Requests to our team¶

Not everything has an instant answer. When you need a special rate, a contract, help with a booking, a fix for a shipment or a record, or a feature, your assistant files a request with Freight Right's team — in your own words, after you have seen exactly what will be sent.

What a request is¶

Kind	For
Spot rate	A price for a lane or shipment the instant tools could not give you
Contract inquiry	Rates over a period, for a volume
Booking help	Help with a quote, a quote request or a booking
Shipment issue	A problem with a shipment under way — it needs the shipment reference
Data correction	Something recorded wrongly — it needs the reference of the record
Feature request	Something you wish Shipment Manager or the assistant did

Our team answers by e-mail, to the address of your Freight Right account, in the thread of the confirmation you receive when the request is sent. You can also follow every request in Shipment Manager (Quotes → Requests).

How your assistant files one¶

It checks first. freightright_list_requests shows your open requests. One already open on the same ask is continued, never duplicated.
It drafts, and nothing is sent. freightright_create_request_draft stores your words exactly as you said them and the details the assistant read from them. The draft is private: nobody is notified. Freight Right answers with what it understood, what is still missing and the one question to ask you next — so your assistant asks one thing at a time, and fills your answers in with freightright_update_request_draft.
You see the preview. freightright_preview_request shows the confirmation e-mail you would receive and what the team would get. It is read-only.
You say yes, and it is sent. Only then does freightright_submit_request send it — and only the version you previewed: the submission carries that preview's revision, and a draft that changed since is refused rather than sent. You get the confirmation e-mail; the team is pinged.

Whether your assistant asks you before the submit tool runs is its own setting (what a write guarantees); the tool itself asks for your explicit yes to the previewed version either way.

What the assistant sends, detail by detail¶

Your assistant gives each detail it read from your words as a named argument of freightright_create_request_draft (and the same arguments on freightright_update_request_draft). Each one becomes exactly one field of the request the team receives, by kind; a detail that does not belong to the kind is refused with what the kind takes, never silently dropped. The message itself (message) is stored exactly as you said it, and billing_organization_id names the organization, not a detail. The same table is kept, and tested, in the connector's source.

Argument	What the team receives	Kinds
`mode`	`slots.mode` — FCL, LCL, AIR, LTL or FTL	`spot-rate`, `contract-inquiry`, `booking-help`
`origin` (`code`, `name`, `country_code`, `postal_code`, `city`, `as_said`)	`slots.origin`, the same fields; codes upper-cased	the same
`destination` (the same fields)	`slots.destination`	the same
`containers` (`type`, `quantity` per line)	`slots.containers[]`	`spot-rate`
`cargo` (`description`, `pieces`, `weight` {value, unit}, `volume` {value, unit})	`slots.cargo`, the same fields	`spot-rate`
`ship_window_from`, `ship_window_to`, `ship_window_text`	`slots.ship_window`	`spot-rate`
`commodity`	`slots.commodity`	`spot-rate`, `contract-inquiry`
`incoterm`	`slots.incoterm`	`spot-rate`
`notes`	`slots.notes`	`spot-rate`
`annual_volume`, `start_date`	`slots.annual_volume`, `slots.start_date`	`contract-inquiry`
`reference`	`slots.reference`	`booking-help`, `data-correction`
`reference`	`slots.shipment_reference`	`shipment-issue`
`cargo_ready_date`	`slots.cargo_ready_date`	`booking-help`
`needed_by`, `issue_type`	`slots.needed_by`, `slots.issue_type`	`shipment-issue`
`field`, `correct_value`	`slots.field`, `slots.correct_value`	`data-correction`
—	a `feature-request` has no details: your words are the request	`feature-request`

Every free-text detail is between 1 and 120 characters (notes, correct_value and the cargo description up to 500, reference up to 64, field up to 80); dates are YYYY-MM-DD; at most 10 container lines of 1 to 50 containers each. These are Freight Right's own limits, applied by the tool before anything is sent.

What Freight Right enforces¶

Who may file. A customer's connection, for its own account. The request's reply address is always the e-mail of the signed-in account — no tool argument can change it. A Freight Right administrator's assistant can read requests but never files one; staff file for a customer on the staff page. Someone without a Freight Right account is told that one is free to create.
Which organization. Taken from your account. Only when the account can be billed through several organizations, and none is the default, does the assistant ask which — and it can only name one of yours.
Daily limits. 20 drafts and 5 submissions per organization per day; the assistant is told exactly when the limit resets.
The same words again. The same message with the same details within 30 days returns the request it already made, whatever became of it — your assistant is told so, and told to add a detail or rephrase if you meant a new one.

Withdrawing¶

freightright_withdraw_request ends a draft, or a submitted request the team has not answered yet — only when you ask for it. It is the record only: nothing not yet sent goes out and the team stops working on it, but an e-mail already delivered is not unsent. A request already answered or closed cannot be withdrawn; reply to the team's e-mail instead.

What the assistant sees¶

The status of each request (draft, submitted, triaged, in progress, responded, closed, withdrawn), what Freight Right understood, the team's answer once one was e-mailed, and a history of events and kinds of actor — never a staff member's name, and never internal notes.