It’s essential to track your cargo when transporting by air or ocean. For instance, air tracking helps you know the location of the cargo at a given point of transportation. Also, you can easily know when there’s any form of delay. Nevertheless, many people don’t know how they can track their air freight, and that’s why we created this post. Here are some of the best ways to track your cargo during air transportation.
1. GPS
Of all the different ways of tracking an item, this is the simplest, which is why we’ve given it the top priority. It only involves getting a wireless GPS device and sending it alongside your consignment. It’s quite convenient and won’t take much of your time and money.
GPS systems work on different network connectivity. They’ll collect data and then transmit them to your receiver so that you know the status of the cargo being transported. However, GPS tracking will not tell you the condition of the item, which is a serious concern to many users. However, the system will give you the end-to-end location of the valuable.
Before using GPS to track your air freight, it’s imperative to note the limitations they come with. You should do your homework ahead of time. Also, once the device is gone, you won’t be able to recover it from the destination, but this should not be a serious concern, provided it can track the item successfully.
2. Freight Forwarders
Freight forwarders tracking systems are also quite reliable when you want to know the location of the item in transit. The system works by acquiring a combination of data from APIs and airline portals from the trackers used by the transporters. It’s possible to get data on the multimodal shipment, which makes it one of the best choices.
Freight forwarders system is excellent when you also want to know the location of the flight and when it gets to the destination. Also, users can get partial first and last-mile visibility, making it a better choice than GPS tracking systems for some. You’ll also get accurate warehouse data.
The main shortcoming of the freight forwarders is that they won’t give you the condition data of the air cargo. It’s also not a good choice if you need something that can provide package segregation information. Also, in case you have many boxes, you won’t be able to tell whether every single one of them made it on board.
3. Airline’s Track & Trace
This is a manual process that might be tiresome. But it’s free to use, so you should consider adding to your options. It involves logging into the airline’s portal from time to time to check to confirm the information. Many people still find this method quite useful, especially when they don’t need the complicated tracking methods above.
The track and trace method comes in handy when you want to know the location of the flight. However, there’re some important details that you might fail to get, such as condition data, first and last mile visibility, and customs status.
This method is also not quite reliable, especially when the airline’s site is down and unable to issue the required details. You should only use this technique if the other two seem to be too complicated for you, but you can still use them together for enhanced accuracy when trying to know the location of your air cargo.
Final Thoughts
Tracking air cargo is not something you should struggle with. You can use any of the three methods above to know whether the item was delivered, or if there’s a delay. Let us know if you have any questions or need assistance with either of these methods. As well, you can comment below, and our team will get back to you with the necessary details about air tracking.
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