Tracking Your Shipment (4)
(4th in a series of 5 posts)
You’ve booked your shipment, scheduled the carrier and your BOL is created. I wish I could say it’s time to relax while your shipment is delicately handled by men with white gloves and whisked gently from origin to destination. That would be a lie. But, with any luck, the real hard work is over.
Tracking your shipment is like taking your shipment’s vitals, you really just need to keep an eye to make sure nothing is out of whack. If something’s wrong, don’t expect the problem to fix itself. Your shipment could be sitting on a dock somewhere while, blissfully unaware, you work on something else. Or worse, it could be heading west when it should be moving south. Even small mistakes can turn into big ones after just one night (here’s a tragic example tourist plane into mountains). Keep reading to find out how to track your shipment’s vitals:
Pickup & Pro#: (16 minutes)
Once you’ve gotten confirmation that your pickup is set, you want to give the carrier a very short leash to arrive on time. If it’s 4:30 and you close at 5, it’s worth a phone call to make sure they’re still coming (a WHOLE other post coming on this topic shortly). Even a guaranteed shipment means nothing until it is on the truck and really back to the terminal in time to meet the outbound truck. Surprisingly, there is only 1 company in the industry that offers “guaranteed” pickups…Forward Air and it ain’t cheap!
Confirmed on board? Great! Now, you’ll want the pro# to make your life easier when you check the billing in the morning. Lots of TMS’ are setup to automatically upload the pro once the shipment is keyed in by the driver. If you’re on site, you already have the BOL with the sticker on it.
Billing: (4 Minutes)
The following morning, check the carrier’s website (or call their origin terminal) to confirm the billing has been setup correctly. You may not be surprised to find out that it’s still a person’s job to take those BOL’s and “bill” them into the computer each night. If you’re a biller, time to start looking for a new job, the robots are coming for you next!
Not sure what to check, try these:
Any notes on the BOL were recorded into the system (Ex, consignee hrs, PO#’s)
Special Services (Ex, liftgate delivery, guarantee)
3rd Party billing info
Consignee address, City, state, zip, suite #, special delivery instructions, etc.
If any of these were missed, it WILL come back to haunt you 👻.
Tracking in transit: (1 minute/day)
This is just a good ole fashioned eyeball on the screen to make sure the shipment is moving in the right direction, literally, If it’s going from Boston to LA, make sure it didn’t just ping last night in NC…
Look for:
Moving in the wrong direction
No movement
Any “Exceptions” (weather, shortage)
Erratic movement (Ex, if it goes back and forth there is a problem)
The estimated arrival date
If all looks well, let it ride!
Confirm Delivery: (3 minutes)
On the day of the estimated delivery (especially if hot) check the carrier site to confirm that it is “planned for delivery” or “manifested for delivery”. If not, call ‘em. You should do this first thing in the morning in the timezone the shipment is being delivered. 7 AM is not too early and 9 AM might be too late. That’s your sweetspot.
If your shipment is out for delivery on time, congrats! Barring any unforeseen circumstances at the delivery location (consignee closed, special service needed, blocked entrance, etc) you made it through the gaunlet! You should be proud and pat yourself on the back. Now, just lather, rinse and repeat for every shipment (at least the important ones) and you’ll be on top of it.
Feel like a little too much work? Want to outsource this to someone trustworthy? I’d love to help! Hit the button right under this sentence and I’ll take it from there.