Great Lakes Shipping
Great Lakes Shipping (legal entity The Great Lakes Group) is a niche operator headquartered in Cleveland, USA. Founded in 1978, the line has spent 48 years building out its container service network and today operates a fleet of 12 vessels under the SCAC code GLSC. Great Lakes Shipping operates as a non-vessel-operating common carrier (NVOCC) and does not own its own container ships, placing the carrier among the recognised operators on its core trade lanes.
Great Lakes Shipping is most active on the following corridors: Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway. The line operates on a standalone basis and does not share vessel slots with other ocean carriers under a formal global alliance. Direct customer contact is available via +1 216 621 1818 or the carrier's web portal at thegreatlakesgroup.com.
Great Lakes Shipping corridor coverage
Great Lakes Shipping concentrates its services on Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway. Customers on these lanes typically see weekly or twice-weekly sailings depending on season and trade balance. For a current sailing schedule, contact the carrier directly or consult its weekly schedule publication.
How to track a Great Lakes Shipping container
Tracking a Great Lakes Shipping container starts with confirming the prefix. Look at the container's left-hand corner casting plate or the painted code on the door — the four-letter ISO 6346 owner code is followed by six numeric digits and a single check digit. Blue Water Facts no longer publishes a per-carrier owner-prefix list (see /accuracy/ for why); confirm the operator via the carrier's own tracking portal or your bill of lading. Visit thegreatlakesgroup.com, navigate to the carrier's tracking or "track and trace" portal, and paste the full container number. The portal will return current vessel position, the next scheduled port call, the estimated time of arrival (ETA) and the most recent equipment events such as gate-in, loaded, discharged and gate-out.
If the carrier portal does not return a result, the most likely causes are: the container has not yet been gate-in at the origin terminal, the bill of lading number is in a different format (check whether the system expects an MBL versus an HBL), or the box is moving on a partner alliance vessel rather than a Great Lakes Shipping hull. In the last case, the schedule data lives with the operating carrier, not the equipment owner. Great Lakes Shipping's customer service can normally cross-reference the booking and route you to the correct alliance partner. Reach the carrier on +1 216 621 1818 during European business hours.
Related ocean carriers
Operators most often compared with Great Lakes Shipping on overlapping trade lanes:
- Matson — Honolulu, USA, founded 1882. SCAC MATS.
- Crowley Maritime — Jacksonville, USA, founded 1892. SCAC CMCU.
- Seaboard Marine — Miami, USA, founded 1983. SCAC SMLU.
- Tropical Shipping — Riviera Beach, USA, founded 1963. SCAC TSGS.
- King Ocean Services — Doral, USA, founded 1981. SCAC KOSL.
- Sealand Maersk — Charlotte, USA, founded 1960. SCAC SEJJ.