Container Dwell Time Analyzer
Measure how long boxes actually sit at each stage — discharge to gate-out to empty return — and find the slow stage.
Dwell decomposed by stage assigns the delay to its owner: discharge→available is the terminal, available→gate-out is your dray/customs/warehouse, gate-out→empty is your unload speed.
Sources & references
- Port performance / dwell time studies (World Bank CPPI context)
- Terminal availability and gate transaction records
This tracker stores data locally in your browser — nothing is uploaded. It complements (not replaces) carrier track-and-trace: enter milestones from your carrier's notifications to keep one consolidated, private view across all providers.
'We keep paying demurrage' is a symptom; the diagnosis is in the decomposition. Every import container's dwell splits into three owned stages: discharge to available (the terminal's queue), available to gate-out (your customs, dray and appointment machinery), and gate-out to empty return (your warehouse and the depot). Measure twenty boxes and the guilty stage names itself.
About Container Dwell Time Analyzer
Enter completed containers with their stage timings, free days and any D&D actually charged. The summary computes stage averages, how often free time was exceeded, and the total bill — turning a vague charge problem into a sentence like 'we average 4.8 days from available to gate-out against 4 free days, and it's appointment scarcity on Fridays.' The fixes map cleanly once the stage is known: slow availability → take it to the terminal/carrier (and dispute charges it caused); slow gate-out → pre-clear customs, book appointments at availability, consider pre-pulls; slow empty returns → unload scheduling and depot choice. Re-measure the quarter after the fix — the average moving is the proof the fix worked.
How to use Container Dwell Time Analyzer
- 1Fill in the form and add your first record — everything persists locally in your browser.
- 2Watch the summary strip recompute totals and averages as records accumulate.
- 3Sort out stale entries with one-click delete; the data survives page reloads.
- 4Export the CSV any time for reporting or to move the log into a spreadsheet.
Why use Container Dwell Time Analyzer?
- ✓Purpose-built fields for this exact workflow — no spreadsheet setup
- ✓Live summary statistics computed from your records
- ✓One-click CSV export for reporting
- ✓Everything stays on your device — nothing is uploaded
Frequently asked questions
What's a good available-to-gate-out time?+
Within free time, with a day to spare — concretely, 2–3 days at a typical 4–5 free-day port. Averages above your free time mean structural charges (every box pays, not just unlucky ones). The 'exceeded free time' counter shows whether you have a tail problem (a few bad boxes — fix the outlier cause) or a baseline problem (most boxes — fix the process).
Why decompose dwell instead of measuring port-to-door?+
Because the total hides the owner. A 9-day port-to-door could be a 5-day availability queue (terminal's fault, disputable charges) or a 5-day appointment drought (your dray's fault, fixable with capacity) — same total, opposite actions. Stage decomposition is the difference between knowing you're slow and knowing what to fix.
How many containers do I need before the averages mean anything?+
Fifteen to twenty per lane/terminal combination smooths the noise enough to act on; five tells you about luck. Keep logging after fixes too — the before/after average across a quarter is both the proof the fix worked and the business case for the next one. The CSV export makes the quarterly cut trivial.
Does empty-return dwell really matter if detention free time covers it?+
Until it doesn't: free time absorbs your average but not your tail, and the tail is where per-diem bills live. A 3-day average return with a 9-day tail means every chaotic week at the warehouse converts straight to invoices. Tracking g2e even when it's 'free' shows the margin you're consuming — and how close to the cliff you operate.
Embed Container Dwell Time Analyzer on your website
Want Container Dwell Time Analyzeron your own site? Paste this snippet into any HTML page — it's free, with no API key or sign-up. The tool loads in an iframe and keeps working exactly as it does here.
<iframe src="https://tooljolt.com/tools/container-dwell-time-analyzer" width="100%" height="640" style="border:1px solid #e5e7eb;border-radius:12px;max-width:680px" title="Container Dwell Time Analyzer — ToolJolt" loading="lazy"></iframe>Related Logistics tools
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