Connecting a Carrier

Before you can rate, dispatch, track, or pull documents from a carrier, that carrier needs to be connected to your Shipwell account. This is a one-time setup per carrier (and per account, if you work with a carrier under more than one account number).

Note

Connecting a carrier — and configuring it, such as its Carrier Rules and Custom Markup — is currently done inside the Shipwell application rather than through a self-service API call. Log in to Shipwell and set it up there, or reach out to your Shipwell representative for help. Public, self-service APIs for carrier connection setup are on the roadmap and coming soon.

Step 1: Confirm the carrier is supported

Check Supported Carriers to confirm the carrier you want is available, and which operations it supports. Don't see a carrier you need? Contact your Shipwell representative — new direct carrier connections are added regularly.

Step 2: Open the carrier's Accounts page

In the Shipwell application, open the carrier and go to its Accounts tab.

Carrier Accounts page in the Shipwell application, showing an existing connected account with credentials, modes, and bill-to terms

Step 3: Add an account

Select Add Account and provide:

Account Name — a label for this connection, useful if you have more than one account with the same carrier.
Account Credentials — the carrier's own credentials, such as an API key. These vary by carrier — some use an API key, some a username and password, some a token.
Origins / Destinations / Customers — optionally scope this account to specific lanes or customers.
Modes — which modes (LTL, VLTL, FTL, etc.) this account should be used for.
Bill To Terms — billing terms, company name, and billing address used when the carrier invoices for shipments booked on this account.

Note

You'll still authenticate to the Shipwell API itself the normal way (see Authentication) — the carrier's account credentials entered here are separate, and only used by Shipwell to connect to that carrier on your behalf.

Step 4: Validate the credentials

Select Validate Credentials to confirm the carrier accepts them before relying on the connection — this catches a typo'd API key or an expired account up front, rather than as a failed rate or dispatch request later.

Step 5: Confirm the connection

Once saved, the account shows as CONNECTED. You can return to this page at any time to update credentials or settings — for example, if a carrier reissues your API key or you need to add another account for the same carrier.

Next steps

Once a carrier is connected, reference it by its carrier code on every subsequent request — starting with Rating.