Start tracking without waiting for the transport document

Tracking only ever needed the B/L, container or AWB number — the transport document is just how we usually come by one. So shipments whose document never arrived sat untracked forever, even when someone knew the number.

Not any more. A shipment with a reference but no tracking now shows a Start tracking card: pick the mode, confirm the number, and it’s registered.

• The mode is detected as you type — an AWB flips it to air, a container number to ocean — so you’re not fighting a dropdown that reflects an old, stale reference.
• The manual shipment form gained a Start tracking now checkbox, hidden for road freight.
• The whole thing is one line on a clean card rather than the old blue notice, and the tracking number is collected in the card itself instead of sending you elsewhere to enter it.

This pairs with registering a container early: create the shipment off the booking confirmation, start tracking the moment you have a number, and let the documents catch up.

Which number we track on #

When we hold both a container number and a bill of lading for the same shipment, the tracking is now registered on the B/L.

The two references do not buy the same answer. A carrier’s container feed is event-driven, so a box that has just been loaded replies with a single event, no port of discharge and no route at all. The B/L carries the booking, so it replies with the discharge port, an ETA and the whole voyage on the first call. Same shipment, same carrier, and only one of those two answers is worth having.

This only ever promotes a number we already hold on the shipment. A reference you typed in by hand is never overridden, and a B/L you gave us is never replaced by one found in a document.

The map now draws the route the carrier gave us, rather than the two end points and a guess between them.

Where a port name came from is labelled. If the carrier has published no discharge port and your transport document names one, the progress bar uses that name and captions it “From your documents”. A substitute should never be mistaken for the carrier’s own word.

FAQ #

Do I still need the transport document afterwards? #

For tracking, no. For the rest of Trackberry, yes — the packing list and invoice are what fill in produce, quantities and weights, and what the quality checks compare.

What if I enter the wrong number? #

The mode detection will usually catch a mistyped reference, since container numbers and IATA air waybills have different shapes and check digits. If a number is genuinely unrecognised the shipment simply reads Untracked rather than tracking the wrong box.

I gave you a container number. Why is the shipment tracked on a bill of lading? #

Because the B/L was already on the shipment and it answers with more. A container number asks the carrier where one box is; a bill of lading asks what the booking is, and that answer carries the discharge port, the ETA and the route. We only ever switch to a reference already recorded against the shipment.

Does this work for road freight? #

No. The Start tracking now checkbox is hidden for road, because there is no carrier feed to register against.