The visibility problem is fragmentation, not data scarcity
End-to-end supply chain visibility — from origin port to final-mile delivery — is the most commonly cited operational goal in Indian logistics, and the most commonly under-delivered project. The data exists: shipping lines publish vessel positions, customs portals expose clearance status, transporters run GPS trackers, warehouses run WMS. The problem is fragmentation — six systems, six dashboards, no single view, and no way to alert on the joins.
The four data layers you need to stitch
- Ocean / air leg. Vessel position from the carrier or a third-party AIS feed; flight tracking from airline APIs.
- Customs leg. Bill-of-entry status from ICEGATE for imports; shipping-bill status for exports. CBIC's portals expose this for authorised users.
- Inland leg. AIS-140 GPS telemetry from the truck or rail-wagon tracker; electronic seal events from container or trailer e-seals.
- Last-mile leg. WMS / OMS dispatch events; POD timestamps and signatures.
The integration pattern that actually works
Most successful visibility programmes converge on a similar architecture: a thin orchestration layer that pulls events from each source on its native schedule, normalises them into a common event schema (shipment ID, location, status, timestamp, source), and pushes alerts when expected events don't arrive on time. This is exactly the model the SECURE ECTS platform implements — and it is dramatically cheaper to maintain than trying to force every source into a single ETL pipeline.
Starting point
Pick one cargo type, one trade lane, and one customer who actually cares about visibility. Instrument that lane end-to-end, prove the ROI, then expand. The lanes where ROI shows up fastest are typically high-value exports under AEO, pharmaceutical cold-chain, and customs-bonded transit cargo. SecureYug's cargo tracking service bundles hardware, platform, and integration so you can pilot in weeks, not quarters.