Share shipment tracking with someone outside Conterminal

How recipients open it

The email link is created the first time a delivery-order document is processed, and it is attached to the document, not to a single container. It then appears in two outbound emails, always under a Track this shipment line: the HTML version renders it as a clickable link, and the plain-text version keeps the full URL on its own line underneath the label.

The acknowledgment reply

The reply Conterminal sends to the address that submitted the delivery order. The early version lists each container as “tracking initializing”; the later enriched version for a single container instead shows a compact facts block in three groups — (1) Container #, B/L, Status; (2) Equipment, Contents, Vessel, Arriving; (3) two unlabeled journey lines plus Updated — each row appearing only when actually known. The container number in group 1 shows even though the intro line above it usually already names it too — the block is meant to read as a complete fact sheet on its own, so that repetition is intentional. A multi-container acknowledgment repeats that same treatment once per container instead of collapsing them together: each container gets its own block — Container #, Status, and whichever of Equipment, Contents, B/L, Vessel, Arriving, and Last Free Day are actually known for that container — and a container with no confirmed assignment yet still gets its own block, just a short one with only its number and an honest “Status: Review in progress.” Every version ends with a freshness note — a real “Updated:” time once LongShorty has actually looked, otherwise the honest “Live tracking is initializing — first check within about 15 minutes.” — shown once, after every container's block, never repeated per container.

The change notice

When a confirmed shipment's facts change, the notice sent to the same submitter repeats the same Track this shipment line with the same URL.

The facts block’s third group carries the part of the five-stage Ocean + drayage journey that Vessel and Arriving do not already cover, as two unlabeled lines: the trucker doing drayage, then the deliver-to party — by name and street address. The address is deliberate here and matches the facility address shown on the bearer tracking page. Contact details remain private. An unknown party reads as generic wording (“trucker drayage”, “deliver-to”) rather than being guessed, an unknown address drops to name-only, the two lines disappear entirely once neither side is known, and they also drop once the shipment’s own status is already at or past delivery — at that point “trucker drayage →” would describe something already in the past, not something upcoming. The journey lines and Status both need the delivery order to have a confirmed assignment, which usually happens after the acknowledgment is already sent — most acknowledgments do not carry them yet. A multi-container acknowledgment can carry a journey stanza for any of its containers whose own assignment is already confirmed, independently of its other containers — one container’s block can show real progress while another, still unassigned, shows only its number and status.

To share one container with a customer or driver, copy its header tracking link. To share the whole source document’s container group, forward the email link or ask a platform administrator to generate one. The internal generator lives on Platform controls → Public Tracking under Generate a real tracking link. It accepts a protected shipment URL or a delivery-order UUID, reuses the latest confirmed source document, offers Copy link and Open tracking page, and — as its own copy states — never queues a client email. That page is platform staff only.

What a signed-in person gets instead

Opening a tracking link while signed in to Conterminal does not always show the public page. The route checks your session first and shows the result before continuing in two cases:

1. If your workspace can already see every shipment on the link, the page says Workspace access found and then sends you into the app — straight to the shipment page for a single-container link, or to a Choose a container chooser at /protected/tracking-links/ for a multi-container one.
2. If you have already saved this link to My Tracking, the page says Watchlist found and then sends you to your saved copy at /protected/my-tracking/items/.

Anything else — no session, or a session that can see only some of the containers — briefly says Tracking details ready and then reveals the bearer page. A colleague testing the link from their own account may still see a different destination than the customer does. To check what the recipient sees, open the link in a private window.

Saving a shipment to My Tracking

The dark panel on the right of the tracking page reads Save it. Know when it moves. and offers Save shipment and get alerts. This creates a personal tracking account: a private watchlist, not a seat in anyone's workspace.

1. Enter an address. The field is labeled Work or personal email. Submit with Save shipment and continue; while it works the button reads Sending secure link….
2. Watch for the confirmation. The form is replaced by a green panel reading Check your email to finish saving this shipment. If you were already signed in under that same address, no email is sent at all — you go straight to the saved shipment.
3. Open the emailed link within 20 minutes. The save request expires after 20 minutes and is single-use. Following it signs you in and lands you on the saved shipment.

A personal tracking account has exactly one page in its left rail: My Tracking. It lists a card per saved link showing the container numbers, the sharing organization, and an Alerts on or Alerts off chip. The first six appear immediately; when more are saved, a Show more footer reveals the next group after it loads in the background. With nothing saved it reads No saved shipments yet and Open a shipment tracking link and choose Save shipment.

Opening a saved item gives you the same shipment cards as the public page plus two controls: Turn on alerts / Pause alerts, and Remove, which asks Remove this shipment from My Tracking? before it acts. Alerts produce in-app status-change notifications that link back to the saved shipment. They are delivered only when the platform-wide Personal alerts switch is on and that specific saved shipment has alerts enabled; if the platform switch is off, the button is disabled rather than hidden.

Requesting access to the sharing company

The documents card on the tracking page carries Get access for your company. It does not open a document — it routes you through the same personal signup first, with the heading changed to Start with your personal tracking workspace. The actual request form lives on the saved shipment, under Need shipment documents?

1. Enter Company name — between 2 and 160 characters.
2. Choose a Company type: Importer / cargo owner, Freight forwarder, or Trucking company.
3. Submit with Request company access.

What happens next depends entirely on the name you typed. Conterminal looks for an active, non-personal organization whose name matches exactly. Exactly one match becomes a join request and you see Request sent to your company administrator. No match — or more than one — becomes a new-company claim and you see Company request sent to Conterminal for review.

Approval is the company's and Conterminal's to grant; nothing on the tracking page can grant it. Documents unlock only after the company is approved and linked to the sharing partner — see partner access and shipment visibility. If the section instead reads Company access requests are not open yet., the feature is switched off platform-wide and there is nothing to fix on your side.

Multi-container links (all-or-nothing access)

An emailed tracking link belongs to a delivery-order document, and its authoritative subjects are every confirmed, non-canceled container assignment on that document. During review, the page may instead preview each container row read from the same source attachment. A six-container delivery order produces one link showing all six cards, in the assignment order from the document.

The same all-or-nothing rule governs the signed-in redirect. The route redirects a signed-in user into the app only if their workspace can see every container on the link. See five of six and you get the public page instead — the same page the outside recipient gets, with the sign-up prompts. That is expected behavior, not a permissions bug.

The in-app chooser at /protected/tracking-links/ exists only for links with two or more containers, and it returns a plain 404 — not an access-denied screen — for a single-container link, for a revoked link, or for a user who cannot see the whole set. A 404 here does not mean the shipment was deleted.

What the recipient can and cannot see

Visible on the public page

Container number, parties and shipment references from the shared delivery order, status and milestone dates, vessel and voyage, pickup and return terminal, a coarse hold label, the sharing organization's name, and how recently the data was refreshed. Public-safe vessel or terminal maps and provider status facts can appear when those sources are available.

Never on the public page

Document files and file names, evidence URLs, rates, charges, invoices, notes, contact details, appointment or yard specifics, raw provider payloads, other shipments in the workspace, and any explanation of a hold. Publicly discoverable delivery and terminal facility addresses may appear; personal or contact addresses do not. The page is also marked noindex, so search engines do not list it.

Documents are represented only as a teaser: a count and up to three broad category chips drawn from a fixed set — Delivery order, Delivery proof, Equipment receipt, and Shipment document. There is no file name, no preview, and no download. When the teaser is switched off platform-wide, or there are no documents, the card falls back to Documents become available to authorized company partners as the shipment progresses.

Every open is recorded — public views, redirects, sign-up requests, rate-limit rejections, and invalid tokens — against a hashed IP rather than the address itself. Conterminal can tell you a link has been used and how often; it cannot tell you which individual opened it.

Troubleshooting