About chrt for Forwarders

Freight forwarders sit at the center of complex shipments, coordinating between shippers, couriers, airlines, and customs. chrt gives you a single platform to manage all of it: build orders with multiple legs, assign different couriers to each leg, track cargo across ground and air, and keep every stakeholder informed.

What chrt does for freight forwarders

Build complex, multi-leg orders

chrt’s order system was designed with freight forwarding in mind. Orders are composed of task groups — each representing a leg of the journey that can be assigned to a different courier and tracked independently.

A typical multi-modal order might look like:

Ground pickup — local courier collects cargo from the shipper.
Airport transfer — courier tenders cargo to the airline at the origin airport.
Flight leg — cargo flies, with FlightAware-powered status tracking.
Airport recovery — destination courier recovers from the airline.
Final delivery — destination courier delivers to the consignee.

Each leg is a separate task group. Assign the right courier, attach a rate sheet, set flight info, and specify what documentation is required at every handoff. Build orders through the web UI, our API, or our SDKs. See Multi-leg orders for the segment-by- segment walkthrough.

NFO (Next Flight Out)

For time-critical shipments that need to move immediately by air, build a ground + flight + ground order and use the Next 6 hr flight search on the Flights tab to find the soonest available departure. chrt creates the milestone tasks (airline accepted cargo, tendered, departed, in flight, arrived, recovered) and tracks the flight automatically. See Next Flight Out (NFO).

OBC (Onboard Courier)

For the highest-value, most time-sensitive shipments, chrt supports onboard-courier service — a dedicated person accompanies the cargo door-to-door:

One segment holds multiple flight legs in sequence.
chrt writes per-leg board / depart / arrive / deboard milestones plus wrapper pickup, airport handling, customs, and delivery milestones around them.
The full chain-of-custody is tracked across every leg.

OBC is configured on the same Flights tab as flight segments. See Multi-leg orders → OBC.

Book commercial cargo space

chrt embeds WebCargo by Freightos inside the Flights tab so you can compare rates and book cargo space on commercial airlines without leaving the order. Bookings made through WebCargo link back to the chrt order via an external booking reference. See Flights and WebCargo.

Manage your network

Your network is your business. chrt helps you build and maintain it:

Discover shippers and couriers in the public directory — browse profiles, service areas, and capabilities.
Connect with shippers who need forwarding and couriers who can execute legs. Connections are free and unlimited.
Off-platform providers can be recorded for partners who aren’t on chrt yet.
Default rate sheets attach per connection so pricing auto-applies on new orders.

See Managing your courier network.

Track everything in real time

Once orders are in motion, chrt gives you full visibility:

Order-level view — status of every order across your portfolio.
Task group detail — driver location, task progress, and documentation per leg.
Flight tracking — automatic FlightAware status for air freight legs.
Device tracking — attach chrt tracker devices for independent GPS and temperature monitoring that survives every hand-off.
Messages and files — per-task-group attachments for coordination between parties.

See Tracking shipments for the order page reference and Trackers for international cargo for the multi-leg tracker pattern.

Notifications and webhooks

chrt’s notification system is built for multi-party operations:

Notification groups — group your dispatch, ops, and finance teams and subscribe each to the relevant events (order staged, courier assigned, flight arrival, invoice opened) on the right channels (email, SMS, push).
Ad-hoc notifications — send tracking updates for specific orders to external contacts like the end recipient or the shipper’s customer.
Webhooks — pipe events into your TMS or other systems for automated workflows.

Billing and rate sheets

chrt manages the dual financial flow that forwarders deal with:

Rate sheets — define pricing for shipper-to-you and you-to-courier on each leg.
Line item groups — auto-generated per task group with base rates, mileage, surcharges, and adjustments.
Statements — group line items into invoiceable units; one per order for forwarders and shippers, one per task group for couriers.
Stripe Connect — collect from shippers and pay couriers through the same payment processor.
Ledgers — roll statements into weekly or monthly billing periods per counterparty.

See Billing for forwarders.

Cargo types

chrt supports a wide range of cargo classifications. When building orders, you specify the type for each cargo item, which drives handling requirements and pricing. See Cargo Types for the full list.

Common use cases

Medical logistics

Coordinate shipments of pharmaceuticals, organs, lab specimens, and medical devices with full cold-chain visibility. chrt supports temperature monitoring through tracker devices, requires photo and signature documentation at every handoff, and provides immediate alerts for exceptions. Ideal for medical logistics companies managing hospital- to-hospital and lab-to-lab shipments.

Time-critical air freight

Manage NFO and OBC shipments with end-to-end tracking across ground and air. chrt integrates with FlightAware for automatic flight status updates, lets you assign different ground couriers at origin and destination, and provides granular visibility into every phase of the journey.

Getting started

Start with Getting Started as a Forwarder for the end-to-end onboarding path, or jump to the topic you need:

For API integration, our base URL is https://api.chrt.com. We offer SDKs in TypeScript, Java, and Swift and full endpoint documentation in our API Reference.

Need help? Contact support.