Upgraded BL Printing and New Tracking Features for HomePort

Want to print a bill of lading from any computer in your office? How about letting your trucking vendor check on your container’s availability, instead of having to do it yourself? Want to know how many free days of container storage you have left? Want to pay demurrage immediately so you can get your container right away?

Those are just a few of the many new things you can now do with APL’s award-winning HomePort, which has been upgraded recently with a variety of new features to make the site more useful than ever for our customers. In addition, HomePort has been divided into secured and unsecured sections so that customers can protect confidential information while allowing business partners access to shipment data where it makes sense.

For example, using a BL number or a container number, a trucker can now log onto the unsecured section and see when a container is ready for pickup. On the other hand, if the container has a customs hold, that information can be seen only by the shipper and a few others specifically given access to HomePort’s secured section.

The new version of HomePort’s Web-based BL print function offers convenience, as well. In the past, software had to be loaded onto a PC in order to provide access to HomePort’s BL print site on the Web. Now, customers can receive a user name and a password, log onto HomePort’s secure site, and print BLs from any computer connected to the Internet. BLs can also be sent as email attachments. Customers can simply click, open and print as they would any other attachment.

The new demurrage function (available for most locations in the US) and free-day feature allow customers to check how many free days of container storage they have left, calculate demurrage for additional paid days, and then pay automatically. Both features are located on the unsecured section of HomePort. Using the BL number or the container number, customers can see how many free days are left. If a container can’t be picked up until after the free days have expired, customers can enter their proposed pickup date and HomePort will calculate the demurrage. With a HomePort ID, customers can pay demurrage in advance with a credit card. Electronic checks are also accepted in most locations.

In addition, HomePort now offers improved tracking features. A new automated routing feature shows all relay ports, estimated times of arrival and actual times of departure. For inland shipments, a connection to the railroads’ tracking systems shows the location of the last electronic sensor that a shipment passed along the train route.

This latest HomePort upgrade offers many other new features in addition to those described here. Click here to find out more about how these tools can help move your business forward.