Start a Tracking

In order to start tracking a specific container, a POST request must be submitted to

https://containerdemo.ghmaritime.com/api/container_info/track/

We accept two types of POST requests depending on the information you have available. If the carrier transporting the container in question is known, submitting any SCAC associated with the specific carrier is preferred. Please see our list of supported carriers and SCACs. If, on the other hand, the carrier transporting the container in question is not known, it is possible to start tracking a container without providing a carrier SCAC. In this case, GateHouse Maritime will attempt to find the correct carrier for the supplied container.

Note that Basic Authentication in the form of a username and password is necessary to submit a successful request. If you do not have any authentication details, please contact us.

If the carrier is known

The submitted payload must include the following fields:

{
  "equipmentIdentifier": {
    "type": "CONTAINER_ID",
    "value": "ABCD1234567"
  },
  "carrierSCACCode": "SCAC"
}

Please see our list of supported carriers.

If the carrier is not known

The submitted payload must include the following fields:

{
  "equipmentIdentifier": {
    "type": "CONTAINER_ID",
    "value": "ABCD1234567"
  }
}

If a container with an unknown carrier is submitted, GateHouse Maritime will try and locate the carrier of the given container. If repeated attempts at locating the carrier were futile, the container will not receive any updates and will eventually be dropped by the system.

In both cases, including Content-Type: application/json in the headers is necessary. Additionally, in both cases, we require the value, or container number, to adhere to the ISO 6346:1995 format. Similarly, any submitted SCAC must be valid and of length four. We require SCACs to adhere to the NMFTA standard.

Please note that due to the nature of identifying leased containers, containers submitted without a SCAC will take significantly longer to return data. We thus encourage customers to include a SCAC where possible for a better experience. Additionally, please note that the demo system does not support notifications of containers not receiving a match.

Upon successfully submitting a container for tracking, the following response is returned with status 200:

{
    "success": "true",
    "message": "tracking of ABCD1234567 started successfully"
}

A container will be tracked until its current shipment has completed. In most cases, it is possible to request information on the submitted container within an hour of initial submission, after which container will be refreshed automatically every 8th hour. Any requests in the interim will thus always yield the same, most recent update. Please note that a premium plan is necessary for PUSH functionality.

Errors

Two types of errors can occur:

1. The container is already being tracked;
2. or, an invalid container number or SCAC was submitted.

In both cases, an appropriate error message is returned and the container is not queued for tracking.

Python Example

The following code snippet submits container MSKU1234567 for tracking.

import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

payload = {
	"equipmentIdentifier": {
		"type": "CONTAINER_ID",
		"value": "MSKU1234567"},
	"carrierSCACCode": "SUDU"
}

response = requests.post(
    "https://containerdemo.ghmaritime.com/api/container_info/track/",
    headers={"Content-Type": "application/json"},
    auth=HTTPBasicAuth("user", "pass"),
    data=payload)
  
print(response)

If the carrier of container MSKU1234567 is unknown, modify the payload to:

payload = {
	"equipmentIdentifier": {
		"type": "CONTAINER_ID",
		"value": "MSKU1234567"}
}