Instant Bookings with Maersk Spot: How to Navigate Self-Service Tools

When you work with us, you're not just getting a shipping service––you're getting a complete package:

• 24/7 accessibility: Access our online solutions anytime, anywhere, through our website or mobile app.
• High-quality data: Make timely and informed decisions with accurate, reliable information about your shipments.
• Proactive updates: Stay informed with customizable notifications on your shipments, bookings, and documentation.
• Expedited processes: Our self-service tools ensure quick processing of bookings and amendments.
• Live support: Get expert guidance with our live chat support tool for any questions or issues.

Our platform is continuously growing and improving…

In North America alone, our customers have:

• Created over 175,000 bookings.
• Used our Spot product features for nearly 53,000 bookings.
• Self-served over 64,000 booking amendments, without resorting to manual requests.

Before diving into the booking process, let's familiarize ourselves with the maersk.com interface first:

Support tool

Access our fly-in pop-up support tool from any page on the website. Here, you'll find FAQs on booking, documentation submission, and other helpful information.

Pricing tool

If you're not ready to book just yet, check out our pricing tool for both spot and non-spot shipments. You'll see cards for all product types, allowing you to:

• Search for what product offerings are available.
• Get instant pricing for some products and value-added services.
• Contact us for more information.

With Maersk Spot, you will also have an ‘Instant prices’ option. This means you'll be taken directly to the booking module, where you can check prices, continue your booking process, and add value-added services—all within just a few minutes. This streamlined approach allows you to efficiently plan and execute your spot shipments without unnecessary delays.

Spot widget

For spot-enabled customers, you'll find a convenient spot widget on the homepage of the ‘Maersk Hub’. This widget highlights popular spot shipment routings based on your preferred container size, type, and region. And while it displays a wide array of routing options, you're not limited to these choices.

By clicking the ‘Book’ button, you can launch directly into the Self-Service Instant Booking (SSIB) tool — where you have the flexibility to adjust any parameters to suit your specific shipping needs.

Log into your Maersk account and navigate to the booking section by clicking ‘Book’ at the top of the page. Here’s the step-by-step process for using the self-service instant booking tool:

1. Enter basic shipment details

In the initial dropdown menu, you'll see options for Ocean, LCL (Less-than-Container Load), and Air Freight shipments. Once you're in the tool, you can select the appropriate shipping method based on your needs. After selecting your preferred method, complete the form with your shipment details.

For the convenience of this example, we’ll be choosing ‘Ocean Transport (Containers)’.

Please note: For LCL and Air bookings, the form submission may require contacting customer experience, who will assist you in completing the booking process.

Once you've completed a booking, you'll discover a helpful feature: ‘Show previous bookings’ field. This tool allows you to access a set of unique data combinations from your past confirmed bookings or those that had Spot or contract availability at some point. You can use this information to prefill data for new bookings, essentially creating a template.

This feature, which we call the ‘booking duplicator tool’, is convenient in several scenarios:

• When you need to book the exact same route repeatedly.
• If you have multiple bookings with various numbers of containers.
• When using the same container size/type but changing the origin, destination, or other details.

In essence, it serves as a flexible template, streamlining your booking process and saving you valuable time, especially for recurring or similar shipments.

Now, let’s get back to the actual booking tool and understand the process with the help of an example. In this case, we arrange for pickup at the actual load facility from Houston, and the customer will pick it up from the container yard at the discharge port in Rotterdam.

Next is commodity selection, where you can choose the best-fitting commodity details from the dropdown template. The commodity field also affects temperature control and dangerous goods options.

Please note: Contract customers can access temperature control and dangerous goods options based on their commodity. These are automatically selected for items like frozen meats, available but not pre-selected for goods like apples, and unavailable for specific products. This system ensures appropriate handling for various types of shipments.

IMPORTANT: Temperature control and dangerous goods (DG) bookings are not available for Maersk Spot.

2. Select container details

Next, you'll choose your container. If you're shipping frozen goods, you'll only see reefer options. For dry, non-dangerous items, you'll have the full range available. Remember to enter your cargo weight.

If you're using your own container, it’ll trigger a special conditions alert — where you'll need to provide extra documentation, such as a shipper-owned container certificate and additional contact with customer service. For import return triangulations, your request won't be subject to equipment availability checks, but you also would not have an empty container yard assigned to your shipment, so, you'll need to advise your own empty container.

3. Specify price owner

The next step in your self-service booking process is to select a price owner. This is usually straightforward if your own company will be the ‘Price Owner’. Simply click on ‘I am the price owner’, and you'll see that your current customer code is automatically assigned. This ensures that the pricing for your shipment is correctly linked to your account.

If you need to book on behalf of another price owner, you can do that too. To do this, enter the Trading name and country of the other price owner. It's helpful to provide any additional address details you have as well.

Then, search for and select the correct identity from the results. This process ensures that the booking and pricing are correctly assigned to the appropriate account, even when you're making the arrangements on someone else's behalf.

We recommend using our predefined customer codes on file whenever possible for your searches. These codes are not confidential, so please don't hesitate to contact our customer service team if you need to confirm a specific code or require additional assistance.

4. Review Maersk Spot offers

As you click on the price owner, all the necessary system checks required to match our contract or Spot products will be performed in the background. If applicable, the widget option on the right will start displaying Spot offers. Keep in mind:

• These offers are exclusively for Maersk Spot bookings.
• You can ignore these offers if you're booking under a contract or plan to do so.
• Some customers may not see any data here if they're only looking at contract options.

When you click on an offer, you'll see a screen with high-level details including:

• Expected departure time.
• Gate-in deadline at the port.
• Expected arrival time.
• Overall transit time.
• A preview of the overall route (including truck, barge, or rail moves).
• Pricing breakdown (per spot, market, or tariff).
• Any spot-specific export demurrage and detention fees.
• Import demurrage and detention charges that could be incurred.

Please Note: If you see ‘market’ or ‘tariff’ listed, it means the option is still bookable but wouldn't count against the Spot product itself.

Here are some additional features:

• An option to view terms and conditions for Maerk Spot bookings.
• Information on fees, including when they do and don't apply.
• The ability to select a departure date by clicking ‘Use this departure date’ will automatically populate the earliest departure date field.

‘Spot offers’ (displayed on the right side) is an excellent tool for checking Spot pricing for upcoming weeks and finding options that suit your needs. It's beneficial for shippers who want to secure spots in advance.

5. Select vessel and routing

Once you’ve filled in the information, click ‘Continue to book’ to arrive at the vessel selection screen ‘Select sailing’. This is where you can review all of the available vessels.

When viewing available vessels, you may notice that some don't have a ‘Book’ button. In such cases, you'll see an appropriate reason why the vessel isn't bookable. These reasons might include:

• Vessel sold out.
• Vessel not opened (for spot products).
• Equipment sold out.
• Container not available.
• Deadline has passed.

For example, you might see a vessel not yet open for Spot bookings. This status could change in the future, as Spot pricing and availability are dynamic. However, it wouldn't be bookable through the online portal at that moment. These responses indicate that one of our background checks has determined that the vessel isn't selectable at that present moment.

Please note: These statuses can change, so it's worth checking back later if you're interested in a particular sailing.

You'll always have access to the price breakdown and other details as long as you're booking on behalf of your own price owner. It includes:

• Basic ocean freight rate.
• Any add-on services.
• Spot-specific fees.

For Spot products in general, it's important to note that amending the booking typically incurs a charge. If you opt for ‘rollable’, you’re allowing your cargo to be rolled at least once. Should this occur, you'll be eligible for the listed compensation. Learn more about it here.

This breakdown gives you a clear picture of all costs associated with your booking, helping you make informed decisions. Remember, you can always refer back to this information throughout the booking process.

6. Add value-added services

Once you click ‘Book’, you’ll land on the ‘Recommended services’ page. The options you'll see here will vary based on factors such as origin, destination, container type, and, in some cases, your customer code.

The screen will display all the value-added services available for your specific shipment. These services are optional add-ons you can choose if needed. For example, ‘Demurrage Freetime Extensions’ are becoming increasingly available worldwide, and in some countries, you'll also see demurrage options.

All the options on this page represent the additional services you can select to enhance or customize your shipping experience based on your particular requirements and route.

A ‘Detention Freetime Extension’ option is also available in numerous countries — that allows you to pre-purchase additional free time to extend your detention or demurrage allowance. By doing so, you can secure a discounted rate compared to what you'd pay if you were to arrange for extended storage after the container has already arrived and incurred demurrage or detention charges.

Additional services such as value protect, container weighing, and food-grade containers are also available, based on your selected container size, type, origin, and destination. The availability of these services depends on your specific shipping parameters.

As you progress through the booking journey, please note that waiting too long on any page after the booking info page may trigger a timeout. This mechanism ensures fair access to vessel space for all users. Once you've selected a vessel, we hold that space for you during your booking process, but we need to release it if the booking takes too long to complete.

7. Enter load details

Once you have created a booking, you’ll need to add a load address. In the future, you'll see new fields allowing you to use previously used addresses or those we have on file, streamlining the booking process. For now, if an address is not pre-filled, simply enter the proposed load address, choose your preferred loading date and time, and include any necessary load references for securing the appointment.

When booking store door (SD) service, you'll also see a haulage instruction field. While marked as optional, it's highly recommended that you use it. This field is crucial for providing special instructions such as:

• How to secure the appointment (online portal, phone number, email)
• Driver check-in procedures (e.g., at a guard shack)
• Any other relevant details

Providing this information upfront helps the landside team secure the appointment smoothly without needing to contact anyone later, streamlining and expediting the entire shipping process.

When booking from the USA, we must comply with FMC regulations. This compliance requires:

• Naming a booking customer.
• Specifying the status of the booking customer.
• Identifying the price owner.

These details can be provided either by looking up the customer code or by using the trade name plus country. These requirements ensure that our bookings from the USA meet all necessary regulatory standards.

8. Add optional parties

When adding optional parties to your shipment, you're setting up for more efficient future bookings. While not required initially, these parties often need to be added later. Including them now streamlines shipment management, especially when using the booking duplicator for SSIB bookings.

This tool copies key details and any additional parties you've added, which is useful for:

• Repeated shipment parties.
• Adding yourself as an outward forwarder.
• Setting a different Transport Document Receiver ahead of time.

By pre-filling these parties, you create a template for quicker, more accurate future bookings—thus saving time and reducing errors.

Optional parties can be added to your shipment, each with an available customer reference field. The booking duplicator for SSIB bookings copies these details, simplifying future bookings. The reference associated with the ‘Booked by’ party is searchable across maersk.com, making it particularly useful for tracking and managing shipments.

9. Review and submit

The ‘Review booking’ page is the final step in the process. This page serves as a final checkpoint, allowing you to verify all information and make any necessary adjustments before confirming your booking.

Key points that you need to take into consideration:

• For some bookings, you may see a note indicating additional checks are required before online confirmation. The turn-around time for these checks typically takes less than 4 hours.
• You'll often get instant booking confirmation for most dry CY/CY bookings.
• The page features tabs allowing you to review and edit all entered data, ensuring accuracy before final submission.
• For Spot bookings, you'll see helpful reminders about Spot-specific details.

Moreover, you can have additional email recipients for the booking confirmation under ‘Notification preferences’ without adding them as a shipment party. This recipient will receive a confirmation PDF, allowing for easy sharing of information without altering the booking details.

You'll find the ‘Terms and Conditions’ at the end of the review process. After reviewing these, simply click to accept them. This action will then enable the ‘Submit booking’ button, allowing you to finalize your booking.

Upon completing your booking, you'll see either ‘Booking Received’ or ‘Booking Confirmed’ at the top of the confirmation page. ‘Received’ indicates we need to perform a few additional checks before finalizing, while ‘Confirmed’ means your booking is ready and viewable in the shipment overview.

The confirmation page also includes helpful links for post-booking processes, providing easy access to the next steps and related services. This page also provides direct access to the notification subscription page. Here, you can set up email or website notifications anytime a container gates in or out, loads onto a vessel, or discharges from a vessel.

And now, let’s explore what to do after booking your Maersk Spot shipment.

Once the booking is confirmed, you can review all your current bookings under ‘Export overview’ in the Hub dashboard — which presents a comprehensive snapshot of all your bookings, organized by vessel sailing dates. This feature allows you to quickly review upcoming shipments, both forthcoming and future bookings, as well as past sailings where vessel departure has already occurred.

Do you need to make any changes to your booking? Here's how you can do that:

1. Go to the ‘Export overview’ or search for your booking using the B/L number.
2. Click on the shipment to access ‘Shipment details’.
3. Click the ‘Amend’ button.
4. Make necessary changes (e.g., container types, origin/destination, service mode). You can also add, remove, or adjust value-added services.
5. Review final changes, including any booking amendment fees, and submit the amendment.

Please note: Some amendments may not be possible online after certain milestones (e.g., container gate-out). In these cases, contact customer service.

There are various ways to stay updated about your shipment with our self-service digital tools, you can:

• Bookmark the maersk.com support page and Maersk Spot resource hub.
• Subscribe to shipment status notifications for key events (e.g., container gates in/out, vessel loading/discharge).
• Check the tasks module for upcoming deadlines (e.g., submitting shipping instructions, VGM).
• Check your email for the booking confirmation with relevant details.
• Download the Maersk app for on-the-go access.
• Use the live chat feature for immediate assistance.