estimated LFD.

Every source, side by side

A terminal, carrier, and rail provider may each publish a different Last Free Day for the same container. Seeing each available source helps your team spot the earliest date, investigate differences, and reduce the risk of unexpected demurrage.

Every date is labelled with its source:

• S: carrier (shipping line)
• T: terminal
• R: rail provider

When multiple dates are available, the earliest one is shown first. Click any date to see the full source details. Carriers that generally provide LFD for containers include Yang Ming, OOCL, Evergreen, Hyundai Marine, and ONE.

Two columns, organized by where the deadline applies

Instead of spreading this data across several source-specific columns, it is organized by where the deadline applies:

• POD LFD shows Last Free Days at the port of discharge.
• IND LFD shows Last Free Days at the inland destination.

Each column can contain dates from multiple sources, clearly labelled as carrier, terminal or rail.

One thing to check: if a saved view still references Terminal LFD, SSL LFD or IND Shipping Line LFD, add POD LFD or IND LFD to that view instead. Everything else carries over automatically.

Estimated LFD, when the carrier has not published one

Carriers do not always publish a last free day, and when they do it can arrive late. When a carrier has not published a date yet, Terminal49 can now work one out from that carrier's standard free time and when the container was discharged.

How estimates behave:

• Estimates are always marked Est. An estimate is never shown as something the carrier told us.
• The moment the carrier publishes its real date, that replaces the estimate.
• Estimates use each carrier's standard free days. If you have negotiated free time with a carrier, the estimate may not match your contract. Send your terms to support@terminal49.com so we can learn how to support them.

Availability

• The POD LFD and IND LFD columns, source labels, and expanded carrier and rail coverage are on for every account.
• Estimated LFD is in early access and off by default. An account admin can turn it on in Settings → Estimated LFD, for all supported carriers or only the ones you pick.
• Estimated LFD currently covers six carriers: CMA CGM, Evergreen, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk, MSC and ONE.

For API users

Nothing you rely on today changes. Existing fields and webhook events keep their shape and their values. Turning on estimates adds a pod block inside import_deadlines with the per-source detail, plus a container.pickup_lfd_line_calculated.changed webhook event for the estimate itself. Both are additions; you can ignore them until you want them.

Visit the help center →

A shipment rarely involves just one company.

The business buying the goods may be different from the consignee receiving them. A customs broker may clear the cargo, a freight forwarder may coordinate the move, and a dray carrier may handle the pickup.

Until now, Terminal49 gave each shipment a single Customer field. That worked for simpler workflows, but it meant teams often had to use tags, custom fields, or spreadsheets to keep track of everyone else involved.

With Parties, those companies now have a proper place in Terminal49.

Assign customers, shippers, consignees, customs brokers, freight forwarders, notify parties, and dray carriers to the shipments and containers they are responsible for.

Find and manage shipments by the companies involved

Parties makes it easier to answer everyday operational questions:

• Which shipments belong to this customer?
• Which containers is this dray carrier picking up?
• What is our customs broker handling?
• Which freight forwarder is managing this shipment?

Add Party roles as columns in your Shipment or Container Dashboard, then filter any view by a specific company.

Each team gets a faster way to find the shipments they need, without relying on naming conventions or manually maintained tags.

Keep your network in one place

You can assign and edit Parties directly from shipment and container views, or update them across many shipments using bulk uploads.

Every company you add is saved to the new Network page.

Instead of entering the same company repeatedly, your team gets a reusable directory of the customers and logistics partners you work with.

Search by company name or nickname, review the roles associated with each company, and reuse them across your shipments.

What Parties unlocks next

Parties also gives Terminal49 a real model of your network: who you work with, in what role, and on which lanes. That is the groundwork for multi-party collaboration, and for seeing how much of your volume moves across each lane.

Add your first Party →

Most teams track more than just where a container is: PO numbers, vendor codes, internal status flags, exception notes, the operational details specific to your business.

Terminal49 never had a place for that data, so it usually lived in a spreadsheet next to your tracking: one more thing to keep updated by hand, and a little more out of date every time a container moves.

With Custom Fields, that data finally has a home inside Terminal49.

Add your own fields to any shipment or container: text, numbers, dates, yes/no, or a fixed list of options. Fill them in yourself, or start from a ready-made Template for things like PO numbers, Incoterms, or invoice amounts.

Everyday questions this answers

• What's the PO number for this shipment, without switching systems?
• Which containers are flagged for follow-up today?
• Which fields are fine to share with a customer, and which should stay internal?

Add your fields as columns on the Container Dashboard and edit them inline, or bring them in automatically from your ERP or TMS the moment a shipment is created. Mark a field Sensitive, for pricing, margins, or internal notes, and it stays out of any Shared View where sensitive columns are hidden.

Your data, on your terms

Archived a field by mistake? Its history stays intact. Deletion is reserved for fields that were never used. Custom Fields is included on every plan, with more room as your team grows into it.

What Custom Fields unlocks next

The more of your operation lives in Terminal49, the less of it lives in a spreadsheet. Custom Fields is the foundation for that: your own data, structured and searchable, right alongside the tracking data you already rely on.

Start building your first field →

For rail customers, Terminal49 now provides two new capabilities for containers moving by rail to inland destinations across the US and Canada:

1. T49 Inland Destination ETAs. Our machine learning model generates a predicted arrival time for every container as soon as it departs the port on rail. This brings coverage from 91% to ~99% - nearly every container gets an ETA at port departure, even when neither the shipping line nor the rail carrier has provided one yet.

2. Intelligent ETA source selection. Multiple ETA sources arrive over time - our T49 prediction, rail carrier updates, and shipping line estimates. Rather than simply using the most recent estimate, our ML-based source selection model evaluates all available ETAs and promotes the one most likely to be accurate. As the container moves closer to its destination and more data arrives, the model continuously re-evaluates.

Read our blog post for more details.