Multi-Leg Orders

Build ground, flight, and onboard-courier shipments segment by segment in the draft builder.

A forwarder’s shipment usually crosses more than one leg and more than one courier. chrt models that as a list of segments on a single order, where each segment is a task group that can be assigned to its own courier and tracked independently. This page walks the Segments and Flights tabs of the draft builder end to end.

Before you start

  • You need a connected shipper (or an off-platform shipper you’ve recorded) so the draft has a customer on it.
  • For ground legs, you need connected couriers in the markets where pickups and deliveries happen.
  • For flight legs, no separate carrier connection is required — chrt tracks flights through its FlightAware integration. WebCargo bookings are made in-line from the Flights tab.

Segments are also called task groups. Couriers see a task group as their job; the shipper and you see the full order. See Orders for how the two views relate.

1. Start a draft and complete Order setup

Open chrt.com/orders/drafts/new. The Segments tab stays locked until Order setup is complete — you’ll see an alert reading “Order required — Please complete Order Setup first to create a draft order.” until the shipper and basics are saved.

  1. On Order setup, pick the shipper this order is for.
  2. Add an External reference ID if the customer gave you a PO or order ID.
  3. Add cargo on the Cargo tab. Cargo is required before you can attach it to stops on each segment.

2. Add segments

Open the Segments tab. The header reads “Add Segments” with the subtitle “Segments — Add and arrange the segments for this shipment.”

From the empty state or the + Add Segment dropdown in the top-right, pick one of:

OptionUse for
Ground SegmentA single ground leg run by one courier. The most common shape.
Flight SegmentAn air leg with cargo on a commercial flight. Pair with ground segments before and after for a tender-and-recover chain.
Onboard courierA hand-carry shipment where one person accompanies the cargo door-to-door, including one or more flight legs.

Add segments in the physical order they happen — pickup ground, then flight, then delivery ground for a typical ground → flight → ground chain.

Drag unsaved segments to reorder them before saving. Once a segment is saved (it has a task group ID), you can’t reorder it, but you can still delete and re-add it.

3. Assign a courier to each ground segment

Open each ground segment and pick the courier from your connected providers. You can use a different courier per leg — that’s the whole point of the multi-segment model.

  • Pickup leg → courier in the origin market.
  • Delivery leg → courier in the destination market.
  • Cross-dock or transfer leg → courier handling the middle hop, if any.

Flight segments don’t have a courier selector — chrt handles flight tracking through integrations. Onboard-courier segments have one selector for the person accompanying the cargo.

4. Configure flight segments on the Flights tab

The Flights tab only appears when the order has at least one flight or onboard-courier segment. The header reads “Flight Details” with the subtitle “Configure flight information for each air segment (flight segments and onboard courier legs).”

For each flight segment:

  1. Pick origin and destination airports.
  2. Pick a search window in the Show flights: dropdown — Next 6 hr, Next 12 hr, Next 24 hr, or Select Date for a specific date.
  3. Optionally toggle Include connections to surface connecting itineraries.
  4. Click Search Flights.
  5. Pick a flight from the results.
  6. Click Save Flight {n}. chrt writes the flight info onto the segment and creates 7 milestone tasks for that leg (e.g. airline accepted cargo, tendered, departed, arrived, recovered).

The card status badge tells you where each flight segment is:

  • Pending — no tasks created yet.
  • Action Required: Select Flight — tasks exist but no flight has been attached.
  • Configured — flight info and tasks are both in place.

Use Edit Flight Details on a configured card to swap the flight before the order goes live.

5. Configure an onboard-courier segment

An onboard-courier (OBC) segment is a single task group that holds multiple flight legs plus wrapper milestones for pickup, airport handling, customs, and delivery. Use OBC for the highest-value, time-critical shipments where a person accompanies the cargo door-to-door.

On the Flights tab, find the OBC card titled “Onboard courier — flight legs” with the subtitle “Add each flight the courier will board. Saving creates {N} milestone tasks ({L} legs).”

  1. Click Add flight leg.
  2. For each leg, search the origin → destination → time window and pick the flight (same flow as a flight segment).
  3. Add additional legs if the courier is taking multiple flights.
  4. Click Save flights & create tasks to commit. chrt writes per-leg board / depart / arrive / deboard milestones plus the surrounding pickup, handling, customs, and delivery tasks.

OBC segments don’t generate ground tasks until you save the flights — that’s why the segment card shows “Stops for this segment are created when you save flights.” in the Segments tab.

6. Book cargo space with WebCargo (optional)

For commercial flight legs, you can request rates and book cargo space directly from the Flights tab via the embedded WebCargo by Freightos integration. See Flights and WebCargo for the booking flow.

7. Add stops on each segment

Open the Stops tab. Each segment has its own default stop set:

  • Ground segments — pickup + deliver.
  • Flight segments — tender (drop at the airline) + recover (pick up from the airline). Created automatically when you save the flight.
  • OBC segments — pickup, board, deboard, customs, and deliver per leg. Created automatically when you save the OBC flights.

For each stop:

  1. Set the address (autocomplete or use a saved contact’s map pin).
  2. Add a point of contact with phone and email so drivers can reach someone on arrival.
  3. Select which cargo applies to this stop. Forgetting this is the most common multi-leg mistake — the preview validation catches it, but it’s faster to do it as you go.
  4. Set a time window for the appointment.
  5. Add special instructions and required task artifacts (photo, signature, barcode scan).

On a multi-leg order, every cargo item needs both a pickup stop and a delivery stop on the correct segment. A tender stop counts as the “delivery” for the pickup leg; a recover stop counts as the “pickup” for the delivery leg. The preview validator confirms each cargo line has a complete path.

8. Preview and submit

Open the Preview tab.

  1. Click Validate to run all checks (missing addresses, unassigned cargo, missing stops on a segment, missing flight info).
  2. Fix anything flagged.
  3. Click Submit to stage the order.

chrt assigns each ground task group to its courier; couriers see only their own task group. You see the full order at /orders/<order-ref>.

How to know it worked

  • The URL changes from /orders/drafts/<short-id> to /orders/<order-ref>.
  • Each ground segment has a Pending acceptance badge until its courier accepts.
  • Each flight segment shows its flight info with a live tracker once the order is in motion.
  • The order timeline lists order-staged plus the staged event for each task group.

If something looks different

  • Flights tab is missing. Add at least one flight segment or onboard-courier segment first — the tab only renders when one exists.
  • No courier selector on a flight segment. That’s expected — flight segments are auto-tracked, not courier-assigned.
  • You can’t reorder a saved segment. Saved segments lock to preserve task group integrity. Delete and re-add if you need to change the order.
  • Validation fails with no obvious error. Open each stop and confirm cargo selection — that’s the most common silent failure.
  • Contact hi@chrt.com if something looks wrong.