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      04-24-2016, 06:30 PM   #1
TonySCV
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Detailed Order Tracking for X3/4/5/6 North America Deliveries

I recently ordered a '17 X4 and thought I'd pass along some good ways to track your order from production to delivery that I've scraped together across the internet. It was quite helpful for me to help pass the time, and I'm sure others will appreciate it as well.

The BMW automated production order status hotline (800-831-1117 - USA and Canada customers only) is generally unreliable except for the period of time your vehicle is actually being built (status 150). After mine was built, it said my "vehicle was at the port of entry waiting for a shipping vessel with no shipping information available" for practically the entire shipping process, even after it was turned over to the rail company. Speaking with a BMW customer agent by dialing the above # and pressing 0 won't usually get you any better information.

Don't even bother checking My BMW Online tracking. Information is very rudimentary.

When tracking vehicle production, start to finish, my recommendations are:

Get your vehicle production number from your client advisor and use the automated BMW system to find out when your car goes from status 112 (scheduled for production) to status 150 (in production). Once it's in production, you can call BMW customer relations at 800-831-1117 and request the VIN #. When your car is being transported by truck, it is tracked by VIN, so it's helpful to obtain this.

Once you have the VIN #, you can go to bmwvin.com and plug it in and see the options list for your car to verify that your car's options list matches what you ordered. The "production date" will show as 01-01-0011 (or something similarly cryptic) until the date your car is actually complete. Then it will show an accurate production date.

Once your car has an actual production date, wait a couple of days and contact your dealer for a status update, and ask them to tell you the bill of lading information, which will be the rail car ID number or trucking information. Since mine is headed to Los Angeles, it will be train info. Mine was Norfolk Southern and the train ID will be something like TTGX 123456

This is the process for rail transport. I don't know about truck-to-dealer deliveries; some East coast and Southern dealership orders are shipped entirely by truck, directly from the Spartanburg plant. You can track rail transport through the carrier tracking system (mine was Norfolk Southern).

Even after the rail car is passed off to another rail system (such as Union Pacific if destined for the West Coast), it can be tracked through Norfolk Southern or the new carrier, using the same rail car number. I found that at some stages of the trip, Union Pacific gave more detailed information, but Norfolk Southern was more accurate. Check both. Pass-offs from one rail carrier to another are designated in tracking as "interchanges" in the rail tracking system.

When you call for automated tracking, DO NOT TALK TO A HUMAN. These phone numbers are for logistics company tracking, not for end customer tracking. If the automated system can't understand you, hang up, and call back and try entering in the information via the dial pad. Norfolk Southern's automated system was particularly awful at understanding speech, so I just used the dial pad. If the system tries to transfer you to an agent, hang up.

BMW Production Order Status Hotline: 800-831-1117
Norfolk Southern Tracking: 800-497-2919, press 1, then enter 7 digits for tracing (the number of the first letter of the rail car, for example if your rail car is TTGX123456, you would enter "8" for the T, then 123456.
CSX (Canada Rail): 800-235-2352
Union Pacific Tracking: 800-255-4915 (press 1 for shipment tracing, 1 for english, 1 for pieces of equipment, enter the 6 numerical digits, press #, then say no to wanting a fax)
United Road Trucking: http://www.unitedroad.com

For west coast deliveries, vehicles are sent by train to the Oxnard BMW VPC. Before arriving at the VCRR (Ventura Country Railroad) interchange, rail cars are typically delayed at GEMCO (in Van Nuys) or at the LATC in Los Angeles where they must wait to accumulate enough rail cars to make the final trip to the VPC. This could be as little as a few hours or a few days.

At some point, your rail car will be reported as arrived South Oxnard (BMW VCR). At this time, it's best to use Norfolk SOuthern for tracking info, as I found that Union Pacific stopped providing updates once interchange delivery occurred in Oxnard. When it is finally reported as "released empty" or "unloaded" you will know your vehicle is on the ground at the VPC. Once this occurs, you will no longer be able to follow your vehicle via rail tracking.

The time spent at the VPC is one of the biggest variables in the production/shipping process. Figure at least 2 working days wait. At a minimum, paperwork must be completed; this is when the Certificate of Origin is issued. The vehicle is subjected to inspection and quality control and any condition issues that occurred during transit are corrected. After processing, the vehicle then has to wait to be released to the trucking company for final dealer delivery. There can be quite a delay here while enough cars are collected to make a truckload.

I found no way to track the location of the truck; once BMW released my vehicle to trucking, they did give a dealer ETA that was only off by a day. Once your car is in transit, there is no longer any point in tracking it through BMW. United Road delivery tracking and the dealer were the best resource from here on.

I hope this information helps. It certainly has made passing the time much more interesting.

Last edited by TonySCV; 04-29-2016 at 03:34 PM..
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      02-20-2020, 12:19 PM   #2
eltedro
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Is bmwvin.com supposed to be working, as of 2020-02-20?

I can't get any response to that URL, from any platform or browser.
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