Tracking Your C30 Purchase

[Shomare]

Borrowed from a thread at Swedespeed:

Here are some useful sites for tracking the shipment of your custom-ordered or overseas-delivered Volvo. I had a good time over the summer figuring all this out while I waited for delivery of my V50, hopefully some of you will have fun too. Enjoy!

These instructions are mostly oriented toward Volvos built in Belgium, that is, the S40, V50, and S60. However, the same voyages often start in Gothenburg, so in theory much of this will apply to the Sweden-built Volvos too. It should be pretty obvious how to apply it. I've added a couple of helpful links for that below.

The quick version of this is:

Find your VIN from your dealer.

Find the ship it's on by looking up the VIN: Wilhelm Wallenius auto tracking (the first time you click, you may have to use the main page)

Find the ship's details (callsign): Port of Zeebrugge or Ship callsign finder

Track the ship by callsign: Ship tracking (be patient - the SailWX site can be slow)

Watch for your car to clear customs/port: Wilhelm Wallenius auto tracking

Wait for your car.

The first and last steps require human interaction.

First, you need your VIN. You have to ask your salesperson for it. When the factory build is committed, it appears in his/her system. One good reason to have it is so your insurance agent can get the paperwork under way.

BTW here are the states I believe a Volvo order goes through:

• PPF - Pre Production Status
• FPF - Fixed for Production
• COL - Car on Line
• FC - Factory Assembly Completed/Going Through Quality Control
• VCMP - Vehicle Configured for Marine Processing (prepared for loading on vessel)
• LOVE - Loaded on Vessel
• ARRI - Vessel Arrived at Port of Entry
• LFPR - Landed First Point Rest, in the process of being unloaded and is awaiting port processing
• PORT - Going through Port processing
• PPC - Going though certification
• MONR - Monroney window sticker being prepared for the vehicle
• COFT - Called on Final Transportation (Car On Truck)
• DPOE - Departed Port Of Entry
• ARRD - Arrived at Dealer
• DELC - Delivered to Customer

Your salesperson will generally tell you when two of these happen, FPF is when the "change date" is passed and a VIN is assigned, and "ARRD" is when it shows up on the lot. But you can see the car by other means from VCMP through DPOE, as it enters and leaves port.

With the VIN, go to Wilhelm Wallenius auto tracking and enter it. Sometimes it takes a few extra days, but the vehicle will show up either waiting in port or on a vessel of some kind. This will give you the basic information on port arrival, which may be enough for you.

If it's not , you can track it more accurately along the way. I am not responsible for any ill effects such tracking may cause you. ;-)

First site of interest is the Port of Zeebrugge site, where you can see "ships in harbor", "ships sailed", etc. using the links on the left side. You can even see a map of the quais here, or try Google Maps' version. Sorry, I couldn't find real-time satellite imagery. [but see Southampton paragraph below!] The thing you're looking for is the call sign of your ship, which you can find in the detail page of each voyage. You may have to go back in time a bit to find it, or wait until it appears if you're early. Also you can see a much more detailed log of the times the ships actually come and go. Click the little "EN" at top right to see this in English.

There are similar sites for the port of Goteborg where Sweden-built Volvos originate. The port site is here, the port map can be found from there, the "roll-on/roll-off" terminal. A Google Maps image is here (it's the rectangle just left of the center). Note, ships from Goteborg often go to Zeebrugge or other sites, so tracking them follows the same process.

And, here's the image of the Volvo Ghent factory, it's roughly in the center of the photo.

Armed with the call sign, you can track many ships at sea by the weather reports they give. Most of the W-W fleet does this, however there are some which don't. Also, they only do it when they're truly at sea. As they enter and leave port, and ply the coasts, they stop issuing these reports. There may be a way to track them but I don't know it.

For the North Atlantic, these reports are tabulated and displayed nicely at the SailWX site. If you can't find your ship's call sign from the port, they have a lookup function here, but it's fairly general. Also, many ships have similar names. Mine was the "Carmen" - something like 20 ships came up with that. So the Zeebrugge information is best.

The tracking information shows the position graphically, and dumps out the last few reports as well, so you can get a feeling for the direction and speed of the vessel. "SOA" in these data is the "speed of advance" which is a nautical term for the effective speed of the vessel. Also these distances are nautical miles, etc. You can use these data to estimate when it will reach port, by calculating along the rhumb line. They generally report 4 times a day. You can dump detailed logs of historical data, kind of interesting.

From Zeebrugge, most vessels go to Southampton England to pick up Minis. The same shipper carries BMW and Mini, plus other manufacturers.

As they pass through Southampton, user cmy4x4 discovered this site which shows radar imagery from the port, updated every 10 minutes: http://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/radcap.asp You can watch your ship arriving and departing from this port!

From Southampton they head into open ocean. But I've seen vessels rearrange their ports and also their route. Mine skipped Zeebrugge for Southampton, then doubled back. Then on the ocean it headed south and rounded the Azores to avoid a northern Atlantic storm. Let me tell you, it was very frustrating to see my car heading for Portugal, then the Bermuda Triangle, when its itinerary said "Newark New Jersey" . Atlantic weather can be seen at this ocean weather site.

After clicking them about 19 times each day , you'll get a feeling for what to expect. The ship will stop sending data a day or so before it approaches its first port. You'll have to make an educated guess when it will arrive, or use another method. They don't spend a lot of time in port, the cars are unloaded in a matter of hours, but then there's a processing stage and of course customs to go through.

A day or two after arriving in port, the W-W site will probably show "Discharged". This means it has left their custody and is in all likelihood on a car carrier. You'll be back to biting your nails and calling the dealer.

In my experience, it takes 2 to 4 days in port, and a few more days en route to the dealer. I believe Volvo allocates about 10 days in their schedule estimates, probably varies depending on port and distance/method from port to dealer. Mine came into New Jersey (W-W calls this "New York") and shipped to Massachusetts, so pretty close. In other words, you can work backwards from your dealer's date to the ship arrival to make some guesses even if you don't know what ship you're on. But, once the car is on the ship, the dealer's date is pretty close.

Other ports used by W-W for Volvos in North America are Halifax, Nova Scotia, Brunswick, Georgia and Port Hueneme, California. Depending on the destination and other logistics, different ports may be used.

[Black Rod]

I have been having an absolute ball with this. Found my C30 pretty quickly on a Wilhelm Wallenius RoRo ship (Asian King). Sadly, I couldn't get a track at sea for the Asian King using its call sign but I did get its ports of call and arrival and departure dates.
Checking the individual ports websites gives you confirmation of arrival/departure. Some Ports like Melbourne even have a web cam so you can watch your ship steam in through the heads.
Her indoors could be right . . . perhaps I have lost a little balance

[uv23]

I wish there was a way of tracking my car since it hit land but there doesn't appear to be. It was discharged in Halifax on Sept 19. The dealer told me that from Halifax it goes by train to Edmonton, then by truck to Calgary, but right now he doesn't know where it is or even if it's cleared customs (hopefully!).

[CharlieC30]

I found this info yseterday on the Swedespeed site and found out that the ship carrying my C30, Faust, is in Baltimore and apparently going to two stops there. That means my baby is at least on this side of the Atlantic now.
Thanks to Shomare to posting the info for everyone else. It is a great tool and you can track the ship by looking at the Schedules pull down and putting in the voyage number.

[Black Rod]

Going by the Volvo status classifications there doesn't seem to be anything between Departed Port of Entry and Arrived at Dealer. But they should be able to tell you from their system that it's cleared customs and COFT and DPOE.

[Black Rod]

According to Cargo Tracking, my car was landed at a Port in my home state (NSW) at 3:17 p.m. on Sunday 14 Oct 2007. This Port is only about 200 kms from my dealer. So, I sent an email to my dealer letting them know and asking them to give me a timetable of events from there to the time it is delivered to me.
What I got was a story about it having been off-loaded in a Port in another State and that it was to to be re-loaded on to another ship and transported to a different Port in my State. A port, incidentally, that has just stopped receiving this type of cargo! By the time it goes through this process, it will be another two weeks before the car arrives in the city I live near.
This is absolute rubbish and I have politely asked them to re-check their sources and get back to me.
If I hadn't learned of the Cargo Tracking process I would have been totally in the dark and eating the BS they were trying to feed me. So, up until this incident, the Cargo Tracking was an amusing diversion. Now it has become a powerful anti-BS tool. Thankyou Shomare!

[LionelChapman]

Black Rod, just keep it all together for a little longer now, it's been months and now it's down to a week or so and then it will be yours.

[Shomare]

Sometimes, it's better not to know.

I feel your pain!

[JWFord]

Here is the link to Swedespeed; which has the links needed.
http://forums.swedespeed.com/zerothread?id=31504

[Black Rod]

Thaks JWF, that was the source of the info I used to stop the dealer from burying me in BS. And it worked! Today I got an email advising me the car is not in 1,000 km away in Melbourne awaiting re-shipment but just down the road in Sydney!
They still managed to dream up a timetable that will take a further 16 days to hand it over! You would think they don't need the cash flow.
There is a bit, well a lot, of "conservatism" in the timetable, e.g. they want two days to truck it from Sydney to Newcastle, a distance of less than 100 miles - all freeway once you get out of Sydney.
I could be patient while it was being built in Belgium and shipped around the world (the long way) but the nearer it gets the less I'm prepared to put up with

[mr. califC30]

once you have the vin, is it possible to see what progress they are making at the factory? I see how the tracking works once it's built and shipped.
thanks

[JWFord]

Any bretheran on "Otello"?

[JB_C30]

Originally Posted by mr. califC30

once you have the vin, is it possible to see what progress they are making at the factory? I see how the tracking works once it's built and shipped.
thanks

Theoretically you're supposed to get a VIN once they've committed the car's configuration, but I don't think the dealership usually gets the VIN until the factory has actually completed building the car. At least that's what happened to me, others have probably had different experiences. FWIW I haven't found a site that will let me track the car during the build.

[uv23]

Gah I was originally told the car would be arriving around the 15th, but now I'm being told it might still be end of the month. In the meantime, I'm carless.

[Black Rod]

JB, like you, I didn't my VIN until the car was Factory Complete (FC). And then only because I asked for it - again!
When you have long periods between order and delivery, it wouldn't kill Volvo to send you an email as the car achieved a new status on their system.