Negotiating and confirming agreements with your carriers is crucial for every broker’s workflow. As with many other potentially time-consuming tasks, Tailwind is designed to make Load Confirmation faster and easier. While you can always print or email your Load Confirmation document manually, Tailwind allows you to automatically manage the confirmation process using our Electronic Load & Rate Confirmation system.

To start the Load Confirmation process, navigate to the Dispatch you want to confirm or create the Dispatch if you have not yet done so. Once there, click on the ‘Send Load Confirmation’ button at the top of the record.

This will bring up an email dialogue. The email used will be the email of the default Contact for the Carrier who has been assigned to the Dispatch, but you can change it to a different email target if necessary. You can also add to or modify the body of the email that will accompany the Load Acceptance link. The email will always include a link to the Load Confirmation itself.

Once you have made the necessary changes, click ‘Email’ to send the confirmation email.

The Carrier will receive an email that links to an external Load Confirmation page. Clicking on that link will bring them to the page in question, which provides most of the Dispatch details and includes a button they can use to ‘Accept’ the load.

This page will not include the exact address(es) of the Shipments in question in order to protect against load sniping by a potential Carrier. However, once the Carrier accepts, they will be emailed a copy of the full Load Confirmation document, including the complete pickup and delivery addresses.

When the Carrier accepts the Load, the system will automatically update the Dispatch to reflect this change in status (see the section below for the different statuses.) It will also send out an email to the dispatcher assigned to the Dispatch in question, notifying them that the Carrier has accepted. Finally, the Carrier will receive an email with the full Load Confirmation document.

Once you have initiated the Load Acceptance process, you can check on its status at any time by opening the Dispatch: the ‘Send Load Confirmation’ button will have changed to reflect the current status of the process. The possible statuses are:

Awaiting Acceptance: once you send out the initial email, the Dispatch will be set to ‘Awaiting Acceptance.’ It will remain in this status until the Carrier accepts or the Load Confirmation expires.

Load Accepted: once the Carrier accepts the Load Confirmation, the status will show ‘Load Accepted.’

[fig 4 – Load Confirmation Expired]

Load Confirmation Expired: an ‘expired’ status appears only if the Carrier has failed to Accept the load within the configured expiry time. By default, a Load Acceptance link sent to the Carrier will expire after 24 hours. Once it expires, the Carrier will no longer be able to accept the load.

In addition to the label, clicking on the button will bring up more details on the current status of the Load Acceptance.

After sending out the initial Load Confirmation, you can re-send the email by clicking on the status button and selecting the ‘Resend Email’ button that appears in the pop-up window. This will open up the same email dialogue as when you first sent the confirmation, allowing you to send it again (or send it to a new email address.)

Resending the email will also reset the expiry timer.

You may cancel the Load Acceptance process after sending out the initial Load Confirmation. To do so, either select ‘Cancel Load Confirmation’ from the ‘More’ menu on the Dispatch or click on the ‘Cancel LC’ button that appears in the status pop-up.

Once cancelled, the Dispatch will be reset to its initial status, allowing you to send out a new Load Confirmation (e.g. to a New Carrier) if desired.

Note that while it is possible to Cancel a Load Confirmation that the Carrier has already accepted, this should be done with caution, as an agreed-upon Load Confirmation is likely to be seen as a binding contract by most Carriers.

You can’t send out a Load Confirmation without first creating a Dispatch.