Spot freight comes with a certain degree of unpredictability, and not having a reliable system in place can quickly snowball into a financial disaster. Access to good shipment tracking software helps multi-fold. Here’s how:
- Stay in control: With real-time updates at every milestone, know precisely where your shipment is, react quickly to disruptions, and coordinate the next steps without delays.
- See your supply chain better: Track goods from start to finish with complete visibility, manage suppliers, get better inventory management, and fulfill orders smoothly.
- Minimize risks: Protect your cargo from delays, damage, and even theft with proactive monitoring. You can respond proactively and mitigate risks before they escalate.
- Save resources: Avoid unplanned costs from delays, re-routes, and damage. Efficient freight tracking can minimize inefficiencies and lower overhead costs.
- Keep your customers happy: Provide accurate ETAs to customers with real-time updates, manage expectations, and build trust in your business.
Depending on the level of accuracy and frequency of updates, you can track your shipments in multiple ways. When shipping, you will get a bill of lading (B/L) or reference number that can be used to track your freight.
You can track your shipment at different levels:
Cargo-level tracking
This is more relevant for smaller shipments, generally LCL (Less-than-Container Load). Freight forwarders or carriers offer LCL shipment tracking service through your B/L or booking number. Maersk provides you with the following information for such shipments:
- ETA for each milestone.
- Stops in the cargo’s journey.
You can also use advanced tracking systems, such as barcodes and QR code scanners, to track a specific product within your supply chain.
Container-level tracking
This is a standard tracking feature provided by most forwarders and carriers. You can get real-time location updates, delay notifications, and ETAs for your booked containers. It works for all types of containerized shipments, including LCL and FCL.
Maersk offers you container-level tracking for all types of bookings. You will get the following updates for each of your containers:
If your provider doesn’t offer in-depth tracking capabilities, you can also use third-party container trackers. All you’ll need is your container or B/L number.
Vessel-level tracking
It’s not as common as container tracking because you’re more concerned with the movement of your shipment than the vessel. However, vessel tracking helps you anticipate operational delays such as port delays, weather-related issues, etc. Maersk offers you tracking tools to check vessel schedules and port calls quickly. We’ll communicate the vessel number along with the booking confirmation.
If you need more in-depth data, you can also use Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) to monitor the location of the vessel carrying your shipment.
You can also integrate advanced tracking technologies into your supply chain. This will give you granular data on the status of your shipment at any given point.
- GPS tracking: The satellite-based navigation system allows you to pinpoint the exact location of your cargo, particularly air freight. By tapping into the GPS network, you can get real-time location monitoring with remarkable accuracy, down to just a few meters.
- RFID tracking: You can tag your assets, such as products, packages, or containers, with RFID tags. This enables easy identification of your shipment throughout the supply chain. It also helps you easily determine the current condition and status of the shipment if there are any maintenance needs.
- Temperature and condition tracking: Technologies can help you track your shipment's exact temperature, humidity, and atmospheric conditions in transit. This is crucial for sensitive shipments like medicines, food, and perishables.
Did you know? Maersk’s reefer management platform, CaptainPeter Captain Peter™ , gives you real-time visibility and insights into the condition of your containers, right from temperature and atmosphere data to advanced GPS tracking.
Have you booked a shipment with Maersk Spot? Here’s how you can track your freight throughout its journey.
- Once you book your spot freight, we will send you booking confirmation details and your B/L via the registered email. At most, it will take up to 4-5 hours.
- Once confirmed, you can track your shipment on the Maersk portal. Log in to your account and go to ‘Tracking’ on the top menu. Simply enter your B/L or container number to check the status.
- You can also check the Shipment Details page for freight information. Go to the ‘Export Overview’ tab in the dashboard and click on the relevant B/L. It will take you to the appropriate page to get a complete overview of the particular shipment.
Note: We also send automated email alerts for major changes in your shipment.
Want updates on the go? Download the Maersk app and enable Maersk Spot Alerts to be notified of any changes on your mobile device.
