The earliest return date, or ERD, is the first day a terminal will accept a loaded export container for a particular vessel. Together with the cargo cut-off it defines the receiving window: deliver before the ERD and the box is refused or stored; after cut-off and it misses the ship.
ERDs exist because yard space is planned per vessel call: terminals stack export boxes close to their loading window, not weeks ahead. The window commonly opens several days to a week before departure, varying by terminal and trade.
ERDs move when schedules move: a delayed vessel often pushes both ERD and cut-off, stranding trucked-in cargo plans. Exporters caught between a factory ready date and a late ERD pay for interim storage or re-time their drayage.
The vessel’s real schedule drives the window, so tracking the inbound ship is how exporters anticipate ERD shifts: a vessel running late upstream in TrackingMCP foreshadows a pushed window before the terminal publishes it. Pair that with load-port context on port pages to time gate-ins that neither arrive early nor gamble on the cut-off.
The earliest return date, or ERD, is the first day a terminal will accept a loaded export container for a particular vessel. Together with the cargo cut-off it defines the receiving window: deliver before the ERD and the box is refused or stored; after cut-off and it misses the ship.
The terminal may refuse the gate-in or accept it into paid storage, depending on local practice. Either way early arrival buys cost, not priority.
It is published per vessel call by the terminal and echoed on carrier booking confirmations. Since it shifts with schedule changes, recheck it whenever the vessel’s ETA moves.
Track the inbound vessel →
Load-port context →
More in Ports & terminals: Port congestion · Anchorage (anchorage wait) · Dwell time · Terminal operating system (TOS) · Terminal appointment · Gate-in & gate-out · Empty return · Container yard (CY) · Container freight station (CFS) · Port of loading & discharge (POL/POD) · Browse all 106 terms →