🚚 Shipments & Carriers
Learn how to book shipments for your orders, compare carrier quotes in real time, track deliveries end-to-end, and manage your full shipment history on Africa Conglomerate.
- Your company account must be approved (see Account Setup)
- At least one confirmed order must exist (see Orders & Checkout)
- Carrier integrations require a Growth or Enterprise plan — the Shipments section is hidden on Starter plans
- Your company address must be complete (used as the default sender address)
Part 1 — Shipment Overview
The Shipments module gives you a centralised view of all outbound deliveries for your organisation, covering multiple carrier integrations through a single interface.
Navigate to Shipments
Click Shipments in the left navigation panel. The list shows all shipments for your organisation with key details:
- Tracking number — carrier-assigned reference
- Order — the order this shipment fulfils
- Carrier — coloured badge identifying the carrier
- Status — current delivery status (see status list below)
- Destination — recipient address
- Booked — date the shipment was created
Shipment statuses follow this progression:
- Pending — booked but not yet picked up
- Picked Up — carrier has collected the parcel
- In Transit — moving through the carrier network
- Out for Delivery — with the final delivery driver
- Delivered — successfully delivered to recipient
- Failed — delivery attempt failed
- Returned — parcel returned to sender
- Cancelled — shipment cancelled before dispatch
Part 2 — Book a Shipment
Booking is a three-step flow: enter shipment details → compare carrier quotes → confirm booking. The entire flow is powered by HTMX, so quotes load inline without a page reload.
Start the Booking Flow
You can start a shipment booking in two ways:
- From the Shipments list, click + Book Shipment and select the order to fulfil
- From an Order detail page, click the Book Shipment action button
Both routes take you to the booking page for that order. Your company address is pre-filled as the Sender. Review and update the Recipient address if needed.
Enter Package Details
Fill in the parcel dimensions and weight so carriers can price accurately:
- Weight (kg) * — total shipment weight
- Length / Width / Height (cm) — outer carton dimensions
- Contents description — brief description for customs/carrier
- Declared value — insurance value of the goods
Get Carrier Quotes
Click Get Quotes. The system polls all configured carriers simultaneously and displays their quotes inline. Each quote shows:
- Carrier name & service level — e.g. "Express 24h", "Economy 5-7 days"
- Estimated transit time
- Price — in your billing currency
- Features — e.g. door-to-door, tracking included, insurance
Select a Quote and Confirm
Click Select on the quote that best fits your cost/speed requirements. A confirmation summary appears showing the full shipment details and total charge. Review everything, then click Confirm Booking.
Part 3 — Track a Shipment
Once a shipment is booked you can follow its journey in real time directly from the platform — no need to visit the carrier's own website.
Open the Shipment Detail Page
Click any shipment row in the list to open its detail page. The top section shows the carrier, tracking number, current status, and estimated delivery date. Below that is the Tracking Timeline — a chronological list of every scan event the carrier has recorded.
Refresh Tracking Events
Tracking events are cached to reduce API calls. To fetch the very latest carrier updates, click Refresh Tracking. The timeline reloads inline via HTMX — you do not need to reload the whole page.
Filter Shipments by Carrier or Status
Back on the Shipments list, use the Carrier and Status dropdowns in the filter bar to narrow your view. For example, filter by status Failed to quickly find all shipments that need re-booking or customer contact.
