Charge Codes and Standardized Reference Data

We're excited to announce a significant update to Shipwell's charge codes and reference data, designed to empower you with greater efficiency, consistency, and flexibility in managing your transportation costs across new modes like ocean, drayage, and air freight but enhance existing modes such as Intermodal, Rail, LTL, FTL, and Parcel. To enable the this feature please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

Introducing a Robust Charge Code Standard

Shipwell is now introducing a comprehensive version of the charge code standard which will be updated quarterly. The current version of the standard is v3 and it was created in 2024Q1. This enhanced standard offers several key benefits:

Accessing the New Charge Code Standard

The charge code standard is available at {{baseUrl}}/reference-data/charge-codes/. This easy-to-access location empowers you to explore the available codes, understand their meanings, and incorporate them into your shipping processes. The endpoint has standard searching, filtering, pagination and performance consistent with Shipwell's v3 API standard. The response below shows an example response

If the new charge code capability is enabled you will now see the following capabilities enabled. First the financial interface for carrier, customer, and invoice allows you to select from the charge codes that are defined in the charge code standard which is versioned by date. Any API, EDI or carrier portal access will automatically be mapped to this standard. We’ve now added a “CHARGE ITEM” column which has the format Charge Code - Charge Code Description (Charge Code Category). The description field will automatically default to the Charge Code Description but you can overwrite or change this field. We’ve made improvements as well to the design and format of the experience.

In the edit modal, you will see the ability to add a new line item. When a new line item is first added, you have the ability to see the various categories and the associated charge code under each category:

Simply clicking the item will add that line item to the shipment. In this instance I am searching for all the codes that contain the string or code “det”. You will see a box that shows the search results

In this case I am adding DTB or Detention associated with labor. You can search by code, description, or category.

You will see this line item added to the modal

Simply click save and you have now added an item.

Many times businesses use the same charge code from the standard but might name or describe it as something different. For example, a common charge is a Truck Order But Not Used (TONU). You can search for TONU but this code will be aliased to the actual standard code which is (VOR) or Vehicle Ordered But Not Used. The description will be set to “Truck Order But Not Used” but the charge code will be set to “VOR.” When a carrier sends an invoice or edi for a TONU. This will also be normalized to VOR allowing for proper first pass match. We can add multiple aliases to a specific code which will allows additional flexibility.

Shipwell has integrated a flexible template builder that allows you to modify versions of Shipwell’s templates along with doing completely brand new templates to be leveraged as documents and labels within Shipwell. The benefit of this capability is that it allows significant flexibility for different customer preferences. The underlying technology being leveraged will allow us in the future to more easily expand document offerings but also leverage the same technology for customized emails, messages, and tracking links as a few things that we envision. To gain access to this feature please reach out to your Customer Success Manager

On top of the Template Builder itself, we have integrated the ability to configure when documents can be automatically generated to save your people time. These initial key shipment lifecycle events include: shipment creation, shipment carrier assignment, and invoice received.

Once Template Builder has been activated for your account then you will be able to access it via Manage → Company → Templates. This will bring you to your template library. Initially you will only see the Shipwell created templates, and all templates will be inactive until you activate them.

The initial templates being released include:

Soon to follow templates being released include:

When template builder is activated, you must first go in and activate the templates you want to use and identify what modes it should apply along with which events, if any, the template should be auto generated.

Do this by selecting the template that you want to update the settings for by selecting ‘Edit Settings’ within the actions dropdown.

​You must select a) Document Type; and b) Status. Optionally you can select a) Modes; b) Event Generation; and c) enter a Description.

Templates are not viewable to be used unless they are ‘Active’ AND they have a mode defined that matches with the shipment. You CAN have multiple templates with the same document type and the same mode that are active. Further, templates are only auto generated when they: 1) are Active, 2) have a matching mode of a shipment; and 3) have a matching event triggers the template’s auto generation for a shipment. Once this happens the document will auto generate and be saved either within the shipment (all document types but invoice) or settlement documents (Invoice only).

Update a Template

While you cannot modify the name of the shared templates we provide, you can create a copy of them and name them as you wish as a private template that only your organization has access. You do this by selecting the template that you want to customize.

This will open the template editor window with the selected template. Since you have selected a Shipwell shared template you first will need to create a copy of this template to customize so you can save any changes. Do this by selecting ‘File’ → ‘New’.

Choose the template that you want to start with or choose ‘Blank template’ to start with a blank page.

In this case we are choosing the ‘Bill of Lading (Standard) (SW)’ file as a starting template.

A. Select the file name to rename the file. This file name is what will be displayed for end users so make it easily understood.

B. Leverage the options at the top of the template to modify text format, sizing, and alignment.

C. Leverage the components on the lefthand side and place on the template where you would want to use.

​D. Here we selected the text box component and dragged this onto the bottom of the template.

E. Click on the component

F. Select ‘Insert Data Field’ on the righthand panel or double click within the component.

G. A window populates where you can choose from the following data currently.

In the future additional data objects will be leverageable.

H. When you expand the parent object you will see the additional fields and sub-objects that can be available.

I. In this case we are choosing the ‘name’ field under the ‘customer’ within the ‘shipment’ data. For many of these fields there are example data provided to understand what data might be available.

J. Once the field is added then it will be sent when documents are generated as displayed in the template.

K. Once you have saved the document then after the table is refreshed it will show this new template that has been created that would have been updated as we have demonstrated above. Note the table refreshes once an hour currently.

Generate Shipment Documents

The preferred way of generating documents is simply by having the documents auto generate based on a designated event. However, you can also manually generate shipment documents by going to the Shipment Details page and selecting the righthand side panel. Choose the document name you want to generate under ‘Generate Documents’ and it will be generated and saved within your Shipment documents with the data from the shipment.

The document has been generated based on the updated template with the name of the company inserted based on the data for this shipment’s account.

The template builder will continue to be enhanced to offer additional auto generation capabilities, additional templates, and more. Contact your Customer Success Manager to get access to the Template Builder. Note customers that migrate onto the Template Builder will have this being utilized instead of the old document service we utilized.

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