Questions, answered.

Open the Tracking page and enter your bill of lading (B/L) number or one of your container numbers. Spaces, hyphens and capital letters do not matter. You can share or print the result.

Check the number against your bill of lading. Shipment records are added by the NovaGate team, so a very new booking may not be visible yet. If it still cannot be found, contact us with the number and we will look into it.

Whatever our team has recorded for your shipment: status, route (place of receipt, port of loading, transshipment, port of discharge), vessel and voyage, scheduled and actual dates, cargo particulars and a timeline of events.

A bill of lading is the document a carrier issues for goods it carries. It acknowledges receipt of the cargo, evidences the contract of carriage and, when issued to order, can be used to transfer the right to take delivery.

Each NovaGate bill of lading states which original or copy it is, the number of additional sheets and the total number of original and copy bills issued for the shipment.

The consignee box on the NovaGate B/L is not negotiable unless the bill is consigned “to order”.

The particulars on the B/L — marks, packages, description, weight and measurement — are furnished and declared by the shipper. The weight, measure, quantity, condition, contents and value of the goods are unknown to the carrier.

Carrier rates and tariffs apply from the point where the ship’s lifting gear takes the cargo at the load port to the point where it sets the cargo down at the discharge port, unless agreed otherwise.

If a shipment is expressly agreed as FIO, the carrier’s responsibility begins only once the cargo is securely lashed on board at the load port and ends on unlashing at the discharge port. Risks, liabilities and costs outside that period are for the merchant’s account.

Costs incurred before the goods are brought under the ship’s tackle at the load port, or after discharge at the discharge port — such as receiving, storage, delivery, tolls, wharfage, lighterage and landing costs — are borne by the merchant.

The merchant must collect goods from the terminal or discharge port within the time allowed by the port, terminal and local regulations. Otherwise the goods may be seized, detained and sold at public auction by the local authority.

They regulate how freight, costs and charges are allocated. They are not an acceptance of liability by the carrier beyond the responsibilities set out in the bill of lading and applicable law.

Port-to-port covers carriage from the port of loading to the port of discharge. A combined transport shipment also records the pre-carriage and the place where the pre-carrier receives the goods, all on one bill of lading.

That depends on the port pair and sailing. If cargo is transferred between vessels at an intermediate port, it is recorded in the Trans Shipment field of your B/L and shown on the tracking route.

Use the Request a Quote form. Prices depend on the route, cargo and terms, so we do not publish fixed rates — we reply by email with an offer for your shipment.

Our head office is at Unit No. 591.B, Cluster 5, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. You can reach us at novagateshipping@gmail.com.