Is it currently possible for railroad customers to track their shipments in real time?
Ulrich Is it currently possible for railroad customers to track their shipments in real time?
Plenty of cars have GPS trackers on them (either permanent or sometimes temp.), so yeah. Common practice, I would say.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
zugmann Ulrich Is it currently possible for railroad customers to track their shipments in real time? Plenty of cars have GPS trackers on them (either permanent or sometimes temp.), so yeah. Common practice, I would say.
Some customers have multifunction GPS units afixed to their shipments, reporting not only GPS data but various forms of impact data - vertical and horizontal.
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You coupld probably get your loader to slap a magnetic one on your car if you wanted real time tracking (and paid for it).
Murphy Siding zugmann Ulrich Is it currently possible for railroad customers to track their shipments in real time? Plenty of cars have GPS trackers on them (either permanent or sometimes temp.), so yeah. Common practice, I would say. I'd say yes and no. The technology is there. I learned a lot from a thread where I asked about something similar. Our railcars would be spotted after dark but BNSF's website in the morning would still show them being 40 miles up the pike. Turns out, that the website only updated once a day. I'm assuming that if we were a big shipper or receiver, there would be a different arrangement and we could probably get real time info. That probably cost more than what we pay for our free information.
I'd say yes and no. The technology is there. I learned a lot from a thread where I asked about something similar. Our railcars would be spotted after dark but BNSF's website in the morning would still show them being 40 miles up the pike. Turns out, that the website only updated once a day. I'm assuming that if we were a big shipper or receiver, there would be a different arrangement and we could probably get real time info. That probably cost more than what we pay for our free information.
Not all data that Carriers make available to their customers are 'real time'. Even 'real time' is not really 'real time' as most reports on any data base are done on a 'periodic basis'.
FedEx and UPS come close to real time, but even they have 'periodic delay' built in to their reporting systems. 'Arrived Facility' 'Departed Facility' 'Loaded on truck for delivery' 'Delivered'. I am signed up to get e-mail notifications on my shipments - actions can only be reported AFTER they have happened, thus they are always after the action has happened. It would be nice of UPS and FedEx could give the expected time of delivery within a 30 minute window (I know I am dreaming). FedEx and UPS shipment tracking far exceeds the reportings that the railroads make available to their customers.
Tracking is pretty comon with the trucking industry...Satelight receivers on highway equipment get a company almost instabeous communications with the driver..Some providers ue\sed to have a telephine circuit in their equipment, and these days at the very least the driver is able to access a keyboard.
'Unteathered' tracking is available, to those company's who need to track trainer/cargo in real time. Info to a 'shiper/receiver' can be a negotiable cost item, if desired(?). Schneider seems to have a lot of their IM cans equipped with monitoring gear ( an exterior piece, high up, on the front.) More and more, JBH cans seem similarly eauipped, and reefers, in particular- for obvious reasons.
AS merntioned by other posters, sensors are available for en-route damage reporting, temperature control, some even are equiped to show if doors are opened. Whatever is needed is probably available, at cost$$$, of course.
We track ours via smartphone GPS IntelliTrans.. real time and accurate. Of course, if the phone is not anywhere near the load then all bets are off. But there are still some customers who don't need or want tracking.. "just make the load appear at my dock when I want it"..
BaltACD {snip} FedEx and UPS come close to real time, but even they have 'periodic delay' built in to their reporting systems. 'Arrived Facility' 'Departed Facility' 'Loaded on truck for delivery' 'Delivered'. I am signed up to get e-mail notifications on my shipments - actions can only be reported AFTER they have happened, thus they are always after the action has happened. It would be nice of UPS and FedEx could give the expected time of delivery within a 30 minute window (I know I am dreaming). FedEx and UPS shipment tracking far exceeds the reportings that the railroads make available to their customers.
{snip} FedEx and UPS come close to real time, but even they have 'periodic delay' built in to their reporting systems. 'Arrived Facility' 'Departed Facility' 'Loaded on truck for delivery' 'Delivered'. I am signed up to get e-mail notifications on my shipments - actions can only be reported AFTER they have happened, thus they are always after the action has happened. It would be nice of UPS and FedEx could give the expected time of delivery within a 30 minute window (I know I am dreaming). FedEx and UPS shipment tracking far exceeds the reportings that the railroads make available to their customers.
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Semper Vaporo
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Semper Vaporo BaltACD {snip} FedEx and UPS come close to real time, but even they have 'periodic delay' built in to their reporting systems. 'Arrived Facility' 'Departed Facility' 'Loaded on truck for delivery' 'Delivered'. I am signed up to get e-mail notifications on my shipments - actions can only be reported AFTER they have happened, thus they are always after the action has happened. It would be nice of UPS and FedEx could give the expected time of delivery within a 30 minute window (I know I am dreaming). FedEx and UPS shipment tracking far exceeds the reportings that the railroads make available to their customers. I have received a tracking e-mail that a package had been delivered before the truck driver got off the porch! What bothers me about the tracking reports is that they often only give the location they just "Departed"... but you have no idea what its new "Destination" is. I have watched packages tour most of the country, hoping that the when the package "Departed" some place its destination is my city, only to find the next day that it just departed some city in a state that is further from me than the previouos city, or it passed over my city to some State on the other side. The last package I ordered went from Keasbey, NJ to Dandridge, TN to Southaven, MS to Olathe, KS to New Berlin, WI to Cedar Rapids, IA, a total of over 2000 miles to travel just 890 miles.
We on the outside have no idea of the 'operating plan' either FedEx or UPS use to move packages from Origin to Destination especially considering the options that exist within those carriers networks.
Additionally, they can also make mistakes in routing individual packages - a package that is supposed to go to Olathe somehow gets stuck to or corralled by another package going to Indianapolis, next the package shows in Indianapolis and then the moves that follow - we on the outside have no knowledge if Indy was the intended destination or was it Olathe? Their tracking is great for where something has been, not so great on where it will be next.
samfp1943 Tracking is pretty comon with the trucking industry...Satelight receivers on highway equipment get a company almost instabeous communications with the driver..Some providers ue\sed to have a telephine circuit in their equipment, and these days at the very least the driver is able to access a keyboard.
OmniTracs was Qualcom's cash cow in their early years, before they started making big bucks in the cell phone biz.
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