Two operations restructure shipments after they exist: split breaks one into several, merge combines several into one. Both are guarded, because both change what has already been recorded against a job.
Splitting a shipment
Splitting is what you do when one booking turns out to be several — the cargo is released in parts, or one house bill has to become three.
What is allowed
Split is available for LCL import shipments only. An FCL, air, or export shipment cannot be split. Attempting it is refused outright.
You must provide at least two sets of cargo details. Splitting into one is not a split.
The cargo must reconcile
This is the rule that catches people:
The volume and weight of the new shipments must add up to the original, within a tolerance of 0.01. If they do not, the split is refused with "The sum of all new package volumes (cbm) must match the original shipment" or the equivalent for weight.
Cargo does not appear or vanish in a split. If the true figures differ from what was originally recorded, correct the original first, then split it — do not use the split to quietly adjust totals.
What each new shipment gets
- A new shipment number, generated for it.
- Its own bill of lading number, if you supply one. This is optional, but where supplied it must be unique — both across the shipments in the split and against every existing shipment. The original's B/L number is not copied onto any of them.
- Everything else carried across from the original.
The whole split is applied as a single transaction: either every new shipment is created, or none is.
Merging shipments
Merging combines several shipments into one. You may nominate one of them as the reference — the shipment whose details the merged result takes; otherwise the first is used.
The four things that must match
Every shipment in a merge must agree with the reference on:
| Must match | Refusal if not |
|---|---|
| Origin and destination ports | All shipments must have the same origin and destination ports to merge. |
| Shipment type | All shipments must have the same shipment type to merge. |
| Shipping type | All shipments must have the same shipping type to merge. |
| Workflow step | All shipments must have the same workflow step to merge. |
At least two shipments are required, and a nominated reference must be one of the shipments being merged.
The workflow step condition is the one most often hit. Two otherwise identical shipments at different points in their process cannot be merged — advance the one behind until they are level, then merge. This is deliberate: merging shipments at different steps would leave the result in a state that is true of neither.
Merging two existing shipments
Merging one shipment into another has two additional guards:
- The shipment types must match.
- If both shipments have a quotation, it must be the same quotation. Two shipments priced under different quotations cannot be merged — the combined result would have no coherent basis for its charges. One of them must be re-pointed first.
- A shipment with a delivery-order date cannot be merged. Once a DO has been issued, the shipment has been acted on externally.
Deciding between them
| Situation | Action |
|---|---|
| One booking, cargo releasing in parts | Split |
| Cargo was recorded as one and is physically several | Split |
| Several bookings from one customer on one vessel, same lane and same stage | Merge |
| Several bookings that will travel together but are at different stages | Advance them to the same step, then merge |
| Several bookings under different quotations | Do not merge — resolve the pricing basis first |
Before you do either
- Check downstream documents. A shipment that has generated a bill of lading or an invoice should not be restructured without deciding what happens to those.
- Check the quotation link. Splitting a shipment does not split its quotation, and the charge lines will need attention.
- Have the correct figures first. Split validates against the original's totals, so a split will not let you fix a wrong weight — correct it beforehand.
- Prefer it to deleting and recreating. Split and merge preserve the history and the links; recreating loses both.
Last updated 13 September 2026