Past voyages are no longer tracked or charged

Documents often reach Trackberry long after the fruit has been sold. A supplier sends last season’s paperwork, or someone forwards an old thread to get it filed. Until now, each of those became a new shipment, and we tried to track a voyage that had already ended and charged for it.

Now, when the documents put a voyage’s arrival more than 30 days before the shipment reached Trackberry, we mark it as a past shipment. It stays in your shipments list with its documents and data. It gets no live tracking and no charge.

What you’ll see

The tracking card says Past shipment: documents archived, no live tracking. Carriers stop publishing once a voyage ends, so there would be nothing to follow. The overdue-ETA and “Never registered for tracking” alerts are not raised for these shipments.

On a public tracking link, your customer reads that the voyage was completed before its documents reached us. The page also says that its dates come from the shipping documents.

How we decide

We use the ETA on the documents, for the shipment or its containers. With no ETA, we take the departure date and add 60 days. That is longer than any lane we see, so a slow voyage still at sea is never mistaken for a finished one.

The 30 days are counted from the day the shipment reached Trackberry, not from today. A shipment you tracked on time never becomes a past shipment as it gets older. The date on a forwarded email is ignored, because it is the date of the forward. A shipment that already has tracking, or shares its B/L with a shipment we are already tracking, is never treated as past.

If we got it wrong

If the dates on the documents are wrong, correct them on the shipment and save. Tracking then starts as normal. For an ocean or air shipment with a B/L or AWB, you can also click Track anyway on the tracking card to track it with the dates as they are. Both are billed like any other tracked shipment, unless the charge was already refunded.

Early charges are reversed

A shipment is sometimes billed before any document has dated the voyage: when a trusted sender’s email arrives, or when you approve it. When the documents then show it is a past voyage, the charge is reversed automatically.

If you pay with credits, the credit comes back to your balance. On a monthly invoice, a negative Reversal line appears on the invoice for the month the refund happens. There is one exception on monthly invoices. A charge belongs to the consignment, meaning the B/L. So it is not reversed while another active shipment on the same B/L is still being tracked, because that shipment is using the charge.

A refund is final: if you later correct the dates or click Track anyway, that shipment stays free.

FAQ #

Why is a shipment I just received marked as a past shipment? #

Its documents give an arrival date more than 30 days before it reached Trackberry. Check the ETA and departure dates on the shipment. If they are wrong, correct them and save, and tracking starts.

Will I be charged if I click Track anyway? #

Yes, it is billed like any tracked shipment, unless it was already refunded as a past voyage. A refunded shipment stays free.

Do I need to ask for a refund? #

No. The reversal happens by itself when the documents show the voyage was already over, unless another active shipment on the same B/L is using the charge.