Portals
Shipment messages
A conversation thread on each shipment between the customer, on their portal, and your desk, on the load record.
Each shipment has its own message thread between the customer and your desk. The customer writes from the shipment page on their portal; your staff read and reply from the load record. The load's sales agent is told when a new message arrives, so questions about a container do not get lost in someone's inbox.
- Customer side
- Customer portal → a shipment → Messages (/portal/customer/[lid])
- Staff side
- Load record → Customer messages (/loads/[lid])
- Customer needs
- The "Message the desk" switch on Portal control
- Staff can read
- Anyone who can open the load (Loads · view; sales agents their own loads only)
- Staff can reply
- Loads · edit
- Message length
- 1 to 2,000 characters
- Carriers
- Not available on the carrier portal
For the customer
On the portal, open a shipment. If your broker has switched messages on, a Messages section sits at the bottom of the page.
Open the shipment
From Shipments, click the container.Write your message
In the box ("Ask the desk about this shipment.").Click Send
You see "Message sent". The desk's replies appear in the same thread.
A customer can only write about their own shipments. Any other reference is refused: "That shipment is not one of yours."
For your staff
The thread appears on the load record as Customer messages, with a count.
| You see | Meaning |
|---|---|
| N new badge | Customer messages nobody on staff has read yet |
| New beside a message | That message is unread |
| Mark read | Marks every customer message on this load as read |
| "No messages yet." | The thread is empty |
Reply
Open the load
From the notification, or the load board.Write the reply
The box says "Reply to (customer). They see this on their portal."Click Send
The reply appears on the customer's portal straight away.
Replying counts as reading: every customer message on the load so far is marked read.
Who is told
| Event | Who |
|---|---|
| The customer sends a message | The load's sales agent gets a notification: "(Customer) wrote about LD-…", with the start of the message and a link to the load |
| Staff reply | The customer sees it on their portal next time they open the shipment. No email is sent |
What is recorded
| Action | Audit entry |
|---|---|
| Customer sends | message.customer, with the first 120 characters |
| Staff reply | message.staff, with the first 120 characters |
| Mark read | message.read: "3 messages marked read" |
Edge cases
- If the customer's switch is off, the Messages section disappears from their portal, and any attempt to send is refused: "This is not available on your portal."
- While your own account is read-only (see Billing), customers cannot send.
- A sales agent only sees threads on their own loads (R9).