A voyage number is the carrier’s identifier for one run of a vessel along a service, usually a numeric sequence plus a direction letter, such as 245W for westbound or 246E for eastbound. Vessel name plus voyage number pins a container’s events to a specific sailing.
Ships repeat the same loop for years, so the vessel name alone is ambiguous: which rotation? The voyage number resolves it, incrementing per leg or round trip, with direction suffixes conventional per trade (W/E on east-west lanes, N/S on north-south).
Carriers sharing a vessel through VSAs each assign their own voyage numbers to the same physical sailing, which is why two partners’ documents can cite different voyages for one departure. The physical ship, identified by IMO number, disambiguates.
Schedules, bookings, and events all reference vessel plus voyage, and tracking uses the pair to attach your container to the right departure and arrival. When a rollover happens, the voyage number on your booking changes even if the vessel name does not, which is one of the quiet signals TrackingMCP watches per shipment.
A voyage number is the carrier’s identifier for one run of a vessel along a service, usually a numeric sequence plus a direction letter, such as 245W for westbound or 246E for eastbound. Vessel name plus voyage number pins a container’s events to a specific sailing.
Vessel-sharing partners each number the same sailing in their own systems. Match on vessel and dates, or the IMO number, when reconciling across carriers.
Direction, by trade convention: typically W and E for westbound and eastbound, N and S for north-south services. The outbound and return legs of one rotation get different numbers or letters.
Track by vessel and voyage →
Carrier pages →
More in Vessels, voyages & schedules: Blank sailing · Port omission · Transshipment · Feeder vessel · ETA, ETD, ATA & ATD · Vessel schedule reliability · Slow steaming · AIS (Automatic Identification System) · Draft (draught) · Carrier alliances · Vessel sharing agreement (VSA) · Browse all 106 terms →