Any one else with any updates?
Here's what I have managed to find out with regards to the shipping process, and when codes 38-40 are issued:
When the car leaves the factory it gets put on a train and taken to the "port of exit" (i.e. Emden or Zeebrugge for VAG cars), where it is checked by Audi Germany for damage that could have occurred in the first part of transport.
Status code 38 indicates that the car has been checked by Audi, and "Released to Ship" (i.e. stack parked and the car documentation handed over to the "shipping company") at the "port of exit".
Status code 39 indicates that the car has been loaded on the ship. I believe that Audi are present during the loading of the ship, and the vehicles are scanned as they go on the ship, which enables Audi to mark the car as status 39.
When the car arrives at the "port of entry" (i.e. Sheerness, Grimsby or Tyne for VAG cars) it is the shipping company's responsibility to "unload" and stack park the cars. When they have been parked, someone from Audi UK marks the cars as "unloaded from ship". This is what status code 40 means.
My car traveled on African Highway (AH). AH departed from Emden on Friday evening and arrived in Grimsby on Saturday evening. Several other vehicles carriers arrived in Grimsby on Saturday evening as well, and given the huge size of AH, it took 24 hours to unload the ship. AH sailed from Grimsby on Sunday evening. That said, my car was officially marked as "Unloaded from ship" (status 40) on Monday morning at 9:15am.
Once the car is unloaded and stack parked by the shipping company, and marked as "unloaded from ship" by Audi UK, Audi UK check the car for damage during shipping, move the car to a "numbered bay-park car park", and the paperwork is passed onto the "transport company". This process is called "clearing off the ship".
Today I was told by Audi UK CS that my car was "unloaded from the ship" on Monday morning, but it hadn't been "cleared off the ship" yet due to a bottleneck at Grimsby caused by the arrival of a large number of vehicles over the weekend. The bottleneck can be caused because Audi UK don't have enough staff to check and move the cars, or because the "transport company" who deliver the cars to the dealerships don't have sufficient capacity to clear the port at the rate at which the cars are arriving.
Audi's guideline is that it takes 5-7 days to get the car into the dealership from the date it is "cleared off the ship". I believe that a few people here, including myself, are facing a delay in the "clearing" process.
Once the car is "cleared off the ship", the "transport company" "raises" a "transport order" to take the vehicle from the "port of entry" to the dealership.
The dealership will receive a notification when the "transport order is raised", but this will not show in the yourAudi tracker, letting them know when they should receive the car.
Phew! That was long