Carrier portal

The carrier portal is where the trucking companies you hire see the loads you gave them, send proof of delivery, submit their invoices, acknowledge appointments, answer rate requests and check when they will be paid. It saves your desk the calls and emails. Every POD, invoice, appointment acknowledgement, delivery order acceptance and tracking update a carrier sends is a proposal: it waits on your Approvals queue and changes nothing until someone on your staff approves it.

Where

/portal/carrier, after signing in at /portal/login

Who

Carrier contacts you invited on Portal control

Sees

Only loads assigned to their carrier, checked in the database query itself

Tabs

Loads, Appointments, Rate requests, POD, Invoice, Payments, Statement, Confirmations (each only if its switch is on)

Sends

PODs, invoices, tracking updates, appointment acknowledgements and delivery order acceptances (all to Approvals); rate request answers (to the request)

This page is written for your staff, so you know what your carriers see. You can share it with carriers too.

Which tabs appear

A tab whose switch is off is removed, and its actions are refused: "This is not available on your portal."

Loads

Needs you lists each to-do with a button:

Your money splits the awarded total into Paid, Invoiced unpaid and Not invoiced, with the reminder that payment terms run from the date on the carrier's own invoice, not from delivery. Your loads lists each load with its status, pay state, equipment, booking and last free day, with a search box (load number, container or city) when Search is on.

One load

Click a load to see its Progress (the milestones), details (equipment, booking, commodity, last free day, picked up, arrival or delivered, empty returned, proof of delivery), and:

• Send an update (with Tracking on): Where is it now, As at, Does this complete a step? (a milestone, or "Position only") and a Note. Click Send update. It goes to Approvals; on approval a position is added to the load.
• Positions: the reports so far, with when, where, miles left and source. Positions that did not come from a tracking provider are marked Simulated.

A load that is not theirs shows "not found".

Appointments

Figures: Booked, To acknowledge ("The desk cannot hold an unanswered slot") and Changed since (amber when your desk changed a time after it was acknowledged). Each appointment shows pickup or delivery, where, the time and instructions, and an acknowledgement badge.

To acknowledge, add an optional note ("driver, a time you can make, a gate question") and click Acknowledge, or Re-acknowledge after a change. On approval, the appointment is marked acknowledged by the carrier on your Appointments screen.

Rate requests

The lanes you asked this carrier to price on Rate requests. The carrier sees only the lane facts, never your customer, your rate or other carriers' prices. For an open request they either enter an All-in rate, Transit days and an optional Note and click Save price, or click Decline.

The answer goes straight onto your rate request, and its creator is notified. It changes nothing on a load: a person on your desk compares the prices and awards one (R7). Refusals: "This request is closed.", "This price has already been awarded.", "This request has just been awarded or closed."

POD

Built to be used on a phone at the dock.

1. Pick the load

   Load, then Delivered on and Signed for by (the name on the receipt), with an optional Note.

2. Attach the receipt

   A photo of the signed delivery receipt is fine. PDF, PNG, JPEG or WebP, up to 10 MB. The file is judged by its contents, not its name.

3. Click Send POD

   A tick confirms "POD received". Send another starts again.

On approval, the POD is attached to the load and "POD requested" is cleared.

Invoice

Invoice a load lists delivered loads not yet invoiced. The carrier enters Load, Your invoice number, Invoice date, Amount and an optional Note. The confirmed rate is shown beside the amount, with the difference worked out as they type, because an invoice that does not match its rate confirmation is the most common reason a bill waits. Click Submit invoice.

The invoice sits under With the desk until approved. On approval its number and date are recorded on the load, which starts the payment terms, and it moves to On file (invoice, issued, due, paid and status).

Payments

A Split chart and a remittance card follow. The card says either "Paid direct to you" or "Sent to (factoring company)". Where the carrier has assigned its invoices, you remit to the factor, and releasing that redirect needs a letter from the factor to your operations desk; it cannot be switched on the portal.

Statement

Every bill the carrier sent you and what you paid, oldest first, over a From and To range in the page address, with a PDF of the same lines. Figures: You billed us, We paid you and Closing balance, then an Owed to you running-balance chart and the Entries table.

Confirmations

Figures: Rate confirmations, Delivery orders and To accept ("Needed for terminal release").

• Rate confirmations: each document with its load, container, issue date, where it was sent, the agreed rate and a download. Documents are "Sent only to your FMCSA-registered email"; there is no manual address override (R3). With none: "No rate confirmation yet · Ask for one before you dispatch."
• Delivery orders: each order with an Accept button. Accepting sends it for approval ("Sent for approval"); on approval the order is marked signed. Refused if already accepted, or if an acceptance is already waiting.

A carrier sees only carrier documents: Carrier Bill, Rate Confirmation, Carrier Confirmation, Dispatch Sheet and Delivery Order.

When things are refused

Related

• How the portals work
• Approvals
• Portal control
• Rate requests
• Payables