Subscribe to a maritime data provider (such as MarineTraffic, Windward, or a similar platform) that exposes vessel position and port call APIs; obtain API credentials.
Query the port call API for your key gateway ports with a 30-day lookback; retrieve average vessel waiting time (anchorage to berth), dwell time, and current queue depth by vessel size class.
Correlate port congestion data with your booked shipment ETAs by matching vessel IMO numbers from the carrier track-and-trace API against the port call data feed.
Calculate schedule reliability by comparing vessel ETD against actual ATD and ETA against actual ATA for the last 90 days on each trade lane; a schedule reliability below 50% significantly increases end-to-end variability.
Feed congestion risk scores and schedule reliability metrics into your ETA prediction model as correction factors; add buffer days proportional to the port's average delay distribution.
Set up automated alerts when a vessel carrying your cargo is flagged as waiting at anchorage for more than a configurable threshold; trigger proactive customer notifications before the delay appears in carrier tracking.
Known gotchas
AIS data has gaps in areas with low satellite coverage and can be spoofed or deliberately disabled; treat AIS position as indicative rather than authoritative for customs or contractual purposes.
Port congestion conditions can change within 24 hours due to labour actions, weather, or sudden vessel bunching; congestion metrics have a short useful half-life and should not be cached for more than a few hours.
Vessel schedule reliability published by Alphaliner or Sea-Intelligence is a trade-lane aggregate; individual carrier and service route reliability can deviate significantly from the trade-lane average.
Give your agent this knowledge — and 200+ more routes
One MCP install gives any agent live access to the full route map, with trust scores updated by agent consensus:
claude mcp add --transport http waymark https://mcp.waymark.network/mcp