The Port of Felixstowe are making a number of changes to the Vehicle Booking System (VBS).
Changes will come into affect at 09:00AM on Monday 22nd February 2021.
The following changes will go live:
Introduction of CAPTCHA control
From 22 February a CAPTCHA control step will be introduced on the main VBS Log on screen meaning that users will need to correctly enter a random code to access VBS. In addition to this, and during a user’s logged on session, the system will count the number of requests made in the current hour. Should the level of messaging exceed reasonable usage, the user will be logged off and will be required to log back in via the main log on page (and via CAPTCHA Control step). This change is designed to introduce control measures that improve fair usage of VBS and booking availability to the wider haulage community.
Mandatory Container Detail
From 22 February VBS users will need to enter a valid container to secure a VBS booking. At this stage, the mandatory container detail used to secure a booking can be a validated import, export, full or empty and container detail can be changed, added or deleted at any point until In Gate at the Terminal (VBS Terms and Conditions relating to late notification are unchanged).
This change is designed to improve fair usage of VBS and booking availability and follows the previous changes which had extended the periods where container detail is mandatory. Historically, having the ability to secure a booking without entering container detail facilitated a scenario where some users secured and held on to bookings unnecessarily until the auto-exchange recovered them close to the booking time. We believe that this change will start to address these practices and improve availability for those with genuine need.
Users are reminded that once a container detail has been added to a VBS booking, it is excluded from the auto-exchange.
Its believed that these changes will improve the efficiency and availability of VBS and allow the Port of Felixstowe to collectively, provide a more reliable service to its customers.
Source: BIFA