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LogCrew

One shipment, from a question to a paid invoice

Six steps, in the order they actually happen. Four of them are states the backend enforces; the other two are the mechanisms between them. Nothing here is a stage we added to make the diagram look complete.

Four of the six are a status field

A freight job on LogCrew carries a status with four values, and the order is enforced rather than suggested: a job cannot reach Awarded without passing Bidding, and it cannot be awarded twice.

The two steps below that are not statuses are the ones that sit between them — the send that writes a row per agency, and the documents that read the job once it is won. They are mechanisms, not stages, and the product does not pretend otherwise.

  1. 1

    Open

    Posted, not yet sent to agencies

  2. 2

    Bidding

    With agencies, collecting bids

  3. 3

    Awarded

    Won — in fulfilment

  4. 4

    Completed

    Delivered and closed

The sequence, step by step

  1. 1. Post the inquiry

    An inquiry is a shipment described once: what is moving, where it goes, the region it belongs to, and what you are prepared to spend. The form asks four questions and stops.
    • Origin and destination are entered once and never retyped downstream.
    • The region on the inquiry is what decides who can be reached with it.
    • A budget is optional. An inquiry without one is still a valid inquiry.
    • It opens as Open: posted, and not yet sent to anybody.
    Create inquiryExample— this panel is an illustration, not real customer data
    1. CompletedWhat are you shipping?
    2. Current stepWhere is it going?
      POL / Pickup location
      Jebel Ali
      POD / Delivery location
      Rotterdam
      Region
      Middle East
    3. Not startedWho should see it?
    4. Not startedBudget and timeline
    Four steps, validated one at a time. The lane and region on step two decide which agencies are matched.

  2. 2. Send it to the region

    Sending is a decision, not something that happens on save. When you send, the backend writes one recipient row per agency in the region and mails each one — and then keeps tracking each row rather than declaring the job done.
    • One row per agency, holding the address the message went to.
    • Six delivery states: pending, sent, delivered, opened, failed, bounced.
    • A failed send is retried automatically, and the attempt count stays on the row.
    • A bounce is shown as a bounce. An address that no longer works is a fact you need.
    Inquiry recipientsExample— this panel is an illustration, not real customer data
    Delivery state per agency for one inquiry
    AgencyRegionDelivery
    Sample Forwarder LtdMiddle EastOpenedDelivered and opened
    Sample Carrier CoEuropeDeliveredConfirmed at the receiving server
    Sample Logistics GroupAsiaSentAccepted by the provider, delivery unconfirmed
    Sample Brokerage LtdAmericasFailedRetried automaticallySend failed — retried automatically
    Sample Shipper LtdAfricaBouncedAddress needs fixingRejected permanently — address needs fixing
    One row per agency the inquiry was sent to, with the delivery state the provider reported back. Failures retry on their own; a bounce needs a person.

  3. 3. Bids come back, comparable

    Agencies reply against the same inquiry with a rate and a proposed timeline, so the replies line up in a table instead of arriving as five differently shaped emails. The inquiry moves to Bidding.
    • Every bid carries an amount and the timeline the bidder is proposing.
    • Sort by rate or by timeline — the cheapest bid and the fastest are rarely the same one.
    • Bidders cannot see each other. A bid is visible to the bidder and to the agency that posted the inquiry.
    Bid comparisonExample— this panel is an illustration, not real customer data
    Three bids on one lane, sortable by agency, rate or transit time
    Sample Forwarder LtdLowest rate$4,200.0026 daysWithin 4 weeks
    Sample Logistics Group$4,650.0024 daysWithin 4 weeks
    Sample Carrier CoFastest$5,100.0018 daysWithin 3 weeks
    Sort by any column. The cheapest bid and the quickest one are rarely the same bid, which is the decision this screen exists to make.

  4. 4. Award the winner

    This is the one step in the sequence that cannot be undone, so the consequences are stated before the button rather than after it. Only the agency that posted the inquiry can award it, and only from Bidding.
    • The inquiry moves from Bidding to Awarded.
    • The awarded bidder — and nobody else — can then accept or reject.
    • A second award is refused. The job cannot be reassigned to another bidder.
    Award inquiryExample— this panel is an illustration, not real customer data
    Agency
    Sample Carrier Co
    Lane
    Jebel Ali → Rotterdam
    Rate
    $5,100.00
    Timeline
    Within 3 weeks

    Awarding does three things

    • The inquiry moves from Bidding to Awarded.
    • Sample Carrier Co is asked to accept or reject the award.
    • It cannot be re-awarded. A job takes one award, and only from Bidding.
    Award to Sample Carrier Co
    The one irreversible step in the lifecycle, so what it does is stated before it is taken rather than after.

  5. 5. The paperwork reads the job

    The bill of lading is built from the record that produced it. The reference and the lane were typed on the inquiry, and the document reads them, so the booking and the document cannot quietly disagree. When delivery is proved, the job closes as Completed.
    • Parties, lane and reference carry forward — nobody re-keys a port.
    • The document tracks its own status through to delivery.
    • The PDF is generated from the record rather than assembled by hand.
    Document lineageExample— this panel is an illustration, not real customer data

    Hover or focus any document to see what the three of them share.

    The reference and the lane are entered once, on the inquiry. The bill of lading and the invoice read them; nobody re-keys a port.

  6. 6. Invoice against the job that caused it

    The charge is raised against the job it came from, so the figure on the invoice is the figure that was awarded. Each state has exactly one thing to do about it, which is the difference between a status field and a worklist.
    • Draft is edited and sent. Sent waits to be marked paid.
    • Paid is filed. Overdue is chased — and the product says which is which.
    • A clean PDF to hand to whatever you keep your books in.
    Invoice statusExample— this panel is an illustration, not real customer data
    • DraftWritten, not yet with the clientEdit and send
    • SentWith the client, inside termsMark paid when it clears
    • PaidSettled and closedDownload the PDF for your records
    • OverduePast the due date, unpaidSend a reminder
    Four states, four actions. The state an invoice is in is also the instruction for what to do with it.

Put your next shipment through it

Every step above is a screen you can open on the day you sign up. Post an inquiry and you are at step one; the rest of the sequence follows the shipment rather than a sales process.

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