Container glossary
What is a booking number?
A booking number is the reference a carrier gives to a reservation of space on a ship, issued with the booking confirmation before any container is assigned to the cargo. One booking can cover many containers.
What a booking number unlocks, step by step
The shipper or its forwarder asks the line for space: a route, a sailing date, and how many containers of which type. The line answers with a booking confirmation carrying the number, the vessel and voyage, the cut-off times and the depot where the empty containers wait.
From there the number opens each door in turn. The trucker quotes it at the depot to have the empties released, and it is only then that the booking acquires container numbers. The trucker quotes it again at the terminal gate when the loaded boxes arrive. The verified gross mass and the shipping instructions are filed against it. Once the cargo is on board the line issues the bill of lading, and that number takes over as the main reference for the rest of the journey.
Where to find it and which trackers take it
It is printed at the top of the booking confirmation and usually repeated on the bill of lading and the arrival notice. It has no fixed format. Each line designs its own, and compared with the other two identifiers it tends to be shorter and is often all digits.
Not every tracker accepts it. Ten of the eighteen carrier trackers we tested take a booking number; the others want a container number or a bill of lading number. The tracker study has the line-by-line result. Where it is accepted, a booking number shows the whole shipment — every container under the reservation — and not a single box.
A booking number typed where a container number belongs
Three references travel with every shipment, and each has its own field on a tracker. The container number, four letters and seven digits, identifies the physical box. The booking number identifies the reservation. The bill of lading number identifies the contract. A booking number entered in the container field returns nothing, and that empty result is regularly misread as a missing shipment.
A booking number also has no check digit, unlike a container number, so nothing catches a mistyped character: the tracker simply finds no match. Copy it from the confirmation; do not retype it. If you paste a reference into the container number checker, it tells you when the shape is that of a booking or a bill of lading and not of a container.
Frequently asked questions
Is a booking number the same as a bill of lading number?
No — the booking number identifies the reservation and exists from the day the line confirms space, while the bill of lading number identifies the contract and exists only once the document is issued. Either one may cover several containers.
Can I track a container with a booking number?
Yes on ten of the eighteen carrier trackers we tested, in a field of its own; the remaining eight accept only a container or bill of lading number. A booking shows nothing until the first container under it has passed the terminal gate.
When does a booking get its container numbers?
When the empty containers are collected from the depot. Until that pickup the booking reserves a quantity and a type of equipment, not particular boxes, so a booking confirmation normally lists no container numbers at all.