How do you find out what container a tracked item ends up on

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Curious Consumer

Re: How do you find out what container a tracked item ends up on

Unread post by Curious Consumer »

Mr Link wrote: November 5, 2022, 3:52 pm
Curious Consumer wrote: November 5, 2022, 11:58 am So if your item has a tracking number, it tells you the basics; where it’s last been scanned and it’s ultimate destination… but is there a way to determine which container your item ends up in along its travel stages or even which cargo ship?

I’ve seen online that you can track cargo ships in real time, but there seems to be no discernible way to find your specific cargo ship using just your provided shipping tracking number… or am I just dumb? 😅
There are tracking tools for individual containers, but I don't think many (if any) are available to the public. For instance Lyden's Alaska Marine Lines, which hauls containers and rail cars by barge to Alaska and containers to Hawaii from Seattle has an online tracking system. But you need a bill of lading or other similar document to use it. A shipper like Walmart or Amazon would have access to that information and could track their container but a consumer who ordered something through Walmart or Amazon wouldn't.

More and more individual containers are being instrumented with devices like temperature recorders, motion sensors and GPS trackers but again its the shipper that has access to this data, not the public or individual consumers.
Ok, I was thinking I would be able to figure this out, good to know that it’s not me, haha

Yeah, I ordered something that shipped from Spain and I was hoping to see how their journey was going. From the sounds of it, they still have a day or 3 left if all is going well in terms of weather, so I’ll hopefully see a tracking number update next week

Thank you so much for the info, again, kinda glad it’s not a matter of me being oblivious
Mr Link
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Joined: December 6, 2014, 3:43 pm

Re: How do you find out what container a tracked item ends up on

Unread post by Mr Link »

Curious Consumer wrote: November 5, 2022, 11:58 am So if your item has a tracking number, it tells you the basics; where it’s last been scanned and it’s ultimate destination… but is there a way to determine which container your item ends up in along its travel stages or even which cargo ship?

I’ve seen online that you can track cargo ships in real time, but there seems to be no discernible way to find your specific cargo ship using just your provided shipping tracking number… or am I just dumb? 😅
There are tracking tools for individual containers, but I don't think many (if any) are available to the public. For instance Lyden's Alaska Marine Lines, which hauls containers and rail cars by barge to Alaska and containers to Hawaii from Seattle has an online tracking system. But you need a bill of lading or other similar document to use it. A shipper like Walmart or Amazon would have access to that information and could track their container but a consumer who ordered something through Walmart or Amazon wouldn't.

More and more individual containers are being instrumented with devices like temperature recorders, motion sensors and GPS trackers but again its the shipper that has access to this data, not the public or individual consumers.
Curious Consumer

How do you find out what container a tracked item ends up on

Unread post by Curious Consumer »

So if your item has a tracking number, it tells you the basics; where it’s last been scanned and it’s ultimate destination… but is there a way to determine which container your item ends up in along its travel stages or even which cargo ship?

I’ve seen online that you can track cargo ships in real time, but there seems to be no discernible way to find your specific cargo ship using just your provided shipping tracking number… or am I just dumb? 😅
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