Shipment States

The various states of a shipment and how the shipment transitions between them

Each shipment can be in one one of several states. The state determines what can be done with the shipment and reflects information that can be provided to the user.

Shipments start in the Quoting state where any property of the shipment can be changed. Once the user has selected a quote and submits the shipment to the carrier it becomes Manifested. In this state the shipment is locked and receives a tracking number from the carrier. At this stage the system begins tracking the shipment by periodically asking the carrier for an update on shipment activity. Once the system detects tracking activity the shipment moves to the In-Transit state. It remains in this state until the tracking activity indicates the shipment is Delivered. In this state the system may detect an Exception which indicates either that some customer activity is required for the shipment to continue, or that the carrier considers the shipment delayed. If the problem is resolved, the system will move the shipment to the In-Transit state again.

If during the Manifested state the user wishes to cancel the shipment, they may attempt to void it and if successful, the shipment enters the Void state. Users cannot change the state of a shipment from Void although if the carrier bills the shipment it will move to Delivered.

One other state the shipment can be in is Pending. This happens for shipments that have been created as a result of receiving a bill (in other words, the shipment was not created by a user in the system). In this state the shipment cannot be billed and pricing can be adjusted. An operator must approve the shipment (possibly after assigning it to the correct customer) in order to move the state to Delivered.

To summarize:

1. Quoting - the shipment details can be changed by the customer and there is no automatic tracking

2. Manifested - the shipment has a tracking number and cannot be changed by the customer

3. In-Transit - the system has detected tracking activity but the shipment has not been delivered

4. Delivered - the system has detected a delivery event for each package in the shipment.

5. Exception - the system has detected an exception event that has not been resolved.

6. Void - the customer has asked the carrier to void the shipment and the carrier has confirmed. At this time the carrier is not expected to bill the shipment (although that can still happen in some cases).

7. Pending - the shipment is on hold from billing until an operator approves the shipment to move it to Delivered.

Note that you cannot Void a shipment if it is attached to an active Pickup request. To void in this case the pickup must be cancelled or detached.

Shipments qualify for billing (i.e. can be invoiced) in every state except Quoting and Pending.