# About Track and Trace

Track and Trace is Shipium's unified shipment tracking platform. It provides real-time tracking data across 65+ carriers through a single API, automatic webhook notifications, and delivery performance analytics — so you can give your customers accurate, up-to-date shipment visibility without integrating with each carrier individually.

## Capabilities

- **Unified tracking API.** Query tracking status for any shipment across all supported carriers with one integration. Search by Shipium tracking ID, carrier tracking ID, or your own shipment IDs.
- **Automatic tracking for Shipium shipments.** Shipments created through [Carrier and Method Selection](https://docs.shipium.com/docs/carrier-and-method-selection) are automatically registered for tracking — no additional setup required.
- **Non-Shipium shipment tracking.** Register shipments created outside of Shipium to track them through the same unified API.
- **Webhook notifications.** Receive automatic HTTP notifications when tracking data changes, eliminating the need to poll for updates.
- **Normalized data model.** Carrier-specific status codes, locations, and timestamps are standardized into a consistent format across all carriers.
- **Delivery performance dashboards.** Monitor on-time delivery rates, transit times, and carrier performance through built-in analytics.

## I want to...

| Goal | Where to go |
| --- | --- |
| Understand how tracking works end-to-end | [How Tracking Works](https://docs.shipium.com/docs/how-tracking-works) |
| Set up tracking and make my first API call | [Getting Started with Tracking](https://docs.shipium.com/docs/getting-started-with-tracking) |
| Look up the full API reference | [Shipment Tracking API](https://docs.shipium.com/docs/shipment-tracking-api) |
| Register non-Shipium shipments for tracking | [Shipment Tracking Registration API](https://docs.shipium.com/docs/shipment-tracking-registration-api) |
| Set up automatic tracking notifications | [Webhooks for Tracking](https://docs.shipium.com/docs/webhooks-for-tracking-updates) |
| Monitor delivery performance with dashboards | [On-Time Delivery Dashboards](https://docs.shipium.com/docs/on-time-performance-dashboards) |
| Debug a tracking question | [Tracking Troubleshooting Guide](https://docs.shipium.com/docs/tracking-troubleshooting-guide) |

## Quick start

If you're integrating with Track and Trace for the first time:

1. **Get your credentials.** Work with your Shipium team member to obtain OAuth API credentials.
2. **Verify connectivity.** Call the [ping endpoint](https://docs.shipium.com/reference/trackingpingv1) to confirm your credentials work.
3. **Track a shipment.** Use the [single lookup endpoint](https://docs.shipium.com/reference/gettrackingbyshipiumtrackingid) to retrieve tracking data for an existing shipment.
4. **Set up webhooks** (optional). [Register a webhook](https://docs.shipium.com/docs/webhooks-for-tracking-updates#steps-to-register-your-webhook) to receive automatic tracking updates.

For non-Shipium shipments, you'll also need to [register them](https://docs.shipium.com/docs/shipment-tracking-registration-api) before tracking data is available.