Connections

A courier’s connections are the orgs you do business with — every shipper who sends you orders, every forwarder who tenders you legs, and every partner courier you sub-dispatch to. Connections live at one page and back the rest of the courier flow: rate sheets attach per connection, statements group by connection, and saved contacts on a connection feed straight into the draft builder. This page covers the directory, the connection detail page, and the shipper info you’ll see on incoming orders.

Before you start

• Connecting with anyone on chrt is free and doesn’t commit you to any volume.
• See Connections for the data model — what a connection is, what it carries, and how on-platform vs. off-platform connections differ.

1. Search the directory

Open chrt.com/directory to browse every chrt org. The directory is searchable by handle, name, and service area, and filtered by org type.

1. Open the directory.
2. Switch to the Shippers or Forwarders view to see prospective customers, or stay on All to also see couriers (when you might want to set up a partnership for sub-dispatch).
3. Filter by region, service area, or handle as needed.
4. Click any org card to open its directory detail page.

2. Connect with a shipper or forwarder

From a directory detail page, click Connect. chrt sends the connection request and the other org confirms from their side. Once confirmed, they appear in your Connections list and can send you orders directly.

You can also initiate from the connections page:

1. Open chrt.com/connections.
2. Click Find New if the search panel isn’t already open.
3. Search by handle and click Connect on the result.

3. Open a connection’s detail page

Click any connection in your Connections list to open the connection detail page. This is the place you manage the relationship.

Sections include:

• Profile — name, handle, contact details, service area.
• Saved contacts and addresses — people and locations at the customer’s end you drop into stops on a draft order. The bell and map pin icons on each contact card add the contact to ad-hoc notifications or pre-fill a stop’s address.
• Shared orders — every order this connection and your org have collaborated on. Click through to the order page.
• Statements — billing this connection has open with you (and any ledgers).
• Rate sheets — the default SPP sheet for shippers/forwarders or default PPP sheet for partner couriers. Set this once and it auto-applies on every new order from them.

4. Read shipper info on an incoming order

When a shipper or forwarder places an order with you, the order page shows their org info in a shipper info card:

• Org name and handle.
• Primary contact (name, email, phone) for ops questions.
• The connection’s saved contacts at the pickup or delivery, if the shipper attached them.
• A link back to the connection detail page for full history.

Use the shipper info card during dispatch to call ops if a job looks wrong, or to pre-fill any missing contact info on stops. The creating-orders flow walks through using saved contacts when you build orders on behalf of an off-platform shipper.

5. Use saved contacts for fast stop entry

For every shipper, forwarder, or partner you work with regularly, save the ops dispatcher and any warehouse or station addresses on their connection detail page.

When you build a stop in the draft builder, you can:

• Click the map pin on a saved contact card to drop their address into the stop.
• Click the bell icon on a saved contact card to add ad-hoc email notifications for that stop’s events.

Saved contacts make repeat work fast — you don’t retype the same warehouse address on every job for a regular customer.

6. Record an off-platform shipper

Some shippers you work with aren’t on chrt yet. Record them as an off-platform shipper so you can still build orders that reference them and bill them through chrt.

1. Open chrt.com/connections.
2. Click Add off-platform shipper.
3. Enter the shipper’s name, contact info, and any service area details you have.
4. Save. The off-platform shipper becomes selectable on the Order setup tab of a draft just like an on-platform connection.

How to know it worked

• The connection appears in your Connections list with status Connected (or Off-platform, for the off-platform flow).
• The shipper or forwarder can place orders against your org from their side.
• Saved contacts show up in the contact picker when you build a stop.
• The default rate sheet you set on the connection preselects on incoming orders.

If something looks different

• Connection stuck in Pending. The other side hasn’t confirmed yet. Reach out via the contact listed on their directory profile to nudge them.
• Org not in the directory. Either they aren’t on chrt yet, or their profile is set to private. Use the off-platform flow until they’re on chrt.
• Default rate sheet isn’t applying on new orders. Defaults are per-connection, not org-wide. Open the connection detail page and confirm the rate sheet is selected there.
• A regular customer’s orders are missing their saved contacts. Saved contacts are pulled into stops only when you build the order. When the shipper builds it on their side, they’d use their own directory.
• Contact hi@chrt.com if a known org is missing from search.

Related guides

• Creating Orders — where saved contacts and off-platform shippers feed into the draft builder.
• Rate sheets — attach default SPP and PPP rate sheets per connection.
• Billing — statements grouped per connection.
• Connections — the data model behind every connection.
• Roles — what role on each side is needed to manage connections.