Basic features and processes

What is Carrier Connect?

The multi-carrier platform Carrier Connect lets you send single- and multi-package shipments around the world with international carriers and parcel services.

Process and basic features at a glance

Transfer shipping order data from the host system

You can transfer shipping order data from your host system using the web service interface or enter this data manually right in the Carrier Connect user interface. The shipping order data includes all the information needed to process a shipment: consignor and consignee address, package and item data, carrier, shipping options, etc.

Generate and prepare shipping labels and documents

Carrier Connect provides the correct shipping label and any other shipping documents, then feeds them back to your host system so that they can be shared with the selected printer. If it's not possible to prepare the label correctly, you have the option to print an error label with the error message instead of the shipping label. As soon as the labels have been prepared, the host system can access the tracking numbers in order to track the package and shipment. The Carrier Event Service option gives you access to your carriers' tracking data.

Generate and complete pickup

When shipping orders are completed, they are consolidated into pickups. The shipping orders to be consolidated can be selected either automatically using rule-based pickup strategies or manually. When the pickup is complete, the configured documents, e.g. manifests are generated in PDF format and shared via API with the host system.

Transmit shipping order data to carrier

At the same time the pickup is completed, the shipping order data is transmitted to the carrier either as a file upload (EDI) or through a web service interface (sometimes even while the label is being generated).

A note on terminology

This guide and the Carrier Connect user interface call the business object a shipping order. In the API the same object is called a shipment — the request field is shipment, and the operations are createShipment, processShipment, cancelShipment. They are the same thing.