The idea
Some delay is predictable from the calendar. If a shipment is crossing a border and a nationwide public holiday falls at either end within the next ten days, customs and handling on that side are likely to pause. The customs-friction check turns that foreseeable risk into a quiet heads-up instead of a surprise.
When it fires
It surfaces a note on the timeline only when all of these hold:
- the shipment has a live border crossing — a real origin and destination country on an active leg, not a guess;
- a nationwide holiday (not a regional one) lands on the origin or destination side;
- that holiday is within the next ten days.
When those line up, you see a short, dated note: which country, which holiday, what date.
What it is — and is not
It is a planning hint grounded in a public-holiday calendar. It is not a live customs-status feed: it does not know whether your specific entry is held, flagged, or cleared. It is a "this date may add friction here" heads-up, nothing more — and it stays silent when there is no crossing or no holiday in range, rather than manufacture concern.
It also only reasons about the legs it can actually resolve. A shipment with no resolved route produces no friction note — the absence is honest, not a clean bill.
Related
For a route that is already running slow (regardless of holidays) see [the anomaly engine](/docs/anomaly-engine) and [congestion radar](/docs/congestion-radar); for the likely arrival window see [the delivery forecast](/docs/delivery-probability).