Core concepts
The life of a load
The 15 statuses, the 8 milestones, what moves a load forward, and what stops it.
A load from start to finish
A load is one container moved for one customer. It has an ID like AR-0042, a customer, stops,
one or more containers, charges, and (once chosen) a carrier. Everything that happens to it is
recorded on its load record.
Arrival notice ─▶ New load ─▶ Carrier picked ─▶ Dispatched ─▶ Picked up ─▶ Delivered
│
Paid ◀── Invoiced ◀── Ready for billing ◀── Paperwork ◀──┘
The 15 statuses
Statuses fall into four groups. The groups are what the Shipments board and reports filter on.
| Group | Status | Means |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Pending | Booked, nothing arranged yet |
| Needs Carrier | Waiting for a carrier rate to be picked | |
| Needs Driver | The container is available; the carrier needs to assign a driver | |
| Booked - Awaiting Confirmation | Carrier booked; waiting for them to confirm | |
| Active | Dispatched | The carrier is sent. From here on the box is moving |
| At Pickup | The truck is at the pickup | |
| In Transit | On the road (or at a warehouse in between) | |
| At Delivery | At the delivery address | |
| Delivered | Delivered to the customer | |
| Completed | Delivered - Awaiting Paperwork | Delivered; waiting for the POD and empty return |
| Ready for Billing | Paperwork in; finance can invoice | |
| Invoiced | The invoice is raised | |
| Paid | The customer has paid. The load is closed | |
| Other | On Hold | Parked for now |
| Cancelled | Not going ahead |
The full list with colours is on Statuses and milestones.
The 8 milestones
A milestone is a fact about the container: it arrived, it was picked up, it was delivered. Recording a milestone on the load record sets the load's status for you, and fills in a business date if that date is still empty. Dates you already typed are never overwritten.
| Milestone | Sets the status to | Fills in |
|---|---|---|
| Inbound | Booked - Awaiting Confirmation | ETA |
| Available | Needs Driver | Last free day |
| Picked up | At Pickup | Pickup date |
| Warehouse | In Transit | |
| Out | In Transit | |
| Delivered | Delivered | Delivery date |
| Empty returned | Delivered - Awaiting Paperwork | Empty return date |
| Closed | Ready for Billing |
What moves a load forward, and what stops it
You can change a load's status by hand, but the server checks every change:
| Change | Allowed when |
|---|---|
| Forward into Dispatched or later | The carrier has cleared compliance (R1) and every SSL or customs advance on the load is received in full (R4) |
| Into Invoiced or Paid | Never by hand. Finance sets these by raising the invoice and recording the payment |
| Out of Paid | Never. A paid load is closed |
| To On Hold, Cancelled, or a step back | Always (these are corrections), unless the load is already invoiced or paid |
| To the status it already has | Refused, with "The load is already …" |
When a change is refused, the message says which rule stopped it and what to do, for example "Bay Haulers has not cleared compliance (no W-9 on file)".
Marking a load delivered
Mark delivered on the load record does several things at once, in one save, so nothing is forgotten (R6):
- Sets the status to Delivered and records the delivery milestone and date (today, unless already filled).
- Sets the invoice date and carrier invoice date if they are empty.
- Marks the load ready to bill and POD requested.
- Adds an entry to the load's feed.
- Prepares the customer invoice and the carrier bill from the load's charges.
- Notifies the load's agent.
Who sees a load
- Sales agents see and edit only loads they own (R9).
- Finance-only staff see only loads that are delivered or later (R5).
- Everyone else with the Loads permission sees every load in the company.
- The customer sees their own loads in the customer portal; the carrier sees the loads they are booked on in the carrier portal.
Things that watch a load for you
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Ten kinds of problem (LFD close, demurrage running, no check call, missing paperwork…) | Tasks & exceptions |
| Last free day two days away | A daily alert to the agent and operations |
| No check call inside the interval (default 4 hours) while in transit | Check calls |
| Paperwork the load should have by now | Missing documents |
| Automatic actions when a load is created, changes status or is delivered | Auto pilot |