Overview of how to track by bill of lading

This article details how containers are tracked in our system by using a master bill of lading number, and how containers are identified in association to their master bill of lading with parent and child references.

When tracking a shipment with the master bill of lading number, Vizion will:

1. Identify all of the containers associated with that master bill of lading. The API will return all containers related to the bill of lading submitted. To track a specified set of containers, you will need to track each container individually.
2. Create one parent reference and child references for each individual container.
3. Provide updates for each container.

Parent and child references

The parent_reference_id property is only populated when using a master bill of lading number on its own to track containers, and will be shown in the child reference updates. This allows you to easily group shipments together as you receive updates for each container. If you are creating a reference via carrier code or ACI, the parent_reference_id value will be null.

In the example response below, a reference was created using only the master bill of lading ONEYSINA68242400. The ID for the master bill of lading reference 961012a5-9e06-4e3f-93e5-77e544d4ce (see in bold) will be the parent_reference_id for each individual container reference created. Notice the container_id field is null for a parent reference.

{
 "message": "Reference created successfully.",
   "reference": {
    "carrier_scac": "ONEY",
    "callback_url": "https://webhook.site/3d479c96-3fd9-4fe1-96a3-f1257f3b4ac5",
    "bill_of_lading": "ONEYSINA68242400",
    "carrier_id": 10,
    "organization_id": "29c05d-efb13d11-4871-b173-b30226a1c1",
    "auto_carrier": false,
    "container_id": null,
    "parent_reference_id": null,
    "last_update_status": null,
    "last_update_attempted_at": null,
    "id": "961012a5-9e06-4e3f-93e5-77e544d4ce",
    "active": true,
    "created_at": "2021-11-15T14:34:41.909Z",
    "updated_at": "2021-11-15T14:34:41.909Z",
    "retry_count": 0
  }
}