“Where is my shipment?” is the most common call a dispatch desk takes. We think every one of those calls is a small admission that the customer cannot see what the shipper can.
A status call usually travels down a chain. The customer calls the shipper’s sales contact, who calls dispatch, who calls the driver, who is on the highway and answers when he can. The answer comes back up the same chain, a little less accurate at every step. Nobody in that chain is doing anything wrong. The chain itself is the problem.
The obvious cost is time at the desk. The less obvious costs are worse:
The obvious fix is to let the customer see the shipment directly. The detail that decides whether customers actually use it is friction. If they need to install an app, create an account or remember a password for one delivery, most will just call again.
In Portable GPS Tracker, the trip creates a live tracking page that is shared with the customer. There is no app and no login for the customer, and none for the driver either. The link shows position and ETA, and it expires when the trip closes, so it does not linger as an open window into your operations after the job is done.
A shared ETA has to be one you would stand behind, because the customer now sees it without you in the middle to soften it. A straight-line estimate at a nominal highway speed will be wrong for most trucks most of the time. Portable GPS Tracker estimates ETA from the remaining kilometres against the speed this truck is actually making, which reflects the road, the vehicle and the driver on this trip. For the arithmetic behind truck ETAs, see our page on ETA calculation for trucks.
Not everything on the desk’s screen belongs on the customer’s. We suggest a simple split:
| Share with the customer | Keep on the desk |
|---|---|
| Current position and ETA | Device battery and health |
| Remaining distance | Long halts and their reasons |
| Trip status: in transit, arrived | Silent-device alerts |
| Carrier and driver performance |
The desk still needs the exceptions. Portable GPS Tracker flags excursions, long halts and silent devices to the desk so they can be handled before the customer notices them. The goal is not to hide problems from the customer, but to make sure your team sees them first and calls with an answer rather than receiving the call with none.
For temperature-sensitive loads, the customer’s question is not only “when” but “in what state”. A logger read at the door tells both of you too late. Live temperature and humidity against a band set from the shipment type, with excursions alerted while the truck is moving, gives the desk time to act. Our guide to cold chain temperature tracking in transit covers that in detail.
Take the customers who call most and send them a link on their next ten deliveries. Then watch which calls stop and which do not; the ones that continue usually point to a gap in the ETA or the exceptions process, not the link. It is also worth asking those customers directly whether the page answered their question, because a link nobody opens fixes nothing. Once the calls drop on that group, extend the link to every trip on the lane. More on the Portable GPS Tracker guides page.
No. Portable GPS Tracker shares a live tracking page with the customer that needs no app and no login, and the link expires when the trip closes.
From the remaining kilometres against the speed the truck is actually making on that trip, rather than a fixed nominal speed.
Usually not. Share position, remaining distance, ETA and status; keep device health, halts and silent-device alerts on the desk so your team can act first.
See it on your own data. Portable GPS Tracker — Track any truck, owned or hired. Book a 30-minute working session with an engineer.
