Tracking on the CMA CGM portal

The CMA CGM portal takes a container or bill of lading number from the URL, so the widget above opens the result directly. One thing to know first: this portal serves the whole group, not the CMA CGM brand alone.

The result is per-container operational data: vessel and voyage, load and discharge ports, the expected schedule, and milestones from gate-in to empty return. There is no customs status here.

A blank result usually means: your number is a forwarder house bill; the bill has not been issued, in which case use the booking number; a typo; or the box has not been gated in. There is one more cause specific to this group — see below.

The CMA CGM group runs several brands on one platform: besides CMA CGM there are APL, ANL and Cheng Lie. A box carrying a subsidiary brand's prefix still resolves on the parent portal. The reverse is not obvious though: people holding an APL bill often go looking for a separate APL tracking site when they should be here.

Reading CMA CGM bill-of-lading & booking numbers

An ISO 6346 container number is four letters, six digits and a check digit. A CMA CGM group bill number is shorter and usually carries a letter prefix identifying the issuing brand. A booking number is issued when space is confirmed and is told apart by the document it sits on, not by its shape.

The defining quirk of this group is that the paperwork can carry one brand while the cargo moves on a vessel marketed under another brand in the same group. APL, ANL and Cheng Lie bills are all valid group documents; they are not house bills, and they do not mean a third carrier is involved.

The practical consequence at clearance: the carrier name you declare and the party you call for the delivery order may not match the name at the top of the bill. Before calling, establish which brand issued the bill — that is the party responsible for releasing the cargo.

Three fields on the face of the bill decide release, as with any carrier: whether the consignee is named or the bill is to order, where the place of delivery sits relative to the discharge port, and the form of issuance.

Getting the electronic delivery order (e-D/O)

Step one: identify the issuing brand. In the CMA CGM group this is its own step and cannot be skipped — CMA CGM, APL, ANL and Cheng Lie bills run through one platform but the handling desk can differ. Getting the brand wrong is the most common source of delay in this group, and it does not happen with a single-brand carrier.

Step one and a half, done once and reused: register for electronic release. The group asks customers to submit a registration form so it can set up an account and record the email address the release will be sent to — and that registration covers the group's brands. Do it before you have an urgent shipment; completing it while a box sits in the yard adds a waiting cycle you created yourself.

Step two: establish whether you are entitled to the release. Only the party named on the master bill deals with the carrier directly. If you hold a house bill, your counterpart is the issuing forwarder.

Step three: reconcile the arrival notice against the document set. The consignee name and tax code on the notice, the invoice and the declaration must match exactly.

Step four: clear the release conditions — surrender the original bill or have the shipment in a form that does not require one, and settle destination charges. Take the document list from the group's Vietnam agent or from the arrival notice itself, not from a generic guide.

Step five: the carrier issues the electronic delivery order and passes the data to the destination terminal system.

Step six: register the delivery on the terminal portal, pay, then arrange the truck. If you are stopped here, the blocker is in the carrier or customs data, not at the terminal.

Where to find free time terms & how to request an extension

Free time is negotiated per customer and per trade, not a property of CMA CGM. A figure on a general page does not apply to your shipment.

Where to look, in falling order of reliability: the transport contract or rate agreement if you contract directly; the terms and remarks on the booking confirmation; and the tariff reference on the face of the bill.

The CMA CGM group offers something many carriers do not: an **online demurrage and detention calculator**. Enter a container or bill of lading number and it returns the free time allocated to that shipment along with the charge tiers, and it lets you **enter an expected date to simulate** what collecting on that day would cost. That means you can answer "what do a few more days cost me" yourself, before deciding, instead of waiting for the carrier to come back.

In a multi-brand group there is one more thing to watch: terms follow the contract and the issuing brand, so do not reason from an APL shipment to a CMA CGM one just because they share a group and a trade. Two bills under different brands are two sets of terms.

Keep the two clocks apart: one runs while the box is in the terminal, the other once you have pulled it out. They start at different moments. Check before the vessel arrives, and remember the party who can request an extension is the one the carrier treats as its contractual counterpart, usually whoever pays the freight.

What CMA CGM calls its surcharges

Surcharge names on a CMA CGM group invoice often do not match the shorthand used in the Vietnamese market. Reconcile against the code printed on the invoice.

The group runs an **online charge-finder tool** so you can check a specific line yourself by trade, rather than asking and waiting. It also maintains a tariff page scoped to Vietnam, so when a forwarder quotes something unfamiliar you can check whether it is real and whether it applies to your trade.

The terminal-linked group covers port handling at both ends and the documentation fee at both ends. Almost every shipment carries these.

Two charges appear by name on this group's Vietnam schedule that other carriers rarely itemise: a fee for requesting additional documentation, and a late-payment fee. The second is worth noting because it turns paying late into its own charge line rather than only a matter of the cargo being held.

The market-linked group covers bunker, low-sulphur fuel, container imbalance, peak season, security, and war risk where the routing passes an exposed area.

One thing specific to a multi-brand group: tariffs are published by trade scope and by brand, so two shipments in the same group under different issuing brands can carry different surcharge sets. When comparing quotations, compare within one brand rather than across them.

For each line, ask: is it inside the quoted rate or billed separately, at which end does it fall, and is it a carrier charge or a terminal charge collected on the carrier's behalf.