How are you getting visibility of shipments today?

Real-time visibility of shipments

Real-time visibility of shipments has become key to maintaining efficiency and customer satisfaction. However, achieving this level of visibility without real-time visibility software can be challenging, leading to delays and potential customer dissatisfaction. To overcome these obstacles, companies are increasingly implementing complete transport management solutions that include advanced tracking technologies and an integrated logistics network.

These cutting-edge technologies provide real-time updates, calculate accurate estimated time of arrivals (ETAs) , increase transparency, and streamline processes across the entire supply chain. Descartes’ 2025 Global Transportation Management Benchmark Survey found that companies believe visibility is the top capability for the eight year in a row for managing, enhancing, and delivering value in transportation.

Understanding shipment visibility

Shipment visibility provides the ability to track and monitor the transportation of goods throughout the entire supply chain with real-time information, including details such as location, status, and ETA. This visibility is crucial for companies to manage their logistic operations effectively.

Real-time visibility allows businesses to make informed decisions, optimize their supply chains, and enhance customer satisfaction. Due to the accurate information provided by this state-of-the-art technology, companies can proactively address any issues that might appear during the transportation process, such as delays, disruptions, or damages. This enables organizations to take action rapidly and minimize the impact on their operations and customer service.

Benefits of shipment visibility

Shipment visibility plays a crucial role in today’s logistics industry. By having access to real-time shipment tracking and monitoring, companies benefit from:

Better customer satisfaction.

With improved visibility, customers can track their shipments in real time. This provides peace of mind by allowing them to know the shipment's expected arrival time - whether it's on schedule or delayed - so they can respond accordingly and make informed operational decisions. These insights build trust and loyalty between businesses and customers, leading to higher satisfaction rates.

Lower operational costs

Having access to shipment visibility at every step of the process helps identify bottlenecks, optimize routes, and minimize delays. This has a positive domino effect, improving operational efficiency and reducing unnecessary costs linked to lost or delayed shipments, incorrect inventory management, and additional customer service interventions.

Improved supply chain efficiency

Shipment visibility is essential for improving overall supply chain efficiency and decision-making. Real-time data on shipment locations results in informed decisions regarding inventory management, production planning, and transportation optimization.

Best practices for shipment visibility

Real-time shipment visibility is ideally an integrated part of your transportation management system (TMS) or you should implement such a capability on top of your TMS to gain visibility into your shipments. By leveraging technologies such as GPS tracking, radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, you can easily monitor your shipment's location, status, ETA, and condition throughout the entire supply chain.

These technologies provide real-time updates, enabling your business to proactively address any potential issues early, reducing costs, and enhancing efficiency throughout the shipment process.

The integration of shipment visibility solutions into your existing system is key. By seamlessly connecting your real-time visibility software with your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Warehouse Management System (WMS), and TMS, your business can streamline data exchange and eliminate manual data entry. It ensures accurate and up-to-date information, reducing potential errors while improving overall efficiency.

Another fundamental advantage of integrating shipment visibility into your supply chain processes is the close collaboration with your partners. When carriers, freight forwarders, and other stakeholders are aligned on shared visibility tools and data, communication improves, enabling faster responses to disruptions and better coordination.

Overcoming challenges in shipment visibility

Organizations face challenges when trying to achieve visibility in their shipments. Effective integration of transport management systems is pivotal for managing shipment visibility and getting positive results. Here are some of the challenges companies face during this process, along with strategies to overcome them:

Inaccurate data.

Inaccurate or incomplete data can lead to delays, errors and inefficiencies in the supply chain. To overcome this challenge, businesses should select a TMS that can interface with all relevant carriers and forwarders. It’s also essential to establish agreements with partners to provide timely and accurate data (or the necessary identifiers, such as master bill of lading (MBOL) numbers for ocean freight) to access tracking information from other sources.

Data security and privacy

Ensuring data protection and privacy throughout the shipment visibility process is vital. As sensitive information is shared across multiple stakeholders, organizations must take proactive measures to protect data from unauthorized access and breaches. With robust security protocols, encrypted data, and restricted access for authorized personnel organizations can mitigate this issue.

Choosing the right shipment visibility platform

Choosing the right visibility platform to manage shipments effectively is crucial. A reliable platform can provide real-time insights and tracking capabilities, ensuring you have complete visibility into your shipment at all times.

At Descartes, we understand the importance of having real-time visibility into your shipments. That’s why we offer Descartes MacroPoint™, a robust solution to help you achieve better shipment visibility.

Descartes MacroPoint provides you with a comprehensive overview of your supply chain, allowing you to track shipments every step of the way. With our advanced technology, you can monitor the status of your shipments in real time, ensuring that you are always aware of their location and ETA.

Descartes MacroPoint is designed to integrate seamlessly with your existing systems, including your TMS, making implementation quick and hassle-free. Whether you are a small business or a large enterprise, our customizable solutions can be tailored to meet your needs and goals.