Tracking freshness: the four clocks behind every timestamp

“Updated 3 hours ago” used to mean we polled 3 hours ago. That told you nothing about whether the carrier had reported anything. The timestamp now shows when the carrier last reported, and hovering over it breaks down every clock in the chain.

Under Live Tracking you’ll see Carrier updated 3 hours ago, or No carrier updates yet. Hover over it and you get four clocks from the carrier chain, plus the vessel position from a separate feed:

This is what separates a quiet shipment from a broken one. Carriers publish milestones at port calls, so weeks can pass mid-voyage with nothing new, and that’s normal. The vessel position comes from a separate AIS feed, so the marker on the map can keep moving while the four carrier rows stay the same. Shipment monitoring uses the same data to tell the two cases apart automatically.

Check now sits in the same popover for signed-in members. It asks the tracking service again immediately and shows a spinner in place of the timestamp while the check runs. The page doesn’t reload, so the map stays where it is. It can’t make a carrier publish anything new, but it can pick up a newer vessel position, and it’s most useful right after a shipment is created.

When the journey is over, the clocks stop. Once a shipment has arrived or been delivered, the popover switches to Tracking is complete, the Check now button disappears, and staleness alerts stop firing for it.

And when several of your shipments share one Bill of Lading, they all use a single tracking registration. Every one of them shows the same live tracking, and you are billed once.

FAQ #

My shipment says no carrier update for two weeks. Is it broken? #

Probably not. Carriers publish milestones at port calls, so a mid-ocean leg can go weeks with nothing new. Check the Vessel position moved row: if the AIS fix is recent, the voyage is fine and the carrier just has nothing new to report.

What does Check now actually do? #

It asks our tracking provider again straight away, rather than waiting for the next scheduled poll. It cannot make a carrier publish anything new, but it can pick up a newer vessel position. That is most useful right after you create a shipment.

Why are there four clocks instead of one? #

A carrier update passes through several steps before it reaches you. The carrier publishes it, the tracking service polls the carrier and notices the change, and we poll the tracking service. Each step has its own clock, and the vessel position runs on a fifth one, from the separate AIS feed. A single “updated” timestamp hides which of them is behind, and that is the thing you need to know.