ERDs and Cut-Offs in Agriculture Exports

At the 2025 AgTC Annual Meeting, Kevin Speers, CEO and Co-Founder at Splice presented on the ongoing challenges in managing export receiving dates - earliest receiving date (ERDs) and cut-offs. Below is a summary of his remarks.

View from Tacoma of Mount Rainier.

On June 17 at the Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC) Annual Meeting, I had the opportunity to share an update on one of the most persistent challenges in containerized agricultural exports: Changes to Earliest Receiving Dates (ERDs) and Cut-offs.

It’s a topic I’ve addressed for the past three years at the AgTC Annual Meeting, and while much has changed, some issues remain deeply rooted.

Back in 2022, AgTC Annual Meeting hosted its first panel focused on technology. It marked a turning point – a recognition that digital solutions could help untangle the complexities of managing export shipments. At the time, platforms like Splice were demonstrating how better visibility into ERDs, cut-offs and vessel schedules could ease burdens for forwarders, shippers, and truckers. The goal was clear: Improve communications, reduce manual and repetitive website lookups, and manage seemingly constant changes more effectively.

Peter Friedmann, Executive Director, AgTC, and Kevin Speers, CEO and Co-Founder, Splice

At the 2023 annual meeting, I focused on the systemic nature of the problem. ERDs and cut-offs are influenced by a multiple stakeholders, mainly marine terminals and ocean carriers. Inconsistencies remain common, and even minor disruptions can ripple through the entire supply chain. The three challenges remain operational complexity, gaps in communication, and competing priorities. Read the full analysis here.

This year, the focus was on what can be done now — especially with Splice's tested and proven technology.

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At Splice, we’re building tools that logistics teams can use today. Our platform helps automate the tracking and management of booking confirmations and schedule changes.

One customer, a global forwarder, had teams buried in emails and PDFs trying to keep up with all of the changes. Splice digitized the process, automatically logging updates and syncing them across systems. The result has been less time in inboxes and more time making informed decisions. With such outstanding success, wouldn't it justify opening the flood gates to digitize more logistics processes and data?

McKinsey reports that digitizing logistics processes can unlock productivity gains of 15–30% and cut costs by up to 20%. But the uptake of process automation in shipping and logistics has been slow — just read the Digital Container Shipping Association's annual report.

Why? Four reasons stand out.

1. Entrenched legacy processes. They are institutionalized and removing them can be expensive.

2. Fear of change. Too often, managers have so concede to manual tracking and take the inefficiency hit because it “works”.

3. Lack of regulatory urgency. Without a forcing function, complacency and acceptance sinks in.

4. Complexity of the export ecosystem. Many systems and ways to share data. That is where tools like Splice Exports demonstrates outstanding value.

   
   

The need for change is real. Changes to receiving dates can cascade into inventory disruptions, late deliveries, and delayed cash flow. ERD errors and delays contribute to storage, detention and demurrage costs, which remain key concerns for attendees at the annual meeting. D&D remains a particularly painful memory of the pandemic.

Despite the barriers, Splice continues to make progress, and it is moving forward with four initiatives that are focused on overcoming obstacles and using its position as a leader in automating export processes to create more value for the industry.

• Partnerships: We’re teaming with innovative tech companies and logistics providers to build smarter, AI-enabled export workflows. Take Unity SCM. It is working with Splice to dig deeper into exporting processes and to optimize its customers' supply chain operations
  

• Analytics: Our work with Old Dominion University's School of Supply Chain, Logistics and Maritime Operations is exploring how data can inform better practices across the export lifecycle. We have only just begun to understand how the data can unleash new insights to exporters.
  

• Accessibility: Our new self-service portal makes it easy to get started with Splice Exports. It’s free to try out. Register here.
  

• Rail: We’re piloting a unified approach to rail ERDs and cut-offs — an area long underserved despite its critical role in exports. The process for managing an export container's receiving differs between US and Canadian railroads, and ocean carriers share rail receiving dates in varied ways. There is also no common formula, but Splice aims to change that.

Better logistics depend on better connections — between data, systems, and stakeholders. Splice helps create and nurture those connections for exporters, and we are honored to be playing a role in export process improvement.

If you're facing challenges with ERD tracking, missed cut-offs, or inconsistent updates, we’d love to help. Visit www.splice-it.com to learn more, watch a quick demo on our YouTube channel, or sign up for a free trial through our self-service portal.

Let’s turn visibility into action and make export logistics work better for everyone.