Track and Trace

Track and trace refers to the end-to-end capability of following a shipment through every stage of its journey – from the moment it's picked up at origin through each handoff, transfer, and status change until final delivery confirmation. While "tracking" focuses on current location, "trace" adds the historical dimension: the ability to look backward and reconstruct exactly what happened, when, and where. Together, they form the audit trail that underpins claims resolution, carrier accountability, and customer service.

A complete track-and-trace record includes pickup confirmation with timestamp and location, in-transit status updates at regular intervals, any exception events (delays, reroutes, temperature deviations), delivery confirmation with POD, and – ideally – every communication and action taken along the way. This data comes from a mix of EDI transactions, API feeds, ELD telemetry, driver check-ins, and manual updates. The richer the data, the more useful the trace becomes when you need to investigate a late delivery, support a freight claim, or evaluate a carrier's performance over time.

For shippers in regulated industries – food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, hazmat – track and trace isn't optional. Food safety regulations like FSMA require the ability to trace product movement through the supply chain, and customers increasingly expect the same granularity they get from parcel tracking applied to their LTL and truckload shipments. The practical challenge is that track-and-trace quality is only as good as your worst carrier's data. Consolidating feeds from dozens of carriers with varying data standards into a single, reliable timeline is what separates a useful track-and-trace system from a collection of disconnected updates.