The carrier's delay notice is the last place to hear about the queue.
Trade Route Monitoring counts the vessels, trucks or wagons waiting at the chokepoint you route through and calls it Clear, Congested or Blocked once a day, from satellite imagery.
- GSD
- ≤0.5 m (VHR)
- Cadence
- Daily
- Platform
- VHR satellite
- Spectral
- RGB
When the notice arrives, the slots are gone
You have cargo booked through a canal, a border post or a rail yard. What you know about the corridor comes from the carrier's customer notice, the agent's email and whatever the trade press has picked up. All three describe the queue after it has formed. You ring round to confirm, and by the time the delay is official the sailings, truck slots or train paths you could have moved are taken and the customer is already asking where the cargo is.
Carrier notices against a daily count
01Hearing that a queue is forming
Carrier notices and newsThe carrier or agent tells you once they have confirmed a delay, or a news item reports it. The notice reflects the queue as it stood when someone wrote it.
Daily corridor statusA status for your chokepoint each day, Clear, Congested or Blocked, from that day's imagery pass.
Still yoursReading the status against your own bookings.
02Sizing the queue
Carrier notices and newsA phone call, a line in an email, or a general statement that delays are expected.
Daily corridor statusA count of the vessels, trucks or wagons in the queue on the pass, with the day-over-day change beside it.
03Spotting a closure or blockage
Carrier notices and newsYou hear about it through the carrier or a notice to shippers, sometimes after cargo is already held.
Daily corridor statusThe pass checks the chokepoint for closures and blockages and the status says so. A Blocked day is marked as Blocked.
04Deciding to hold, reroute or rebook
Carrier notices and newsYou decide on the carrier's wording and your own judgement of how bad it is.
Daily corridor statusA Congested or Blocked status, with the count behind it, is your trigger to look at alternatives while they are still open.
Still yoursWhich cargo moves, to what route or mode, and what it costs. This service does not forecast how long the delay will last.
05Telling the customer
Carrier notices and newsYou tell them what the carrier told you, which is late by the time you have it.
Daily corridor statusYou can say the corridor has been Congested since a given day, and show the count.
Still yoursThe customer relationship, the delay message and the commercial answer.
What a pilot delivers
Daily status
Clear, Congested or Blocked for your pilot corridor, every day there is a usable pass. It answers the first two rows of the ledger.
Queue count
The number counted in the queue at the chokepoint on the day's pass, whichever your corridor carries. It answers the sizing row.
Change log
The difference in the count from the previous usable pass, so you can see a queue growing or clearing without reading back through the days. It answers the deciding row.
How it works
- 01Before day one
Name the corridor
You tell us the canal, strait, border crossing or rail corridor and the stretch of it to watch. We agree where the segment starts and ends with you before the pilot begins.
- 02Each day
Daily pass
One satellite imagery pass over that segment each day, at 0.5 m or finer.
- 03Each day
Count and check
We count the queue and check the chokepoint for closures and blockages.
- 04Same day
Status out
Status and count are published the same day as the pass.
- 05Over the pilot
Compare with your bookings
Over the pilot period, line the daily status up against the notices your carriers sent and the cargo you moved. That tells you whether it would have changed a decision.
Limits
- 05.1
One pass a day
This is a daily pass, not continuous tracking. A queue that builds and clears in between shows up the next day, or not at all.
- 05.2
Cloud cover
Optical imagery cannot see through cloud. A cloudy pass is skipped and the status waits for the next clear one, so a day can go without an update.
- 05.3
What 0.5 m shows
At 0.5 m a truck is a few pixels across and a ship is many. That is enough to count queued vehicles and vessels. It does not tell you what is on them, whether a truck is loaded or what a wagon carries.
- 05.4
Current state only
We report the queue as it stands on the pass. We do not forecast how long a delay will last and we do not predict an arrival time.
- 05.5
What the carrier still knows better
Your carrier knows where your own booking sits in the line, and the customs and port side know what is held and why. We see the queue from above, not your cargo.
- 05.6
Counts have no accuracy figure
The count is a count of what the imagery shows. Work out for yourself during the pilot how closely it matches your carrier's picture.
Who it's for
Switch if
- You plan freight through one named chokepoint and a late delay notice has cost you a rebooking before.
- You can act on a corridor status inside a day: hold cargo, rebook, or reroute.
- You want a status for the segment you route through, not a general risk score for a region.
Stay with carrier notices if
- You need a forecast of how long a delay will last.
- You need minute-by-minute movement of a particular ship, truck or wagon.
- Your cargo does not pass through one specific chokepoint.
Questions before a pilot
Does this replace our carrier notices?
No. Keep them for your own bookings. This gives you the corridor's queue, which the notice reaches late.
Which corridors can you cover?
Any named canal, strait, border crossing or rail segment where the imagery is sharp enough to count what is queuing. Tell us yours and we will say whether it works.
Is it continuous?
No. It is one pass a day, so a change in the afternoon shows up the next day.
What happens when it is cloudy?
That day's pass is skipped and the next clear pass picks the status back up. There is no promise of a status every day regardless of weather.
Do you predict how long the delay will last?
No. You get the current queue and its change from the previous pass. Duration and arrival time are outside the offer.
How do we check it against what the carriers told us?
Run the pilot over a stretch where you also hold the carriers' notices and your own bookings. Compare the status and the count with what happened.
How does it reach us?
We agree the delivery with you at the start of the pilot. Say what your planners already open and we will tell you whether it fits.
Who owns the data and the imagery?
Ownership and licence terms for the status, the counts and the underlying imagery are written into the pilot agreement before anything starts. If your legal team wants to see them, ask early.
How is a pilot bought and priced?
The price depends on the corridor and the length of the pilot, and we scope it for yours. Tell us how you buy and we will fit the pilot to that.
Put your corridor on daily watch.
Tell us the chokepoint you route through and we will tell you straight whether a daily pass can count what queues there.