Tracking
Where your container is, and how to find out
Before the gate the terminal holds the answer, and each one runs its own lookup: POMTOC, South Florida Container Terminal, Port Everglades Terminal and Florida International Terminal. After the gate it is live GPS on the equipment. Both explained, with the links.
There are two answers to this question and they live in two different places. Until the container leaves the terminal, the terminal knows: whether it is discharged, whether anything is holding it, and when the last free day falls. Once it is on a chassis, the terminal no longer knows anything and GPS does.
Before the gate: the terminal holds the answer
Each terminal runs its own system, and the one that matters is whichever holds your box. Availability, holds and the last free day all come from there, and none of them is visible to anybody else until the container is released.
What you need is the container number. What you will learn is whether it is available, whether customs, the line or an unpaid balance is holding it, and the date the storage clock starts. If something is holding it, that is the thing to chase: the demurrage clock does not pause while it is somebody else's paperwork.
The terminals, and their own lookups
After the gate: the move is a dispatched leg
Once we dispatch your container it stops being a row in a terminal system and becomes a leg on a dispatch board: a specific truck, a specific route, and a status that moves as the driver does, through pickup, loading, en route and delivered. That is the answer the terminal cannot give you, because by then the box is not theirs.
Dispatch runs on Vexolis, which is our own software platform rather than a third-party vendor, and we say so plainly because a shipper deserves to know whose system is answering. If you are a forwarder or a broker there is a portal side to it: one login showing every container and every leg across the carriers you ship with, instead of a different tracking site per carrier and a text thread for the rest. It is in early access rather than generally available, so ask and we will get you in.
What it will not tell you is anything about a container still sitting inside a terminal. Dispatch visibility starts when a truck is assigned to the move; before that the box belongs to the terminal and only the terminal knows, which is what the links above are for.
Or just ask, and skip all of it
Send the container number and the terminal and you get the status back in writing, including the part the portals do not tell you: whether anything is going to stop the pickup, and what it would cost to leave it another day. That is a dispatcher reading the same screens, which for one container is usually faster than learning four systems.
Related reading
Questions
Straight answers
How do I get a rate?
Send the lane, the equipment, the container size and the port, and we come back with a number. Quotes and dispatch run 24 hours a day at quotes@dariaslogistics.com.
What does a drayage quote actually include?
The move itself, plus the accessorials people get surprised by later: chassis, pre-pull, per diem, demurrage, detention and storage. We would rather name them up front than add them to an invoice.
Can I call?
Yes. Everything is still confirmed in writing: the rate you are quoted is the rate in your inbox, with the accessorials listed, so nothing depends on who remembers what was said on a call.
How much notice do you need to book a container?
The sooner the better, especially if the last free day is close. Same-day is often possible; a day or two gives us the pick of the appointment windows.
What do you need from me to release a container?
The container number, the bill of lading or booking number, the delivery order from the line or your forwarder, customs release, and the delivery address with receiving hours.
Do you work with freight forwarders and customs brokers?
Yes, most of our work comes through them. We take the delivery order, handle the terminal, and report back to whoever is coordinating.
How many containers do you move?
More than 300 a day across PortMiami, Port Everglades and the South Florida rail ramps, which is around 100,000 a year, more than 150,000 TEU in the measure ports use. That volume is why a chassis or an appointment window is usually there when your box needs one.
Capacity is tight and no carrier will take my load. Can you?
That is a call we like. Send the load, even if everyone else said next week: with more than 300 containers a day moving through the network there is usually a truck, and when there truly is not, you hear it in minutes instead of silence. No contract and no minimum volume; one load, quoted in writing, is how most of our broker relationships started.
How fast does a quote come back?
Usually within 10 minutes, in writing, any hour of the day. The desk that prices your move is the desk that dispatches it, so a quote never waits for a morning shift. A superload or a multi-stop move can take longer, and we say so up front instead of going quiet.
What is the last free day?
The last day your container can sit inside the terminal before storage charges start. Miss it and demurrage begins accruing daily, which is why a pre-pull is almost always cheaper than waiting.
What is a pre-pull?
We collect the container from the terminal before you are ready for it and hold it on a yard. It stops demurrage running at terminal rates and it takes the pressure off your receiving schedule.
What is the difference between demurrage, per diem and detention?
Three different charges from different parties. Demurrage is the terminal charging you for cargo sitting inside the gate past free time. Per diem is the shipping line charging you for keeping their container out past free time. Detention is the trucker's time, charged when a driver waits at your dock beyond the free window. They can run at the same time, which is how a bill gets ugly fast.
What is a chassis split?
When the chassis you need is not at the same location as the container, so the truck makes an extra trip to collect it before it can even pick up. It costs a move and it is the single most common surprise line on a drayage invoice.
How do I keep the charges down?
Watch the last free day, pre-pull if your dock is not ready, unload as drop-and-pick rather than live where you can, and tell us early if plans change. Almost every large accessorial bill traces back to a decision made a day too late.