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How to Assign a Carrier and Driver to a Shipment

This article walks you through assigning a carrier, dispatcher, and driver to an existing shipment in polt.ai. Once assigned, the shipment status changes from Open to Covered.

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Written by Rocco Pascente

đŸŽ„ Video walkthrough: watch this step on YouTube. A short recorded demo of exactly these steps.

Before you start: The shipment must already be created.

The carrier you assign must exist in polt.ai and have a Pass or Partial Pass status in Highway, MCP, RMIS — our carrier vetting tools. If the carrier isn't in polt.ai yet, add the carrier first.

1. Open the shipment

From the Shipments dashboard, click the shipment you want to assign. If you have a PO number, you can also use the global search bar at the top of the page to find it directly.

2. Open the Carrier section

Click Edit at the top right of the shipment, then click Carrier in the left-side menu (or scroll down to the Carrier section).

3. Assign the carrier

In the Carrier field, type the carrier's MC number, DOT number, or name and select the carrier from the dropdown.

Important — Highway status rules:

  • Pass or Partial Pass — approved, you can assign the carrier

  • Pending or Fail — not approved. Review the reason for the status. If you still want to use the carrier based on the reason, submit an override request to our internal team. Do not assign the carrier until the override is approved.

  • Not in polt.ai — the carrier needs to complete onboarding through Highway before they can be added.

See Understanding Highway carrier statuses for details on each status and how to submit an override request.

4. Confirm the assignee

The Assignee field auto-fills with the rep who created the shipment. Leave as-is unless you're handing the load off to another rep.

5. Add the dispatcher

In the Dispatcher field, select the dispatcher coordinating the load on the carrier's side.

6. Add the driver

In the Driver field, select the driver who'll haul the load.

7. Save

Click Save and close in the top right. The shipment status changes from Open to Covered, confirming the load is assigned.

8. Verify polt.ai driver app integration is on

When you save the shipment, the polt.ai driver app integration sends a tracking request SMS to the driver's phone automatically — provided the polt.ai driver app checkboxes under Integrations → Data synchronisation are on, which is the default for new shipments. No extra action is needed in most cases.

If you need to verify or change the polt.ai driver app setup, see Sending a tracking request to a driver.

Once the driver installs polt.ai driver app and accepts the load, the app automatically updates shipment statuses based on geolocation.

See Setting up driver tracking for the full driver experience.

Tip: Your next steps are to Send the rate confirmation to the carrier and verify the driver has installed polt.ai driver app.

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