Container tracking: how to track a shipping container step by step

A container number follows ISO 6346: MSCU 123456 5. Three letters identify the owner, the fourth letter is the equipment category (almost always U), six digits are the serial and the last digit is a check digit calculated from the rest. If the check digit does not match, the number was mistyped — validate before you search.

The owner prefix tells you which line to query:

Prefixes are leasing-company owned in many cases, so a prefix is a strong hint, not proof. When in doubt, track by bill of lading number — it always belongs to the carrier that issued it.

Paste the number into TikTrake's free container tracking. The carrier is detected from the prefix, the port pair is validated against UN/LOCODE, and the voyage is drawn as real sea lanes — including each transshipment port as its own leg rather than one straight line from origin to destination.

• Gate in — the box entered the origin terminal; it has not sailed.
• Loaded on vessel — on board, ETD applies from here.
• Transshipment discharged / loaded — the box changed vessel; expect several days of silence.
• Discharged at destination — arrived, but customs and demurrage clocks start now.
• Gate out — released to the trucker; the ocean leg is finished.

A container almost never sails in a straight line. TikTrake builds the voyage as an ordered list of legs — port of loading, every transshipment port, then port of discharge — and draws each leg separately along real sea lanes, splitting the line correctly at the antimeridian. Progress is computed per leg, so a box waiting at a transshipment port does not show as "halfway across the ocean".

• Land leg included — the domestic pickup and warehouse legs render on the same canvas as the ocean route, drawn along real road routes rather than straight lines. Events are sorted chronologically, and if a courier scan is logged without a location, it inherits the location of the nearest event around it instead of leaving a gap on the map.
• Chinese addresses resolved properly — points inside mainland China are geocoded through AMap, and everywhere else through open geocoding services, so a branch name or depot resolves to real coordinates instead of collapsing to a city centre. The map only ever trusts the resulting latitude and longitude, never the raw text, and labels are shown in whatever language your browser is set to.
• City-only origins upgrade — a shipment that starts as "Guangzhou" moves to the first real facility event as soon as one exists.
• Privacy carriers — lines that mask recipient data are queried with the recipient's last four phone digits, so the timeline still resolves.
• Refresh is explicit — statuses are cached and only re-queried when you press refresh, so you never burn carrier quota on page loads. Scanning a container on your phone and opening it later on desktop shows the same record, because saved containers sync between devices through a retrying outbox — a scan made offline is queued and delivered as soon as a connection is back.
• Language follows you — the map and stop list render in the interface language while geocoding always uses the original source strings.

1. The container is booked but not yet gated in — no events exist yet.
2. You queried the wrong line; try the B/L number instead.
3. The number has a typo — recheck the check digit.
4. The box was reassigned to another booking after a rollover.

How do I track a shipping container?

Take the 11-character container number (four letters plus seven digits, e.g. PIDU4105445), identify the carrier from the first three letters, and enter it on that carrier's tracking page or on a multi-carrier tracker. You will get the last port event, the vessel name and the estimated arrival.

What does a container number look like?

Three letters for the owner, one category letter (usually U), six serial digits and one check digit — for example MSCU1234565. The check digit validates the other ten characters, so a typo is detected immediately.

Why does my container show no tracking events?

Usually because the container has been assigned but not yet gated in at the origin port, or the number belongs to a different carrier than the one you queried. Tracking by bill of lading number instead of container number often returns data earlier.

Can I track a container for free?

Yes. Every major shipping line publishes free tracking, and TikTrake's public container tracking detects the carrier automatically and shows the vessel route port to port without an account.