Tracking your car on a boat
 

I was not able to do this on my A6 and my search on the forum is not pulling a strong result on a how to. I wanted to ask this to my C7'ers since I am not very active on the Q5 side yet. So my question to those that accomplished this is, how do you find the boat your car is on and track that boat? I think the second question is easy for me, but the first is my challenge. I am hitting my dealership up, but he is claiming it is hard to get that data. I like the guy and all, but I really want the name of the boat. My Q5 is coming over now for a valentines day arrival to the dealer. So really there is not much time left, but my wife would love to track the boat and I would like to see it as well. This wait has been short in comparison. Only the quoted 3 months for the Q5 vs the 6 months for my A6. Thanks,

I saved this stuff from the early threads about tracking the cars across the ocean. I cut and pasted everything so you can pick through to find the parts you need.

================================================== =
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2817621

Live ocean map - http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/def...0&type_color=7

Marinetraffic.com
Vesseltracker


http://www.portofhalifax.ca/english/...tusreport.aspx
http://info.poha.com/vtraffic/arrivals.html - Port of Houston arrivals
http://www.portofsd.com/audi_start.htm - Port of San Diego

Ships:
Mediterranean Highway
Garnet Leader
Astral Ace
Olympian Highway
Nippon Highway
Firmament Ace
Courage
Endurance



Ports:
Emden
Halifax NS
Davisville Rhode Island
Brunswick, GA
Port of Houston


Audi has four disembark ports in the U.S. -

Davisville, RI, - http://www.noradinc.com/overview.php
Brunswick, GA,
Houston, TX and
San Diego, CA.

In Canada it's Halifax, NS and in
Mexico it's Veracruz.

Audis usually ship from Emden, Germany.

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2809782 (tracking your car from Germany)

---------------------------------------------
Ships schedule @ Halifax
http://www.portofhalifax.ca/english/...tusreport.aspx

-----------------------------------------------

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2809782

I was able to track mine with accuracy.

1. Get the port name and estimated arrival date from the dealer.
2. Go to: http://sagaweb.2wglobal.com/AppSched...RouteSearch.do
3. Select North America
4. Select "North America/Europe Inbound"

A pdf will load with a table showing the vessel name and the ports of departure and arrival with estimated dates.

My A6 arrived last week on Turandot and it took 3 days to get from port to dealer. You'll notice that the chart has Jan 20 as the ship arrival date. The car was loaded on Dec 16 and unloaded on Jan 14. The chart is an estimate. In my instance, the arctic blast in early January caused some shipping delay, and there was a fantastic video on YouTube with a cargo in the North Atlantic listing at 40 degrees.

Thanks both of you for all the info and links. My searches were not coming up with these threads. So I wanted to pick your brains a bit more as I am trying to narrow down the ship. Here are my vitals. I am in Chicago. I was told my A6 came into Houston (Galveston) Because it was a sold order it was trucked and not railed. So I am applying the same to the Q5. I know domestic trucking so in car hauling it is a 2-3 day run. I was told valentines day was my delivery.

So if I go with these logics, I am looking at early Feb as a hit the sand day. in2www based on that logic and your links, I show Courage and Torrens as being the vessels I should keep an eye on. Tenspeed, I used your map link and I can't find Courage as a car ship. Just tugs, tankers, container, etc. However I do find Torrens and it is one ship that is a car vessel. However, it appears to have come out of the UK and is going to Baltimore. I know container ships can make multiple stops, but that is typically to small countries and islands. The US is usually a one stop for what I know. So I am sort of confused. Is it possible that Torrens is making two stops and Baltimore is first? Or with the info on Torrens, do you think Courage is my ship? However I can't find it. Or am I reading too much into it? HAHA. I would love to show this to the wifey as she is getting excited about her new arrival. I am going to look at Tenspeeds links in more detail tonight when I get home and have time to read the history on the threads, but wanted to get your opinion(s) based on the parameters I gave above. Thanks,

Car transport ships are RORO (Roll On/Roll Off). They usually load in Bremerhaven, Germany and head to the East Coast first. New Jersey is most likely the first port, then the ships travel south all the way to Jacksonville, FL. Weather permitting... and depending on port traffic. It's always a crap shoot.

What you need from the dealer is the port date, not the delivery date. You can approximate the ship based on the port date only.

Once you have the vessel name, you can get some delayed GPS info and some real-time port info at: http://www.marinetraffic.com/ by using the vessel name or port.

But don't concentrate on the port arrival date. The car still needs to clear customs, get processed through the VPC where they install wheels, floormats, or whatever the car still needs. Then it gets contained and loaded onto the right truck or train for intermodal transport. Keep in mind that logistics necessitate that the car gets loaded in a certain order on a certain truck/rail car in addition to weight restrictions and, again, weather permitting.

Houston to Chi-town sounds like rail freight opportunity, but I don't think that's how Audi rolls.

Your car is at least on a boat by now. It may stop at few ports prior to Houston.

I know that BMW is exclusive to exporting from Charleston, SC, so I doubt they load and unload cars at the same time - that would be madness.

Thanks again. I will touch base with my guy tomorrow to get the port date and continue my search from there. At the port aside from the regular stuff, my Q5 will be getting a hitch as well.

As for the mode of domestic transport, it should be truck. I was told our region gets sold cars on truck and dealer stock on train. So I suspect it will be on a truck. I wanted to do this a bit more with my A6 but never had the chance. The car moved pretty fast after it was made and the making of it was the hardest part. This has been a breeze since it is the standard 3 months. I just know time will fly in the next 3 weeks and I might have the car before I have solid time to really find it. The end game after all is to do Euro delivery anyways.