Tracking freshness: the four clocks behind every timestamp
“Updated 3 hours ago” used to mean we polled 3 hours ago — which told you nothing about whether the carrier had said anything. That stamp now reports the carrier’s side of the story, and hovering 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 it and you get:
| Row | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Carrier published | The most recent milestone the carrier actually reported, with where and when |
| Tracking service saw a change | When the answer from the carrier last differed from the previous one |
| Tracking service asked the carrier | When our provider last queried the carrier, on its own schedule |
| We asked the tracking service | When Trackberry last pulled from the provider |
| Vessel position moved | When the vessel was last confirmed at the position on the map — the real AIS fix time |
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 fine. The vessel position rides a separate AIS feed, so the marker on the map can keep moving while the four carrier rows stand still. Telling those two apart automatically is what shipment monitoring does with the same data.
Check now sits in the same popover for signed-in members. It asks the tracking service again immediately and swaps the stamp for a spinner while the check runs — no full page reload, so the map stays put. 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 read from a single registration — same live tracking on every one, 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 genuinely go weeks with nothing new. Check the Vessel position moved row: if the AIS fix is recent, the voyage is fine and the carrier is simply quiet.
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 something it hasn’t, but it can pick up a newer vessel position — most useful right after you create a shipment.
Why are there four clocks instead of one?
Because a tracking update passes through four hands — the carrier, the tracking service’s poll of the carrier, our poll of the tracking service, and the separate AIS feed. A single “updated” timestamp hides which of them is behind, and that’s the thing you need to know.