TransmetriQ: Improving Finished-Vehicle Shipment Visibility
Rather than relying on traditional railcar-level tracking, which requires auto manufacturers and dealers to collect data from multiple railroads and manually associate that information with the VINs of vehicles loaded onto each railcar, VIN Tracking enables users to search, trace, and monitor vehicles directly by VIN, “delivering real-time visibility,” according to TransmetriQ.
“Powered by TransmetriQ’s direct access to high-quality rail data from Railinc[, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads], the solution provides visibility across more than 600 North American railroads,” TransmetriQ reported Feb. 10. “Users can trace up to 1,000 VINs at a time, view last-reported locations and events, and set alerts or scheduled updates for high-priority vehicles.”
VIN Tracking also supports “historical analysis and integration with enterprise systems through a webhook, enabling broader use across distribution, customer service, and dealer-facing applications,” the company noted.
So far, early users report that VIN-level tracking has “significantly reduced the time spent responding to dealer inquiries and investigating stalled or delayed shipments,” according to TransmetriQ. The capability, it said, has been used daily by automotive logistics teams to monitor plant output, manage distribution flows, and “proactively” address exceptions.
“Automotive logistics teams think in VINs, not railcars,” said Andy Adams, Senior Solutions Engineer at TransmetriQ. “By making VINs searchable and traceable across the rail network, we’re removing a major source of friction and giving shippers faster, clearer insight into where vehicles are and when they’ll arrive.”
“It’s not surprising that buyers of six-figure vehicles are eager to know when their luxury car will arrive,” he continued. “Now teams who have access to VIN Tracking can provide real-time updates to car buyers as vehicles move by rail from the factory.”
“Having VIN-level visibility changes how teams operate,” added Mika Majapuro, Vice President of TransmetriQ Product Management. “Instead of chasing data across multiple systems and railroads, they can focus on resolving issues and improving performance.”
