Portbase Secure Chain

As soon as you as a transport company are designated by a customer to transport a Secure Chain container, a status request is generated automatically. We recommend reusing it for the pre-notification at the terminal, so that it is directly linked to the correct Secure Chain B/L. In addition, the advantage of this is that you need to fill in less information, reducing the risk of errors and saving you time.

Have you already started a status request or pre-notification?
If you have already created a status request or pre-notification yourself, MCA will try to automatically link it to the Secure Chain. This is not always possible due to the complexity of some chains. Make sure you include the B/L number in your status request or pre-notification, so that it can be directly linked to the correct Secure Chain B/L. This will prevent problems and ensure smooth handling.

In brief:

1. Make use of the pre-filled status requests (only applicable to Secure Chain containers)
2. If you have created a status request or pre-notification yourself, please follow this urgent advice:
   • Enter the B/L number into the status request or pre-notification.
   • What if I don’t know the B/L number? You can find the B/L number in the MCA shipment dashboard and copy it to your status request or pre-notification.
   • What if I cannot find a shipment for the container in question? Your transport company may not be authorised (yet). Contact your customer to resolve this.

Note:
ECT and Euromax cannot process updates. We therefore recommend that pre-notification to these terminals is only done once the status request is completely correct and green.

For inland operators and software providers with an MCA-API system link:

The new field consignmentNumber has been added to the existing handlingData object. For more details, check the and the API specifications in our Developer Portal.

Any problems?
Have you followed all these steps but are still experiencing problems? Please contact Portbase Customer .

In the dashboard it looks as follows:

In MCA Road:

In MCA Barge & Rail as follows:

In this knowledge article we explain how you can receive a commercial release within the Secure Chain, how to recognize this and how to inform yourself. There are 2 ways in which your organization is linked to the Secure Chain (and thus the commercial release).

In order to understand this article properly, we expect you to be familiar with the Secure Chain via this Quick Start Guide and this article. And that you are already familiar with the basic functionalities of CC via the Quick Start Guide and/or this series of articles.

Option 1: You are the 'Release-to party' for this chain and receive the commercial release directly from the shipping company. The Secure Chain cannot start until your organization has been verified by the shipping company. This process is explained in this knowledge article.

Option 2: You have been designated as a 'Cargo Director' for this chain and receive the commercial release from the 'Release-to party' or from another 'Cargo Director'.

Receiving releases

You will receive a commercial release per container. You can recognize this by a container because it shows its status within the Secure Chain in the main screen.

Container without commercial release:

Container with commercial release:

Secure Chain pop-up

Click on the icon and you will see from whom, and when, you have received the commercial release. In the following knowledge article we will explain how to process this.

E-mail notifications

There are a number of email notifications available within Cargo Controller that can warn you if you are not logged in and a commercial release has become available for your organization within the Secure Chain. Read here how to set this up.

The Secure Chain can start in 2 different ways within the logistics process (and therefore also in Cargo Controller):

Option 1: The carrier sends the commercial release directly to my organisation

In that case, you will automatically receive a message from the carriers that they will activate your organisation for the Secure Chain. With that message, they will also send a customer reference number, that number must be registered in Cargo Controller. Read this knowledge article for what you need to do.

Option 2: A client sends the commercial release to my organization

In that case, you will automatically receive a message from the client that his carrier will activate his organisation for the Secure Chain. Your client will ask you to prepare yourself for the first releases that will be passed on to you without a PIN code. You can read more in this article on how to receive and process a commercial release.

Did you miss an option? Discuss this with your client and/or shipping company. Ultimately, all containers imported via Rotterdam will be handled via the Secure Chain.

Before you continue: Inform your supply chain partners about the change you are going to make with each other.

Registering a customer reference number

You need to be a main user or a user manager of your IAM organisation to access these functionalities. Log in to the service Cargo Controller and go to User Menu. Select ' Manage data authorisations'

The screen will open with the tab ' Commercial releases'. Select the carrier, enter the customer reference and click Save.

You will now see the submitted customer reference listed by carriers company name's. The carrier will immediately receive a notification and will review your verification request.

Verification status

As long as your customer code is in the status of 'Pending' or 'Rejected' you cannot start the Secure Chain.

Pending

The carrier has not yet completed your verification, please contact the carrier.

Rejected

Your entered customer code has not been accepted by the carrier. If a customer reference is rejected, an explanation will be provided. If you have any questions about this rejection, we advise you to contact the carrier.

Manage customer references

If you did not enter the customer reference correctly, you can easily delete it. To do so, click the Delete-button in the same screen where you entered the customer reference for verification. You can have several contracts and thus several customer references per carrier, which you can register individually.

Start Portbase Secure Chain

In consultation with the carrier, you then decide from which date, or for which B/Ls, commercial releases will be issued in Cargo Controller via the PCS. Portbase has no part in this process, this is purely between your organisation and the carrier(s). Your customer reference must have the status 'Accepted' before the Secure Chain can start.

This is how you start the Secure Chain

After reading this article, the foundation is laid to receive and process a commercial release. Read our other articles to see how the process continues.

Yes.

For now you will still need the delivery note for some details that are not yet available in the services within the Portbase Secure Chain, such as empty returns. We are currently working with the shipping companies in order to also be able to display these values to all parties in the chain via the services.

No, you should still contact the shipping company if you are not automatically assigned the commercial release.

No, in the current phase, the Portbase Secure Chain is only in place for the import flow of containers.

No, this data is not available in the Portbase Secure Chain in the current phase. This will follow in a later phase.