ETA in Shipping: Overview, Importance, Challenges & More

Facilitating timely deliveries is essential for successfully running an e-commerce business. Companies must understand when their shipped parcels will reach the customer’s location. 

In this regard, ETA in shipping is a crucial time indicator. It acts as a probable deadline for companies to organise their logistics plans and operations, ensuring timely deliveries to customers. 

Let’s dive deeper.     

ETA in Shipping: An Overview 

The full form of ETA is the Estimated Time of Arrival. It is the approximate time and date on which a parcel is scheduled to reach the customer and serves as a crucial metric for organising logistics operations. 

Additionally, ETA helps senders and receivers coordinate the procedures related to the parcel’s arrival with all other parties involved in the process, including freight forwarders, brokers, and customs authorities. 

ETA in shipping also helps logistics companies optimally plan their routes and resource allocation to meet delivery deadlines. Additionally, it enables customers to stay updated with the status of their package and plan their day so they do not miss the delivery.         

Exploring the Factors Affecting ETA 

Given the numerous participants involved in shipping goods from a business to its customers, several factors can impact ETA timelines. Some of the major ones are as follows:

• Weather Conditions: Adverse weather conditions, like heavy rain, thunder, fog, snow, etc., can close down roads, railway stations, and airports, causing adverse delays. 
• Traffic Congestion: Heavy traffic can severely affect road transport, leading to significant delivery delays. 
• Port Congestion: When ports reach their maximum capacity, ships may have to wait for days or even weeks to unload cargo. This results in missed connections with trains, trucks, or even other ships, which can delay shipping schedules. 
• Customs Clearance: Customs officials need precise information to classify goods and determine whether duty is payable. Therefore, any typo, missing, or inaccurate information related to your package can lead to severe delays.  
• Carrier Delays: Delays from the carrier’s end, such as the package ending up at the wrong branch, being delivered to the wrong address, or running out of time to deliver the package, can also affect the delivery ETA. 
• Seasonal Variations: Seasonal spikes in consumer buying result in logistics companies processing and delivering large volumes of parcels within a short period, which can create a delay in deliveries.  

All these above-mentioned factors cause a delay in one part of the logistics process, which in turn slows down the next step, leading to extended ETA in shipping.   

ETA in Shipping: Calculation Methods 

Now that you have a clear idea of ETA meaning and the factors affecting it, let’s elaborate on how to calculate the Estimated Time of Arrival:   

Traditional Methods

Traditionally, ETA in shipping has been calculated using the formula ‘ETA = Distance/Speed’. This entails dividing the distance to the drop location by the carrier vehicle’s speed.

Logistics companies also take into account factors like environmental conditions, customs clearance, congestion at the arrival location, and other elements that can result in delays.   

Advanced Methods

Nowadays, ETA calculation is done using advanced methods that leverage predictive analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) for more accurate results. 

Predictive ETA takes into account more variables like traffic congestion, route taken, arrival port congestion, terminal delays, and more to calculate the approximate arrival time. 

Meanwhile, AI ETA calculates the estimated arrival time by leveraging data from radio signals, satellites, and ship messages.  

Role of Technology in Improving ETA Accuracy

With the increasing usage of technology for ETA tracking, logistics companies, ports, and cargo owners can get a more precise estimated time of arrival for their shipments. Innovations like predictive analytics and AI take into account more factors that are outside the scope of traditional ETA calculation methods. 

Moreover, these technologies can accurately analyse vast data volumes, detect patterns, and generate predictions, all in a matter of seconds. This enables timely updates for all stakeholders, which helps improve ETA accuracy.     

Importance of Accurate ETA For Businesses

Apart from planning out logistics operations to meet deadlines promptly, there are several reasons why accurate ETA in shipping is essential for businesses. Some of them are as follows:

• Cost Savings for Businesses: Based on the ETA, logistics companies can plan optimised routes and reduce transit time, which can reduce fuel expenses.   
• Customer Satisfaction: All customers like on-time deliveries. Thus, companies can leverage accurate ETAs to perform transparent, smart, and dynamic route optimisation, enabling them to fulfil deliveries without any missed deadlines.  
• Optimising Inventory Management: Accurate ETAs will allow businesses to determine which part of the supply chain their products are currently in and perform inventory management to ensure optimised flow.  
• Minimising Stockouts and Overstock Situations: With accurate ETAs, businesses can optimally manage their supply chains and minimise instances of stockouts and overstocking.    

Challenges in Estimating ETA in Shipping 

Now, there can be several challenges to accurately estimating ETA in shipping. Some of the major factors are: 

Uncertainties in Transit

Inconsistencies in transit, such as vehicular breakdowns, road closures, unfavourable weather conditions, and traffic congestion, can result in delays, which can make accurately estimating ETA very tricky.   

Lack of Real-Time Data

Traditional ETA calculation methods lack real-time data analysis, making it difficult to account for factors like port congestion, carrier delays, etc., resulting in inaccurate ETAs.   

Complexity of Global Supply Chains

Global supply chains involve multiple countries, loading and unloading cargo at different ports, gaining clearances from numerous customs departments, and adhering to various compliance requirements. 

This increases the overall complexity of the shipping process, making it challenging to forecast accurate ETAs.   

Inaccurate Forecasts

Estimating ETAs can also become difficult due to inaccurate forecasts. This can occur due to factors like demand variability, shifting market trends, regulatory changes, competitive activity, and more.   

Key Takeaways on ETA in Shipping

ETA in shipping is the approximate time and date on which a parcel will be delivered to a customer.  It helps both the sender and receiver coordinate the procedures related to the parcel’s arrival with all other parties involved in the process. 

Accurately predicting ETAs is essential for businesses as it allows them to save operational expenses, enhance customer satisfaction, optimise inventory management, and minimise stockouts and overstock situations. 

To perform more accurate ETA calculations, logistics companies are leveraging predictive analytics and AI models to analyse high data volumes, predict patterns, and generate insights. Moreover, these technologies take into account several other factors that are beyond the scope of traditional ETA calculation methods, leading to more accurate results.   

Another effective way to ensure accurate ETA in shipping is by hiring a reliable logistics company like Porter. 

We have an extensive last-mile delivery network in 20 cities across India, facilitating fast and reliable local and intercity shipments at industry-best prices. 

Download the Porter app today and avail of on-time deliveries at your fingertips!