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When you submit a tracking request, your request is added to a queue to be checked with the shipping line. What happens if the request does not go through correctly? If Terminal49 has difficulty connecting to the shipping line or cannot parse the response, it retries up to 14 times. This process can take up to approximately 24 hours. You will not receive a tracking_request.failed webhook notification until we have exhausted the retries, and the status field will not be changed to failed until then.

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Request number not found / awaiting manifest

If the shipping line returns a response that it cannot find the provided number, Terminal49 either immediately fails the tracking request or keeps trying, depending on the request_type:
  • Containers fail straight away after a not found response from the shipping line.
  • Bill of lading and booking numbers do not fail instantly. The status changes to awaiting_manifest and Terminal49 keeps checking your request daily. You receive a tracking_request.awaiting_manifest webhook notification the first time this happens. If the request number cannot be found after 7 days, the tracking request is marked as failed with the status set to failed and the tracking_request.failed event sent to your webhook.
  • To adjust the duration before marking tracking requests as failed, contact support@terminal49.com.
  • Incorrect request number type if the request number type (ex. booking number) is incorrect, the tracking request will still fail even though the request number is correct.
To reduce tracking failures, use Auto-Detect Carrier to validate numbers and identify the correct SCAC before submitting.

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Failed reason

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Temporary reasons

The failed_reason field can take one of the following temporary values:
  • unrecognized_response when we could not parse the response from the shipping line,
  • shipping_line_unreachable if the shipping line was unreachable,
  • internal_processing_error when we faced other issue,
  • awaiting_manifest if the shipping line indicates a bill of lading number is found but data is not yet available, or if the requested number could not be found.

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Permanent reasons

Temporary reasons can become permanent when the status changes to failed:
  • duplicate when the shipment already existed,
  • expired when the tracking request was created more than 7 days ago and still has not succeeded,
  • retries_exhausted if we tried for 14 times to no avail,
  • not_found if the shipping line could not find the BL number.
  • invalid_number if the shipping line rejects the formatting of the number.
  • booking_cancelled if the shipping line indicates that the booking has been cancelled.
  • data_unavailable if the number is valid but the shipping line will not provide the data. Examples include shipments that are flagged as private or results that are removed due to data retention policies.
Failed Reasons when tracking request through dashboard

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Stopped

When a shipment is no longer being updated then the tracking request status is marked as tracking_stopped. You may subscribe to the event tracking_request.tracking_stopped for notifications when this occurs. Terminal49 will stop tracking requests for the following reasons:
  • The booking was cancelled.
  • The data is no longer available at the shipping line.
  • All shipment containers are marked empty_returned.
  • More than 56 days have passed since the shipment arrived at its destination.
  • There have been no updates from the shipping line for more than 56 days.
In addition end-users may stop tracking a shipment through the dashboard.

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Retrieving status

If you want to see the status of your tracking request you can make a GET request on what the most recent failure reason was (failed_reason field).