How shipment tracking software works, from number to delivered
You add tracking numbers, ShipmentVisibility recognizes the carrier, follows every event to delivery, predicts the arrival window and sends the right alert to the right person. There is no implementation project, and your first shipments are live minutes after you create your account.
Step 1, add your shipment numbers
Bring shipments in the way that fits your team today, and move to an automatic feed when you are ready.
- Paste tracking, PRO, container, air waybill or BOL numbers, one per line
- Upload a CSV file with numbers and your own references such as PO, order or customer
- Connect Shopify so every fulfillment arrives with its tracking number, on Growth and higher
- Send an ERP or TMS feed from NetSuite, SAP Business One, Microsoft Dynamics or a CSV and SFTP drop, on Pro and higher
- Add shipments from your own systems through the REST API, on Pro and higher
Step 2, the carrier is detected for you
ShipmentVisibility reads each number's format and check digit to work out the mode and carrier, so a mixed list of parcels, LTL loads, containers and air waybills sorts itself.
- Container numbers checked against ISO 6346, with the owner code mapped to the ocean line
- Air waybills read by airline prefix and mod 7 check digit
- Parcel numbers recognized for UPS, FedEx and USPS formats
- LTL PRO numbers matched to the carrier, or flagged "LTL PRO, choose carrier" when a format is shared
Read more on PRO number tracking and container tracking.
Step 3, tracking with normalized milestones
Carriers, terminals, ports and airlines publish events in their own words and codes. ShipmentVisibility collects them through the day and maps them to one set of milestones, so every shipment reads the same way in your list.
- Parcel and LTL milestones from pickup to POD, including appointments and OS&D
- Ocean milestones from vessel departure through transshipment, discharge, gate out and empty return
- Air cargo milestones from booked and received to departed, arrived and delivered
- The carrier's original wording kept next to each milestone
Step 4, an ETA you can plan around
The carrier's own estimate is a starting point, not the answer. The predicted ETA also looks at the latest events, how long the shipment has sat at a terminal or port, and how the same lane has run recently. You see a window with an earliest and latest likely arrival, and that window narrows as the shipment gets closer.
- Shown as a confidence range instead of one fixed date
- Updated with every new event
- A later window raises an alert before the original date passes
Step 5, alerts routed to the right people
Alert rules decide what counts as an exception and who hears about it, so nobody has to scan the whole list to find the problem shipments.
- Delays, a later ETA, long dwell, missed appointments, failed delivery attempts, OS&D and containers near last free day
- Email on every plan, Slack and webhooks on Growth and higher
- Routing by customer, carrier, lane or mode
Step 6, share tracking with your customers
Your customers see progress on your own branded tracking page and get shipped, delayed, out for delivery and delivered emails in your brand. 3PLs give each client its own sub-account on Pro and higher.
Questions about how it works
Do I need to connect anything before I can track?
No. Pasting numbers or uploading a CSV file is enough, and integrations are there when you want shipments to arrive on their own.
What happens if the carrier is not detected?
You choose the carrier once from a short list, which happens mainly with LTL PRO formats shared by several carriers.
How fresh is the tracking data?
Events are collected continuously through the day as carriers publish them, and each shipment shows the time of its latest update.
Can I see what the carrier said word for word?
Yes. Every normalized milestone keeps the carrier's original event text next to it.
Keep reading
Compare all real time shipment tracking features, see shipment visibility for shippers by type of business, or check shipment tracking software pricing.