Many organizations spend plenty of resources on the manual collection of container tracking data. In addition to being a costly and time-consuming process, collecting shipping container tracking data by hand also leads to unorganized data that is inconsistent and fraught with errors, dramatically limiting the value that the tracking data provides.

Thankfully, there is a better way for freight forwarders, shippers, and customers to track a container number without completing the process manually. In this article, we'll explore how a high-quality real-time container tracking API can empower you to track your shipping container in a way that is sure to reduce time, costs, and errors.

Why Real-Time Tracking In-Transit Containers is Critical

Perhaps the best way to understand the importance of real-time container number tracking is to examine the consequences that arise when customers and shippers cannot accurately track the location of their shipments. The first and most obvious of these consequences is that an inability to provide customers and freight forwarders with real-time updates regarding container location and status creates a logistical nightmare that can lead to a wide range of inventory and manufacturing issues.

Real-time container tracking is also critical because manually collecting data is costly and labor-intensive. It is likewise a process that is prone to producing messy, inaccurate data, once again leading to the same logistical issues that arise when tracking data is not provided.

The Benefits of Having Real-Time In-Transit Container Tracking

Being able to track your container automatically is a capability that provides a wide range of benefits. For one, automated real-time container tracking eliminates the need for manual data collection, saving your organization time and money right out of the gate. Real-time container tracking can further reduce costs for shipping customers by creating the level of transparency required for them to manage their resources in a way that will limit the demurrage and detention fees that they incur. When ports across the country are increasing these fees as a response to growing port congestion, this capability is now more important than ever before.

In addition to providing customers and freight carriers with real-time updates regarding a shipment's status and location, real-time container tracking can also empower them to anticipate issues before they arise. A high-quality real-time container tracking API such as VIZION's container tracking API provides automated updates regarding operational changes, container events, and port risks. Such alerts enable customers and freight carriers to foresee these issues and mitigate their impact.

Meanwhile, for port operators, the most significant benefit of real-time container tracking is its benefits to their customers. Today, more and more shipping customers are looking to diversify the ports they do business with due to increased port congestion. By offering real-time in-transit container tracking, ports can set themselves apart from the completion and make their services more alluring during this time when new customers are there for the taking.

How to Achieve Real-Time In-Transit Container Tracking

"How do I track my container?" is a question we hear all the time at VIZION. Fortunately, the solution for real-time in-transit container tracking is much more accessible than many people realize.

In the past, shipping customers, freight carriers, and port operators who wished to track the location and status of their shipments had two options: track containers manually or build their own container-tracking API. We've already discussed the drawbacks of manual container tracking. However, building a container tracking API from the ground up comes with plenty of challenges as well.

Building your own container tracking API is a lengthy and costly process, and even the more basic container tracking APIs used to take years to create. The financial cost of creating these APIs wasn't much better, with software development firms often charging a small fortune to create a custom container tracking API.

Thankfully, there is now a better solution. Through low code/no-code real-time container tracking APIs such as the API we offer at VIZION, shipping customers, freight carriers, and port operators are able to create their own fully-customized real-time container tracking APIs in far less time and for far less money than what is required when building an API from the ground up.

How Low Code/No-Code Container Tracking APIs Reduce Time, Cost, and Errors

Low code/no code container tracking APIs allow you to build your own custom container tracking API without having to hire the services of a software development firm, thus drastically reducing the investment required to get your custom API up and running. By simplifying the process of building a custom API, these low-code/no-code solutions also enable shipping customers, freight carriers, and port operators to build their API in a matter of days rather than a matter of years.

Once your real-time container tracking API is up and running, the time and cost-saving benefits that it provides become all the more substantial. From reducing demurrage and detention fees through improved transparency to facilitating improved coordination between partners via consistent and accurate data to foreseeing issues and delays before they happen, the benefits of real-time container tracking are considerable and wide-ranging.

Conclusion

At VIZION, we are committed to providing shipping customers, freight carriers, and port operators with the ability to quickly and affordably create their own custom real-time container tracking solution. By providing a state-of-the-art low-code/no-code platform, we empower our clients to create their own custom container tracking API for a fraction of what creating such an API used to cost. To learn more about how VIZION can help you create a custom real-time container tracking API that is perfectly suited for your needs and one that is guaranteed to reduce time, costs, and errors, feel free to contact us today.