Vessel Turnaround Time and the Real Delivery Window
Vessel turnaround time is the total time a ship spends in port, from arrival at the port limits to departure. Port authorities track it as an efficiency indicator. For anyone supplying that vessel, it means something narrower and harder. It is the outer limit of a window that is always shorter than it looks on the schedule.
What vessel turnaround time means
Turnaround time covers everything between arrival and departure. Waiting for a berth, manoeuvring, mooring, cargo or passenger operations, bunkering, stores, unmooring and sailing.
It is usually measured from timestamps, either from port records or from AIS data. UNCTAD publishes comparative figures by vessel type, and the spread is wide. A container vessel, a cruise ship on a transit call and a vessel in for a technical stop have almost nothing in common in this respect.
Berthing time is the narrower measure, covering only the period alongside. It is the number that matters to a supplier, because nothing is delivered while the vessel is at anchor waiting for a berth.
Why the delivery window is shorter than the port call
A twelve-hour call does not give twelve hours to deliver. Several things consume the difference.
- Berthing. The vessel arrives at the port limits before it is alongside. Pilotage, tugs and berth availability sit between the two.
- Gangway and access. Deliveries wait for the gangway to be rigged and for the vessel to be ready to receive.
- Port security. ISPS access means driver credentials, vehicle passes and often an escort to the quay. The paperwork is done in advance or the truck waits at the gate.
- Competing operations. Passenger embarkation, bunkering, waste removal and technical work all compete for the same quay and the same crew attention.
- Departure margin. Nothing arrives at the gangway in the last hour before sailing.
By the time these are subtracted, a window presented as twelve hours is often three or four usable hours. Planning against the published call duration rather than the usable window is the most common way a delivery misses a ship.
PREUVE À FOURNIR PAR LE CLIENT. Insérer ici les fenêtres réelles constatées à Marseille, Toulon, Nice, Cannes et Ajaccio, en heures, avec la durée d'escale correspondante.
Transit calls and homeport turnarounds
For cruise vessels the distinction changes everything.
On a transit call, passengers go ashore and come back the same day. The vessel is alongside for a limited period and the crew is running excursions and port operations at the same time as receiving stores. Volumes are moderate and the constraint is timing.
On a homeport turnaround, the entire passenger complement disembarks and a new one boards within a single day. Provisioning volumes for the coming cruise arrive in that same window, alongside baggage, waste, bunkers and technical work. The constraint is no longer timing alone, it is congestion at the quay.
Marseille operates as both. A vessel calling in transit and a vessel turning around in the same port face two different supply problems, and the order preparation has to be built accordingly.
Calls at anchor
Some Mediterranean calls are made at anchor rather than alongside. Cannes and Monaco are the familiar cases, with passengers moving ashore by tender.
A call at anchor removes the quay from the equation. Delivery depends on a launch, on sea state, and on the vessel's own capacity to receive stores over the side. Volumes are limited by what a tender can carry and by how many rotations the window allows. Anything heavy, bulky or cold-chain sensitive has to be planned for a different call in the itinerary.
This is why an itinerary matters more than a single call. A supplier who knows which calls are alongside and which are at anchor can position the bulk of the delivery where it fits.
What has to happen before the vessel arrives
Short turnaround time is not managed during the call. It is managed before it.
- Order cut-off upstream. The requisition has to close early enough for sourcing, not for picking. Items held in stock and items to be sourced follow different clocks. Stock availability is what determines whether a late line can still be honoured.
- Consolidation before the window opens. Provisions, technical stores and spare parts arrive on the quay as one delivery, not as three. Every additional vehicle is another gate pass and another escort.
- Access cleared in advance. Driver names, vehicle registrations and port passes are submitted before the vessel arrives.
- A named contact on both sides. When a berth slips by two hours, the decision to hold or to re-plan has to be taken by someone reachable, not raised as a ticket.
Where an item is missing at cut-off, it is either substituted in writing or moved to the next suitable call. What does not work is discovering the gap when the truck is already at the gate. That situation belongs to emergency logistics, and it costs more than planning does.
For calls where the notice is genuinely short, the whole sequence has to run in hours. That is a different operating mode, described in express port delivery.
Frequently asked questions
What is vessel turnaround time?
The total time a vessel spends in port, from arrival at the port limits to departure. It includes waiting, berthing, cargo or passenger operations and sailing.
How is turnaround time calculated?
Departure time minus arrival time, taken from port records or from AIS timestamps. Definitions of the start point vary between ports, so figures from different sources are not always comparable.
What is the difference between turnaround time and berthing time?
Turnaround time covers the whole port stay including waiting. Berthing time covers only the period alongside. For deliveries, berthing time is the relevant figure.
What does turnaround time mean in shipping?
It is used as a port and terminal efficiency indicator. A shorter turnaround means a vessel spends less time unproductive in port and more time at sea.
What is a good vessel turnaround time?
There is no single figure. It depends on vessel type, cargo, port infrastructure and the nature of the call. Comparisons are only meaningful between similar vessels in similar ports.
How long is a cruise ship port call?
It varies by itinerary. Transit calls are typically part of a day. Homeport turnarounds occupy a full day because the entire passenger complement changes. In both cases the usable delivery window is shorter than the published call duration.
Does a shorter turnaround time reduce what can be delivered?
Not by itself. It reduces the tolerance for anything unplanned. A delivery prepared, consolidated and cleared for access before arrival fits a short window. One assembled during the call does not.
Jérôme Delfieu, Sales Director, Shore to Sea.