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Connecting a Carrier

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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).

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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.

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Step 1: Confirm the carrier is supported

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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.

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Step 2: Open the carrier's Accounts page

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

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\"Carrier

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Step 3: Add an account

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Select Add Account and provide:

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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.

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Step 4: Validate the credentials

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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.

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Step 5: Confirm the connection

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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.

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Next steps

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

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