General
Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA)
The carrier's projected date and time for a vessel, aircraft, or vehicle to arrive at a specified port or destination.
In depth
An ETA is a forecast, not a commitment, and it is revised continuously as a voyage progresses. Schedule reliability on major ocean lanes has often sat well below three-quarters of vessels arriving within a day of schedule, so planning that assumes the ETA will hold is planning to be disappointed. ETAs also come in layers — vessel arrival at port is not berthing, berthing is not discharge, and discharge is not availability for collection. Building buffer against the ETA, and tracking the gap between vessel arrival and cargo availability, is standard practice.
Key points
- A revised forecast, not a contractual commitment
- Ocean schedule reliability is frequently well below 75 percent
- Vessel arrival, berthing, discharge, and availability are different milestones
- Plan with buffer rather than to the published date