Comparison
A Captain Peter alternative for produce importers
Start with the concession, because it is the biggest on this site: Captain Peter reads live temperature, humidity and atmosphere from inside a reefer, and Trackberry does not do telematics at all. If that is what you came for, stop here and use theirs.
First month free, then €15 a container · No commitment · No card required
- Carriers supported
- 437
- Shipments tracked
- 344
- Built for
- Fresh produce
What Captain Peter does, and what it covers
Captain Peter is Maersk’s reefer visibility assistant, running on their Remote Container Management platform. It reports temperature, relative humidity and O2/CO2 levels in near real time, including while the box is at sea, and tells you when something needs attention. For cargo where the cold chain is the whole risk, that is valuable and there is no substitute for it.
It has two limits. It belongs to Maersk, so it covers Maersk reefers on Maersk’s platform, and an importer using three or four lines in a season sees only the slice that sailed with Maersk. And it reports on the air inside the box, not on the packing list, the certificate, the calibres, or what the fruit was sold for.
Either way, keep in mind that a perfect temperature log does not mean healthy fruit. The machine reports the air it delivers, not the pulp temperature. A container running exactly to setpoint can still land warm fruit if the fruit was loaded warm, and the chart will look clean the whole way.
Different questions, not competing answers
| The question | Captain Peter | Trackberry |
|---|---|---|
| What is the air doing inside the box | Temperature, humidity and O2/CO2 in near real time, with alerts. | Nothing. We hold the setpoint off the B/L and no live readings at all. |
| Which containers it covers | Maersk reefers on Maersk’s Remote Container Management. | Every container you are moving, whichever line carries it. |
| The paperwork | Not its job. | Packing lists, bills of lading, phytosanitary certificates and EUR1s, read and filed against the box. |
| What is in the container | Not its job. | Pallets, calibres, pack formats, box counts — reconciled against the declared totals. |
| Condition on arrival | The cold chain up to delivery. | An inspection scored per pallet, with defects and photographs, kept for the claim. |
| What it costs you | Part of shipping with Maersk. | Free for the first month, then €15 a container — and nothing for the reefer data we do not have. |
When Captain Peter is what you need
Every line of this list is real.
- You need live temperature, humidity or atmosphere from inside the container. We have none of it.
- You ship mostly with Maersk, so one carrier’s fleet is most of your book anyway.
- You ship controlled-atmosphere cargo and the gas mix has to be right.
- You want an alert on a temperature excursion while the vessel is still at sea, in time to act on it.
- You already have the paperwork side solved and the cold chain is the only open risk.
What it costs
Neither of these is a line item you weigh on its own. Captain Peter comes with a booking you were making anyway, and ours is small enough that one avoided rejection covers a year of it.
Captain Peter
Included with Maersk
No separate price, because it is not sold separately: it comes with shipping a Maersk reefer. That also means it ends when the booking does.
Trackberry
Free for a month, then €15 / container
No card and no commitment during the free month. €15 per container after the free first month — you pay for containers that ship, not for seats or a monthly subscription. ERP integration is a one-off from €2,000 plus maintenance from €50 a month, quoted against the system you already run. All prices exclude VAT.
Questions buyers ask
- Does Trackberry monitor reefer temperature?
- No. There is no telematics feed, no temperature series and no temperature alert. What we hold is the setpoint declared on the transport document and a cargo type of ambient, reefer or frozen. If live temperature is what you need, Captain Peter does it and we do not.
- Then why is there a page?
- Because the two are not the same purchase. Captain Peter reads one carrier’s reefers. An importer is usually moving boxes with three or four lines at once, and none of them tell you anything about the paperwork, the packing detail, or the containers on the other carriers.
- Can we use both?
- That is what we would expect. Captain Peter for the Maersk reefers and what is happening inside them, Trackberry for the whole book, the documents and the arrival. They barely overlap, and that is the honest summary of this page.
- What is Captain Peter exactly?
- Maersk’s reefer visibility assistant. It runs on Maersk’s Remote Container Management and reports temperature, relative humidity and O2/CO2 levels in near real time, even at sea. It notifies you when something needs attention.
See every comparison — including the ones where somebody else is the better buy.
Sources
Every claim on this page about another company comes from what that company publishes about itself, and each is dated. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us at hello@trackberry.com and we will correct it.
- Maersk — Captain Peter — checked
- Maersk — what is Captain Peter? — checked
Most people should use both
Keep Captain Peter for the Maersk reefers. Twenty minutes will show you what the other three carriers and the paperwork look like in one place.