As part of the continuing expansion of its API Store, APM Terminals Port Elizabeth in the United States has become the first terminal in the Port of New York & New Jersey to introduce a truck appointment API this week. The API automatically connects a customer’s Transport Management System  directly to APM Terminals’ truck appointment system. 

APM Terminals Truck Appointment API enables customers to perform all appointment tasks currently carried out manually through APM Terminals Truck Appointment System, such as viewing available time slots; creating, updating and cancelling appointments; and producing a list of appointments, appointment information and updates for a requested time frame.

Appointments can be made for import pick-up and drop-off, export drop-off and pick-up, and empty container pick-up and drop-off.

Combined with data from other APIs offered by APM Terminals, such as vessel schedules and import availability, it becomes a powerful tool for reducing the time a container takes to transit through the container terminal to an absolute minimum.

Using APIs not only removes the manual errors that can occur when working in different systems. But having a complete range of real-time data all in one system, can help flag errors or oversights before they occur, through, for example, real-time reporting.

Secure

The API uses a 2-step authentication process involving system and user-level authentication. All end-users must therefore be registered as authorized users on TERMPoint, where an authorization key for the API will be stored. This enables the API to validate that the user is a valid TERMPoint user, associate the user to a trucking company and a terminal and validate the user’s permissions in TERMPoint.

System level authentication is done using a Consumer key, which can be requested by a software provider or trucking company in our developer portal.