Turning an Import Container for Export

Purpose

Sometimes a container comes in empty and is going back out empty, and sending it to a terminal first is not practical. A street turn turns it around where it stands.

Who does this

Dispatch staff working with empty containers arriving by sea and going back out by export.

Before you start

• You have the right account (see Permissions and Access).
• The record and date you are working on are correct.
• Words you do not know are in the Glossary.

Before you turn anything

Every one of these must be true, or the screen will refuse:

• the container has an import load, and it is empty
• the container itself is active
• the size is one of: 20 foot standard, 40 foot standard, 40 foot high cube, 45 foot high cube
• the outgoing booking is active and is an export booking
• the booking's shipping line matches the container's shipping line
• the booking has room for a container of that size
• the booking's cut-off date has not passed

If you are turning several containers at once, they must all be the same shipping line and the same size. A mixed selection cannot go ahead.

Doing it

1. Select the empty import rows you want.
2. Choose the outgoing booking.
3. Submit, then check each container separately.

Checking each one

Several containers processed together are not one transaction. Some can succeed while others fail, and one can come back with an unclear result. That is normal, not a fault.

So after submitting:

1. Read the result for each container.
2. Refresh both the import list and the export list.
3. Open each container and confirm it now shows as available for export.
4. Retry only a container you can prove did not go through.

If you do not know whether one of them went through, do not submit the whole selection again. That is how you get two export loads for one container. Escalate the uncertain one instead.

Turning it back

If you turn a container the wrong way, you can undo it — but only before anything else happens on it.

Undo is allowed only while all of these hold:

• the new export load exists and is still empty
• the container is still marked available for street turn
• no delivery has been created against it
• no load record has been created against it
• the original import load can still be found, and it is still marked returned

Undo sets the export load aside, puts the import load back to empty, and clears the link to the outgoing booking.

If it will not undo, that is because something has already started on it. Do not delete the delivery or load record yourself to get around it, and do not reset the status in a general editor. Whoever owns that downstream work has to decide the correct correction.

What this does not do

A street turn is not the export job. It creates the container and links the booking. Nothing else follows from it automatically.

A street turn does not create a delivery, does not create a load, does not complete the booking, does not move the container, and does not do any billing. All of those are separate jobs.

Likewise, undoing a street turn does not undo a booking, a delivery, a load or any physical movement.

If something goes wrong

Situation	What you do
It will not let me select a container	Check it is an empty import load, the right size, and the booking is an active export booking with room.
The booking will not offer	Check the shipping line matches, there is capacity, and the cut-off date has not passed.
I cannot select containers together	They must share the same shipping line and size. Do them separately.
Some worked and some did not	Expected. Check each one.
One came back unclear	Do not resubmit everything. Establish whether that one went through first.
I turned the wrong container	Undo it, provided no delivery or load exists against it.
It will not undo	Something has already started on it. Do not force it — report it.
The container is not where I expected	Check both lists and the container itself before doing anything.

Who owns the next step

Dispatch owns the turn. The booking, delivery, load and any movement belong to their own owners — see Moving Equipment Around the Yard and Who Owns Each Step of an Order.