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What Do You Do When the Carrier's Tracking Link Won't Work and the Shipper Wants Visibility?

By Connor Miller, Founder and CEO, FreightScout. Last updated 4 November 2026.

Short answer: stop treating the broken link as the problem and start treating the quiet load as the problem. Get tracking accepted before the driver ever gets the pickup address, and when the ping still won't come through, fall back to a real call on a set cadence, write every answer on the load, and tell your customer what's happening before they ask. A dead tracking link is a nuisance. A load nobody has a status on is a service failure.

Why does this keep happening?

Because tracking has three parties and only one of them cares about the dot.

Your customer wants visibility. That's usually why the tracking requirement is on the load in the first place. The carrier wants to get loaded and get paid. The driver wants to drive. Somewhere in between, an app gets installed, a phone number gets mistyped, the wrong driver gets attached, or the load just never shows up on the driver's side.

You can watch this exact fight on the broker forums right now. A carrier says the driver installed the app and the load never appeared. Brokers in the same thread say a screenshot doesn't count because the tracking is for the customer, not for them. Carriers say they're tired of chasing broker apps and offer their own ELD or GPS link instead. Everybody's a little right, and the load is still sitting there with no status.

Brokers make this call every day. The loads that turned into angry customer calls almost never started with a bad truck. They started with a load that went quiet and nobody noticed until the receiver called.

What should you do before the truck rolls?

Most tracking problems are cheaper to fix before pickup than after.

Make tracking part of dispatch, not an afterthought. The driver hears about tracking before they hear the pickup address. That's the order FreightScout runs the call before dispatch: hours left, the delivery appointment, trailer photos if the customer requires them, and tracking accepted. Then the address.

Confirm the right driver and the right phone. Sometimes "the load never showed" just means the load is attached to the wrong number or the wrong driver. Read the number back. Confirm the name. It's ten seconds.

Know your customer's fallback before you need it. Some customers will take a carrier's own ELD share link. Some won't. Some will take a scheduled status email. Find out which one your customer accepts on a normal day, not at 4 p.m. on a hot load.

Write it on the load. Whatever got confirmed, put it on the load in the TMS, not in a rep's texts. If the rep who booked it goes home, the next person should see tracking was accepted, on which number, and what the fallback is.

What do you do when the ping still won't come through?

Treat it like any other quiet load. It gets a call.

A stale ping, or no ping at all, isn't a reason to wait. It's the reason to pick up the phone. The call asks the same questions in the same order every time: where are you, are you loaded and does the BOL match, what time will you be at the receiver, do you have the hours, anything I should know. Same order every load, so the answers can be compared and logged.

Set a cadence and stick to it. If the dot isn't there, the call is the dot. A load with no working tracking needs a check that lands at pickup, during transit, and before the appointment, not one call and then hope.

Don't keep re-sending the link and calling that tracking. Brokers in that thread said it: carriers ignore the tenth email asking for a working link. One clear ask to fix it, then move to calls. You can keep working on the link while the load stays visible.

Never mark it arrived off a guess. No ping doesn't mean no truck, and a pin near the dock doesn't mean checked in. FreightScout doesn't mark anything arrived off a geofence. The driver says so, or it didn't happen. That matters for detention too, since the clock should start on a real check-in.

Escalate the stuff that isn't a status. No answer, detention, mechanical trouble, and shipper heat go to a person. Those don't sit in voicemail.

What do you tell the customer?

The truth, early, with an ETA.

Your customer asked for tracking because they don't want to be surprised. A broken link is fine if they hear from you first with a real status. It's not fine if they find out because the receiver called them.

Send the status the customer actually needs. Where the truck is, whether it's on time for the appointment, and if it's late, why and the new ETA. That's what they wanted the dot for.

Say what you're doing about the link. "The carrier's tracking isn't reporting, we're getting status by phone on this schedule, and you'll hear from us at pickup and before delivery." That's a broker who's on it.

Draft it off the call, don't rewrite it. When FreightScout's call comes back with a late driver, the reason and the new ETA come back with the delay email to the customer already drafted, so your rep sends it with one click. Same path drafts the pre-detention notice.

How does FreightScout handle a load where tracking won't work?

It treats a missing or stale ping the same way it treats a truck that's gone quiet: it calls.

Situation on the load	What FreightScout does
Truck's on pace and the ping is current	The ping stands in for the call. Nobody gets dialed.
Ping is stale or not reporting	It calls for a spoken ETA and asks why it's quiet.
Before pickup	It confirms the load is on the truck and that it's left.
Last check before an appointment	It's always a call, even when the ping looks fine.
Driver is late	The reason and new ETA come back with the delay email drafted for one-click send.
No answer, detention, mechanical trouble, shipper heat	It escalates to a person.

Every call ends as a note on the load in McLeod, Aljex or Tai, so your floor doesn't re-key it. By API where the TMS offers one, and by reading it in place where it doesn't, set up during implementation.

What it doesn't do: it isn't a tracking platform and it doesn't fix a third-party tracking app. The tracking your customer requires stays. FreightScout sits next to it and makes sure a load with no working ping still has a status. Track runs supervised by default, every action is logged and reversible, and the TMS stays the system of record. It's not a TMS, not a load board.

More on when the ping should stand in for the call is in check call automation that skips tracked loads, and the product page is how FreightScout automates check calls.

Questions brokers ask

What should a freight broker do when the carrier's tracking link isn't working?

Ask once for a fix, then stop waiting on it. Put the load on a call cadence at pickup, in transit and before the appointment, write each status on the load, and send your customer a real status with an ETA. Keep working the link in the background.

Is a screenshot of the driver's app good enough for the shipper?

Brokers in the forum threads say no, because the tracking is for the customer's visibility, not for the broker. Ask your customer what fallback they'll accept before a load goes wrong, and give them a status with an ETA on a schedule.

Can I use the carrier's own ELD or GPS link instead?

Some customers accept it and some don't. That's your customer's call, so ask them up front. Either way, write which tracking is on the load in the TMS so the next rep knows.

Does a geofence ping prove the truck arrived?

No. A pin near the dock doesn't mean the driver checked in. FreightScout never marks a truck arrived off a geofence, and the last check before an appointment is always a call.

How do I stop tracking problems before pickup?

Make tracking part of the dispatch call. FreightScout confirms hours left, the delivery appointment, trailer photos if the customer requires them, and tracking accepted before the driver gets the pickup address.

Does FreightScout replace my tracking provider?

No. It isn't a tracking platform. It reads the ping when the truck's on pace, calls when the ping is stale or missing, writes the note back to the load, and escalates exceptions to a person.

Will automated calls annoy carriers whose tracking is working?

They shouldn't. When the truck's on pace and the ping is current, the ping stands in for the call. A load only earns a call when something changed, and the last check before an appointment.

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