Glossary · Cold chain monitoring
Hapag-Lloyd LIVE and Live Reefer
Also known as Hapag-Lloyd LIVE and Hapag-Lloyd Live Reefer.
Hapag-Lloyd's reefer monitoring product: temperature, atmosphere and container position reported in transit, sold under the Hapag-Lloyd LIVE name.
Published
Live Reefer is Hapag-Lloyd’s reefer monitoring product, sold under the carrier’s Hapag-Lloyd LIVE name. It reports what the refrigeration unit is doing during the voyage — temperature, humidity, atmosphere on a controlled atmosphere booking — together with the container’s own position.
The container position is the part worth noticing. It comes from a telematics device with its own GPS, so it reports the box rather than the ship. That is a different fact from an AIS vessel position, and it keeps meaning something after a transshipment, where a vessel feed stops being about your cargo.
What to check before relying on it
Whether the box you were allocated carries the device. Fleets are fitted over years, and the container assigned to your booking is not something you choose.
Whose account it lands in. Booked through a forwarder, the data reaches them rather than you.
How often it samples. An hourly reading and a six-hourly one are the same product and not the same evidence in a claim.
Where it stops
It is one carrier’s view of its own equipment. An importer running Peru on one line and South Africa on another has two portals, two formats and two logins, and neither of them knows about the other’s shipments.
It also answers a different question from tracking. Condition data tells you how the box is; it does not tell you that the vessel lost four days at a hub, or that discharge happened this morning and your free time is already running. Importers on carrier-owned reefers usually pair the line’s monitoring with a tracking platform for exactly that reason. Trackberry is the second half of that pair, following the milestones and the ETA across whichever carriers a season puts you on.
FAQ
Is Live Reefer the same as Hapag-Lloyd LIVE?
Hapag-Lloyd LIVE is the umbrella name the carrier uses for its live data products; Live Reefer is the refrigerated-cargo one. In conversation the two names get used interchangeably, which is usually harmless.
Does it give me the container’s position or the ship’s?
The container’s, from a device on the box. That is more useful than a vessel position at exactly the moments a vessel position stops helping — after a transshipment, and on the inland leg.
Does it replace pulling the temperature log?
No. Download the full log on arrival as routine. Monitoring is for noticing a problem while there is still a decision to make; the log is the record you argue a claim with.