For businesses focused on logistics, deliveries, or asset deployment, understanding the full lifecycle of a trip is crucial. The Shipments feature gives you a comprehensive overview of your assets' journeys from a defined Point A to Point B, with predictive arrival statuses, shareable tracking links, and now the ability to lock in a specific route and an alert corridor around it. This article walks you through what Shipments can do, how to set one up, and how to use the latest Corridor and Predefined Routes enhancements.
⚠️ Important Note: The Shipments feature is not automatically enabled on every account. To turn it on, reach out to your Customer Success Manager (CSM) and describe your tracking use case — they'll activate the feature and walk you through it. Shipments also work best with specific real-time tracker models; not all trackers are optimized for this feature.
📦 Understanding How Shipments Work
The Shipments feature is built for tracking a specific asset's entire trip from a designated start point to a final destination. It goes beyond a dot on a map and provides intelligent, end-to-end visibility.
Comprehensive Trip Monitoring: Tracks the entire journey of an asset, providing a continuous record from origin to destination.
Predictive Delivery Status: Using your defined start and end times, the system automatically calculates whether a shipment is Not Started, In Progress, Completed, or Completed Late
Public Sharing for Transparency: Share a one-click tracking link with customers or stakeholders so they can monitor progress without logging in to your account.
Route & Corridor Alerts: Define the exact path a shipment should take and get notified if the tracker strays outside the set corridor.
🛠️ Creating a New Shipment
To get started, log in to your account and click the Shipments tab in the main menu. The Shipments dashboard gives you a quick view of your active, late, delivered, and drafted shipments, along with totals for today's pickups and deliveries. To start a new one, click + Create Shipment in the top right (or the Create Shipment button in the center of the page if you have no shipments yet).
The New Shipment form is a three-step guided flow:
General — basic shipment info
Stops — origin, destination, and route preview
Publish — assign the tracker and create the shipment
You'll see a progress indicator at the top of every step so you always know where you are in the flow.
Step 1 — General
Enter the main shipment data.
Reference ID — A unique identifier for your shipment. You can use the auto-suggested format (e.g., SHP-2026-00001) or enter your own descriptive name (e.g., "Shipment A" or "Delivery to Client X").
Carrier — Enter the name of the carrier responsible for the delivery (e.g., UPS, FedEx, USPS).
Planned Pickup & Delivery — Use the date/time range picker to set the overall pickup and delivery window for the shipment.
Notes (optional) — Add any free-text notes about the shipment for reference.
Click Continue to move to the next step.
Step 2 — Stops
Each shipment has two stops: an Origin (stop 1) and a Destination (stop 2). For each one, fill in the following:
Address — Search for the pickup address (Origin) or delivery address (Destination). The system will auto-populate the coordinates behind the scenes.
Geofence (optional) — If your shipments typically start or end at a predefined area or facility, search for and select an existing geofence instead of an address.
Address Radius — Use the slider to set the radius around the address that counts as "at the stop." A tighter radius gives more precise start/end triggers; a wider radius gives more leeway if the tracker's first or last report is slightly outside the exact point.
Planned Departure (Origin) — Select the date and time the shipment is expected to leave the origin.
Planned Arrival (Destination) — Select the date and time the shipment is expected to reach the destination.
Once your Origin and Destination are set, the Route Preview map below will display suggested routes between them, along with the corridor that will be monitored during the trip. See the next section for a full breakdown of how routes and corridors work.
You'll also see an optional Stop times (autofill) section at the bottom — use this to quickly auto-populate stop times based on the overall planned pickup and delivery window.
Click Continue to move to the final step.
Step 3 — Publish
The final step is where you assign a tracker to your shipment.
Search for a tracker — Use the search bar to find a tracker by name, serial, IMEI, or ID.
Select the tracker — Click the tracker you want to assign. A checkmark will appear next to your selection.
Click Publish — When you're ready, click Publish to create the shipment. From this point on, the system will track progress against your defined route, corridor, and timeline.
🗺️ Corridors and Predefined Routes
The Corridor and Predefined Routes feature lets you take shipment tracking from "somewhere between A and B" to "exactly this path, with a buffer." It lives in the Route Preview map at the bottom of the Stops step in the shipment creation form, so you can set it up in the same flow as the rest of your shipment details.
How it works:
Suggested routes appear on the map. Once you've set your Origin and Destination, the system automatically suggests multiple route options — typically a Primary route plus one or two Alternatives — each labeled with its total distance and estimated travel time.
Pick the route(s) you want. Use the checkboxes next to each route to select your preferred path. You can pick a single route or choose multiple if your carrier may take either lane.
Unselect routes you don't want. Uncheck a route to remove it from the shipment — useful if you want to narrow tracking down to a specific lane. You can also unselect all suggested routes if none of them match your carrier's planned path; the shipment will still be tracked end-to-end, just without a defined corridor.
A corridor is drawn around the selected route(s). This corridor acts as an allowed travel zone for the shipment.
Deviation alerts. If the tracker moves outside the corridor during the shipment, you'll be alerted — so you can act on off-route incidents in real time rather than discovering them after the fact.
Adjust the corridor width. Use the Corridor buffer slider, or pick one of the preset widths: 2 mi, 1 mi, 3 mi, or Custom. A wider corridor gives more leeway for detours and traffic reroutes; a tighter corridor gives you earlier warning when something goes off plan.
Why it matters:
Define the exact route a shipment should take instead of leaving the path open-ended.
Set a clear boundary for acceptable deviation so alerts only fire when something genuinely unusual happens.
Reuse familiar lanes by picking the same suggested routes you rely on, trip after trip.
✏️ Editing a Shipment
Plans change — and shipments can be updated after they're created. Open the shipment you want to edit, then click the Edit button in the top action bar to open the Edit Shipment page.
The Edit Shipment page mirrors the creation flow — you can update nearly every part of the shipment in one place, from basic details all the way down to route selection and corridor width.
Status
At the top of the form, you'll see the shipment's current status badge (e.g., Booked, Active). Status is read-only and updates automatically as the shipment progresses.
Shipment Details
Reference ID — Rename the shipment for better clarity or organization.
Carrier — Update the carrier assigned to the shipment.
Planned Pickup & Delivery — Adjust the overall date/time range using the range picker.
Notes — Add or update any free-text notes about the shipment.
Origin (Stop 1)
Address — Update the pickup address (or click the × to clear and search a new one).
Geofence (optional) — Change or remove the geofence associated with the origin.
Address Radius — Adjust the radius around the address that counts as "at the stop."
Planned Departure — Update the planned departure date and time.
Destination (Stop 2)
Address — Update the delivery address (or click the × to clear and search a new one).
Geofence (optional) — Change or remove the geofence associated with the destination.
Address Radius — Adjust the radius around the address that counts as "at the stop."
Planned Arrival — Update the planned arrival date and time.
Route Preview
Update your route selections and adjust the corridor buffer just like you would during creation. All the same options are available here: pick or unselect suggested routes, adjust the corridor width with the slider or presets (2 mi, 1 mi, 3 mi, or Custom).
Stop Times (autofill)
Toggle Help fill in stop times and adjust the driving/rest settings if you need the system to recalculate stop times based on updated schedule information.
Tracking Device
The currently assigned tracker is displayed at the bottom of the form for reference. To assign a different tracker, you'll need to create a new shipment.
Saving Your Changes
Once you're done making changes, use the buttons at the bottom of the form:
Save — Applies your updates to the shipment.
Cancel — Discards any unsaved changes and closes the Edit Shipment page.
📡 Monitoring Your Active Shipments
Once a shipment is created and its assigned tracker begins reporting, you can open it at any time to see its live progress. The detail page features a clean card-based layout with three tabs on the left — Overview, Stops, and Exceptions — and a live map on the right.
Top Action Bar
At the top of the shipment detail page, you'll find the shipment's name and current status badge (e.g., Active, Delivered) on the left, and a row of quick actions on the right:
Download (icon) — Export shipment data.
Refresh (icon) — Pull the latest tracker reports.
Share — Copy the public tracking URL to share with non-users (see the Sharing section below for full steps).
Edit — Open the edit form to update the shipment.
Close — Mark the shipment as Closed, finalizing it in your records.
More options (three-dot menu) — Additional actions (e.g. Delete).
Status Labels
Your shipment's status updates automatically as it progresses through its journey. Possible values are:
Booked — The shipment has been created but the assigned tracker hasn't started reporting yet.
Active — The tracker has triggered the start and the shipment is in transit, on pace with the schedule.
At Risk — The shipment is tracking behind schedule and may not arrive by the planned delivery time.
Late — The shipment has passed its planned delivery time but hasn't reached the destination yet.
Delivered — The shipment reached its destination.
Closed — The shipment has been administratively closed out.
Overview Tab
The Overview tab gives you a full at-a-glance summary of the shipment, organized into clean cards:
Origin
The pickup address (or geofence).
Planned Pickup — the date and time you set during creation.
Actual Pickup — the date and time the tracker first reported from within the origin.
Destination
The delivery address (or geofence).
Planned Delivery — the date and time you set during creation.
Actual Delivery — the date and time the shipment reached the destination.
Device Information
Device Name — the tracker assigned to this shipment.
Serial — the tracker's serial number.
Battery — the tracker's current battery level (when supported).
Last Report — relative time of the tracker's most recent location update (e.g., "Just now," "5 minutes ago").
Shipment Details
Carrier — the carrier assigned to the shipment.
Created — the date and time the shipment was created.
Notes
Any free-text notes added during creation or editing. If no notes were entered, this card will appear empty.
Stops Tab
The Stops tab shows the individual stops on the shipment (Origin and Destination), each with its planned and actual times, addresses, and any related details. The number badge next to the tab name shows the total count of stops on the shipment.
Exceptions Tab
The Exceptions tab logs any unusual events during the trip, such as the tracker leaving the defined corridor. If nothing unusual happened, you'll see no exception events listed. This is the fastest way to answer the question "Did anything go wrong on this shipment?" without having to scrub through the map.
The Map
The live map on the right side of the detail page displays:
The origin (stop 1) and destination (stop 2) pins.
The full path of the shipment from origin to destination.
The corridor you defined during creation, overlaid on the route.
Tracker reports as points along the path, so you can see exactly where the asset was at each check-in.
🔗 Sharing a Shipment with Non-Users
Need to share live shipment progress with a customer, partner, or anyone else who doesn't have a GPX account? You can send them a public tracking link in just a couple of clicks.
Open the shipment you want to share.
Click Share in the top action bar (above the map) — this copies the public tracking URL to your clipboard.
Paste the link into an email, message, or any channel to share live tracking with your recipient — no login required on their end.
The recipient will be able to view the shipment's live progress, map, and status updates without needing to sign in or create a GPX account.
📡 Getting the Most Out of Shipments
The Shipments feature is designed to make the most of continuous, precise location data — so it shines brightest when paired with real-time trackers. The more frequent and precise the location updates, the sharper your route tracking, corridor alerts, and ETA predictions will be.
Different tracker types report location in different ways — some use GPS, others use Bluetooth proximity, and others use cell or Wi-Fi signals. All of these trackers can be assigned to a shipment, but the feature's predictive and corridor capabilities perform best with real-time reporting.
💡 CSM Tip Box: Not sure if the Shipments feature — or the new Corridor controls — are the right fit for your tracker models or workflow? Your Customer Success Manager can walk you through a personalized demo, review your specific use case, and help you decide whether Shipments, historical tracker reports, or a combination is the best fit. Reach out through the in-platform chat to get started.
🧭 What's Next? Need more assistance?
Browse our Help Center for additional support articles
Or reach out to your Customer Success Manager through the in-platform chat for hands-on help