4. How do I start the Secure Chain?

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.

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