We have strong documentation on our website that covers both the setup process and the more advanced features. This is useful not just in the beginning, but also to help new clients and employees along the line. Tutorials and videos are in our support section
While Courier manager has been designed to be user friendly, the start of using a new software solution is never easy. We're aware of this and our skilled support team are here to help every step of the way.
You can use Excel imports to set up existing data, including employees, clients, client addresses, prices or hubs. If necessary, we can work together on custom importing scripts. Some critical existing features may also require custom development to carry on into the new solution.
API bridges are a solution we've used successfully to grandfather existing integrations. If you have a large number of clients that are already using an older API, it's not practical to ask them to convert to the new one right away. By using a custom built bridge, their systems can continue to connect to what they think is the old software, but the shipments will be created in the new one.
We offer a full white label solution, where you can customize almost everything, big and small: logo, shipment labels, printed invoices, notification emails, SMS messages and much more.
If you care about your branding, you'll want your customers to never leave your domain. In addition to being integrated into your website, we can set things up so CourierManager works on a subdomain like app.yourcouriercompany.com.
You can quickly and easily add a shipment tracking box to your website, as well as login/register links for your customers. You can also build an order form where non-registered users can order shipments.
You can customize most notifications and labels by using your name and logo - but what if you want more? There's also the option of completely redefining almost every template in the software and changing both the way it looks and the information it presents. And you don't depend on us for this - you can use your own media agency to design the new templates and upload them in the software. This includes label formats, invoice templates, plus many kinds of notification emails and messages.
We offer a full, well documented API which allows larger customers to add and track shipments in the system.
We also have premade plugins for the major ecommerce platforms (WooCommerce, Magento, Prestashop, OpenCart, Shopify) and we are constantly adding more
For CoD settlements, we provide multiple export formats compatible with several banks. The export system is modular and can be easily extended with additional formats.
If you partner with other courier companies, you can easily integrate with their systems so they receive the shipment info, and send back status updates. You can set things up to use both your and their shipment numbers, and print either your or their label format.
If you use partners to cover certain regions but they don't have their own software solution, you can easily add them in the software as regular couriers - while keeping track of which company they work for and offering them separate access permissions.
We have both manual and automated translation in multiple languages, and we can always add more. If you use a dedicated instance we can also give you access to the translation interface, allowing you not only to manually polish the translation, but also to use your own specific terms, which is sometimes useful to transition users from older systems.
You can not only use your own currency, but we also have full multi-currency support. You can invoice your clients in their own currency, and also collect Cash on Delivery in multiple currencies for the same client, depending on the country of destination.
We have publicly available databases for most countries, and you can also upload your own lists of cities and provinces.
You can redefine distance, weight and volume units to fit your preferred system.
We're proud of our exhaustive permission system. Almost every button and action in the software can be made unavailable for certain users and groups. You can use this both for security, and also to present a simple and streamlined interface to each user category- which makes it much easier for them to learn and use.
We're big on accountability. Every action in the software is logged with a timestamp, username, IP address and often with a full record of what was changed.
We perform regular and independent backups in separate locations - different data centers in multiple countries. Depending on your setup and requirements we can also offer fully redundant infrastructure, but even without it the worst case scenario is never loss of data.
In addition to our own internal efforts, we perform regular security audits with external contractors. We also found open bug bounties to be wildly successful - after all, nothing compares with actually having somebody motivated to find a vulnerability.
All hosting and backup is done in EU countries. So no matter where in the world you are, your data is still protected by one of the most stringent privacy legislations in the world.
We have an internal inventory system which can track products and stocks, including transfers to and from multiple internal locations or from clients.
Stocks in the inventory system can be tied to a certain client, which makes it a good base for a fulfillment system - especially since an exit operation can automatically be associated with a shipment.
Another application is having a supply shop for shipping related supplies. If enabled, clients can order things up directly from their portal, and have them directly delivered and invoiced.
For Pick-Up and Drop-Off points, we have a separate shipment creation interface based on choosing points on a map. You can upload those points as predefined addresses, and can specify for each if they're used for pickups, drop-offs or both.
Your clients can have access to an API interface from which they can get the up to date PUDO points, and can duplicate the same functionality in their websites.
We've assisted clients with implementing the same PUDO map in their website, to facilitate quick shipments by unregistered users.
We have a fully featured internal ticketing system, which allows you to receive input from clients, couriers or back-office, assign and track them, communicate with clients and make sure they're solved in a timely manner. Tickets can also be automatically allocated per category and per hub. And yes, we also have predefined conversation templates for each category.
Our software uses a small and fixed number of shipment statuses - but it allows you to define an arbitrary number of codes, which you can use for any purpose - like reasons why a delivery was delayed or returned, but also for operational purposes. In particular, codes can be used to generate or filter exceptions.
All of the features above are designed to work together to automate a wide array of flows. For example, when something happens with a shipment - maybe it gets damaged, or the client wants it redirected - the courier can set a custom code to that shipment, which will generate an exception and automatically a ticket (for instance to re-label the shipment) with an optional extra fee.
An exception is any incident which you want to track for any reason. You can define an exception type with a certain trigger (such as when a shipment is delivered), and a wide array of filters depending on what you want to track. For example, you may want to follow up every shipment that is delivered later than 12 hours after arrival in the destination hub. Or shipments marked as delivered while the courier was far away from the destination address. Or setting a certain code to a shipment. Or anything else, really - filters are easy to add, so feel free to give us suggestions. Exceptions can also have actions attached - generating one can automatically create a ticket or add an extra service to a shipment.
Shipments are already pre-sorted in the optimum delivery order. It saves fuel, time, and is easier for the courier to stack and find them.
When you’re driving, you’re interested in the next stop. When you’re stopped, you want to know what shipments you have to pick up or deliver. The mobile app offers both views, including a map of your next stops.
Everything starts by scanning a shipment. After that the courier can easily mark it as picked up, or delivered, or assign it any of the codes you predefined.
You don’t want to do the same thing 30 times - or 300 times in a row. Just scan a bunch of barcodes and mark them all as picked up or delivered. Or, if you prefer, use our continuous scan option, where you set up what you want to do and then just keep scanning.
Need to add a last-minute shipment? No problem, just click “add” and type the details.
Waybills, receipts, CoD receipts, daily reports.. Just add a small, inexpensive bluetooth pocket printer, and you can have it all.
Just click “navigate” and have google maps take you directly to the destination. Couple with Route Optimizations for a truly high tech solution.
You have a history of every courier’s actions, including real time position, previous route and a log of all his actions.
Clients can access their own portal, where they can create and track their shipments. They can either add shipments one by one or import Excel files - though of course, for larger volumes we recommend direct API integrations or our premade plugins.
Clients can see the status of their shipments in real time. Once delivered, they can print or download a Proof of Delivery form, with the recipient's signature collected electronically. They can also see any photos made by the courier, and the GPS coordinates of the delivery.
You can set up complex notifications for various events, which can be sent by email, SMS message or as an API webhook. For example, you can set things up so a sender will receive emails for every successful delivery, but an SMS message only when a delivery is failed or postponed.
Invoices and Cash on Delivery amounts can be viewed and downloaded in the portal - and of course they can also be sent by email.
Using our internal inventory module, you can set up an in-app shop with various shipping supplies that the clients can order from you. Each order automatically generates a shipment and an invoice.
Clients can have multiple users in their account, each with separate roles and permissions. And they can also have multiple physical locations (or departments), with users allocated to one or more. Invoicing and CoD can be handled separately for each client department.
Frequently used addresses can be collected in an internal database or they can be uploaded by the clients from an Excel file.
All drivers that carry phones or scanners with the mobile app installed can be tracked on the map in real time. This is useful both for verifying isolated incidents, and also for automating various actions and warnings. For example, you can set up an exception when a shipment is marked as delivered when the courier is too far away from the destination address.
There are several ways to define subzones allocated to each courier. You can have lists of localities or zip codes, you can draw them on the map - or you can just let the software manage them with dynamic zoning. No matter which method you choose, you always know which courier should do a certain delivery or pickup. The information is printed on the label, but it can also be checked with a scanner or it can even be sent to an automated sorting line.
Using the existing zoning info, the software can generate daily rollcarts for each courier with all their deliveries and pick-ups. This happens automatically, and allows both the courier and the dispatch to check out the route for the day, and possibly modify it.
The order of stops in each rollcart is automatically optimized for the shortest total distance. This info can take into consideration things like pickup/delivery windows - you can for example set a certain pickup time window per client (like 15:00-17:00) and the optimization will take it into consideration.
Putting it all together means that you have a pretty reliable estimate of when a courier will arrive at a destination. You can do quite a bit of adjusting to the process, from the time when the courier starts the route and up to the average time it takes to do a delivery, including extra time if there is more than one package. But the end result is that at the start of the day you can send the recipient an SMS message or an email which includes a tight interval of when they should be expecting the courier. Even more, you can glance at a courier's rollcart, and you can instantly tell if he followed the designed route and if he has hit the delivery window for all his stops.
Local dispatch can see maps with all the projected stops at once, color coded and easy to interpret. Easy to tell for each courier if he is too loaded or not loaded enough, and can even move stops from one courier to another.
There is a separate view of all the pickup requests, already split by pickup address. You can see volumes and weights from each point, and allocate couriers for each - or let it be covered by existing zoning rules.
We have extensive multiple hub support, allowing you to limit user visibility per hub, automatically track shipments based on the hub of the person who last scanned it, generate reports per hub and much more.
Every shipment is at any point belonging to a person. You can't assign it to "a warehouse" or "a shelf" - it is always scanned by a living person, who did something physical with it. And there are several ways of encouraging a proper tracking of parcels - for example you can force couriers to end their day only after they have their remaining shipments taken over by a hub worker.
Having multiple hubs means linehaul routes between them - which you can define, manage and see maps of. For each linehaul route you can have scheduled runs which start automatically at a certain time, and track the movement of a certain line car and driver. You can see when they left and arrived, and you can easily generate trip manifests, including what shipments have to be dropped off or picked up at any hub on the way.
Line management is made a lot easier by batch shipments - add lots of parcels in a cage, or envelopes in a bag, seal it, and have it treated as one internal shipment. It can be scanned and allocated just like any shipment; and codes allocated to it will automatically be allocated to all containing shipments. At destination you just unpack it and have all of its contents allocated to the hub worker that unpacked it. To make sorting easier, at the origin hub you can have batch shipments that stay open all day, with a barcode on the side. You can add a parcel to it by simply scanning the barcode, then the new parcel. At the end of the day you seal the batch up, and mark it "picked up" just like a regular shipment.
Sometimes you want to do an action quickly, without messing up a lot with your mobile scanner or phone. For this we have action barcodes - this is how you can associate a parcel with a batch shipment.
Having all the routes defined in the software means that you can receive warnings whenever you attempt to load a shipment on a truck going in the wrong direction.
For each package in the warehouse you can track the location it is stored in, simply by scanning a barcode nearby.
You can use zones for multiple purposes: pricing, franchisor integrations or just your internal routing. There are several methods to define zones: lists of cities, provinces or zip codes, drawn on the map, based on distance from the sender, for shipments in the same city, province or hub area.
For rapidly growing areas, you can use dynamic zones: just put an approximate point on the map, and let the software split the new shipments based on all the information it has available - including previously allocated shipments and courier load. This way you don't have to redraw and rebalance existing zones each time you add a courier to the roster.
You can define a number of loading gates for your sorting hubs, to be used when sending shipments to each of the other hubs. This information can be sent to a smart sorting line, which can use it to transport packages automatically to the correct gate.
Unfortunately, fully automated sorting systems haven’t completely taken over yet - either because small hubs are not yet automated, or because of oversized packages that need separate handling. This is why all information necessary for sorting is visibly printed on the label. This means both gate information used in sorting hubs and route information used to easily allocate shipments to the correct delivery courier. The mobile app can also be used to quickly determine up to date information on a shipment, and we have a special flow for shipments where zoning information needs to be changed after the shipment is picked up, and does not correspond with the label anymore.
Recipients can see a public tracking page for each shipment by searching for the shipment number. They can see a detailed status and history for that shipment. On request, we can even show the live position of the courier when he's getting close to the destination.
Either by email or SMS, recipients will be informed the delivery is coming that day. And if you implement our full predictability feature set, the notification can also include a precise time interval.
With just a touch in the mobile app, couriers can open a WhatsApp conversation with the recipient, optionally starting it with a predefined message. Or, of course, call the recipient.
We provide a comprehensive pricing system that is a bit too complex to describe in a few lines. Suffice to say, we're likely to cover every case you may need - and if not, we can work together to cover it.
Invoices can be generated per individual shipment or for a certain period, and can cover all the classic situations like: group shipments, automatic grouping based on address, returns, fuel surcharge, late payers and much more.
Once you're familiar with the invoicing system, you can let it do things automatically. Pick an invoicing interval for each client, and invoices will be automatically generated.
Couriers have the possibility of collecting any outstanding invoice as cash, and it will automatically appear in their daily cash settlements.
Lets you track all amounts cashed in by a courier - either cash on delivery or shipments paid in cash on pickup or delivery. It works with multiple currencies and allows you to settle each separately.
Tracks all CoD amounts collected on behalf of the clients. Lets you track each shipment and optionally have an extra layer of confirmation before settlement. Bulk operations are provided to make it easy to work with large numbers of clients, and we can customize export formats so you can directly upload CoD transactions to your bank. Clients can see settlement info in their own accounts, and can also receive the same information by email.
For full chain cash on delivery, or other payment instruments like checks, we offer an additional tracking module that facilitates movement of cash and checks inside your company, from the delivery hub to the head office and finally to each individual client.
For clients with constant CoD shipments, you can use invoice compensations to deduct shipping costs from CoD amounts. Shipment invoices are generated automatically for each CoD settlement.
There's also a good chance most of your customization needs aren't new - with a wide array of settings, you'll likely be able to set things up just as you need them. Most print formats and messages in CourierManager can be customized by defining custom templates.
A lot of the things you may need can be developed by any third party using API integrations. E-commerce plugins, bank exports, courier integrations, even novel pricing schemes have open and documented APIs. Our API system is open and easy to use, so you’re not stuck with us for every upgrade.
But of course, some features can't be outsourced, and for those we're here for you. We can assist you in covering any specific use case you may have.