How to Set up and Manage Shipment Alerts?

Overview

Shipment Alerts lets you proactively monitor unusual happening in logistics operations. Instead of waiting for weekly or monthly reports, you can track important shipping metrics like delays, lost packages, or abnormal shipment patterns and set up rules to trigger real-time notifications. This will help your team respond quickly, minimize disruption, and keep customers informed.

What you’ll learn

In this article, we will show you:

1. How to set up shipment alerts

• Step 1: Define alert conditions
• Step 2: Preview with data + AI insights
• Step 3: Configure notifications
• Step 4: Set check time and frequency
• Step 5: Enable rule

2. How to manage alert rules
3. View alert history
4. What to do after an alert triggers
5. Best practices for using shipment alerts
6. Recommended alert rules to create
7. Key takeaways
8. FAQs

How to set up shipment alerts

Follow the steps below to set up the rules that will trigger your alert:

Step 1: Define alert conditions

1. Go to Settings > Shipment alerts.

2. Choose a pre-built rule or create a custom rule.

3. Configure your rule:

a. Apply filters: Focus on specific carriers, destinations, stores, vendors, issues, or shipment statuses.

b. Choose a metric: Select the available metric that you want to monitor, such as:

• Number of shipments
• Percentage of exceptions
• Delivery rate
• On-time or early rate
• EDD coverage
• Average transit time
• Average order-to-delivery time
• Average processing time
• Average pickup time
• Pending rate

c. Set a condition: Use operators like “greater than,” “less than,” or “relatively increased by” to define when alerts should trigger.

Example: Trigger an alert if the average transit time for Carrier X is greater than 5 days in the last 7 days.

Operator types and example

How do comparison periods work

When using comparison operators, the system compares the “last X days” period to a previous period (Y days) that you define in the alert condition. Know how it works:

Absolute vs. Relative difference

Step 2: Preview with data + AI insights

Before turning on your alert, preview how it will behave using data and AI insights:

• Historical trend chart: Displays how your chosen metric performed over the last 60 days.

• Threshold overlay: Shows your selected threshold directly on the chart, highlighting where the condition would have been met.
• AI insights: Get clear explanations about key trends, anomalies, and typical ranges for better accuracy. It also suggests how to adjust your alert settings, whether it's triggering too often or rarely triggering to maintain the right balance. 

Example: “Average transit times are usually between 2–3 days. With your threshold of 2.5, the rule would have triggered 12 times in the past 30 days. Consider adjusting it to reduce false alerts.”

Step 3: Configure notifications

Configure notifications to decide where you want to be notified when alerts trigger.

• In-app alerts: View alerts directly on the home page Alert section.
• Email notifications: Add recipients to receive alert summaries and quick access links to the details.

Step 4: Set check time and frequency

Choose how often the system should check your alert conditions:

• Daily: At a fixed time each day (e.g., 10:00 AM).
• Weekly: On a selected day and time (e.g., Monday at 9:00 AM).
• Monthly (date-based): On a specific date (e.g., 1st of the month, 2:00 PM).
• Monthly (week-based): On a weekday in a specific week (e.g., last Friday at 5:00 PM).

Step 5: Enable rule

Turn on the alert rule to start monitoring:

• Click Save to successfully create the rule.
• Toggle Enable alert rule to activate the configurations.
• Once enabled, the system will automatically check based on the defined schedule.
• Review your rules periodically and update them as per your business requirements.

How to manage alert rules

You can manage all your alert rule configurations from the Alert Rules Management list.

• View all rules: See all active rule names, types, conditions, notification channels, and check frequency (next scheduled) in one place.
• View rule details: Open a single rule to review its current conditions, preview the chart with historical data, and trigger history.
• Edit rules: Update conditions, thresholds, recipients, or notification frequency anytime for changing business needs.
• Pause rules: Temporarily stop a rule without deleting it. Paused rules remain inactive in the list but won’t trigger until re-enabled.
• Delete rules: Permanently remove unwanted rules. However, this cannot be undone; you cannot recover them.

View alert history

Each time a rule’s conditions are met, the system generates an alert notification. All triggered alerts are saved in your Alert History Log. You can:

• Triggered alerts: Review a list of past alerts, including date/time, trigger rule, and affected shipment details.
• Notification channels: See which notification channels (email or in-app) were used to deliver notifications. 

What to do after an alert triggers

You can take the following actions when an alert is triggered:

Review alert details:

1. Check when and why the notification is triggered.
2. View the metric value.
3. Use the historical chart and AI insights to understand context, trends, and anomalies.

Investigate affected shipments:

1. Click View shipments in the notification to open the pre-filtered list.
2. Check shipment statuses, identify problem carriers, and take corrective action. 

Best practices for using shipment alerts

1. Start with business-critical metrics

• Focus on important KPIs that directly impact customer experience or operational visibility, like shipment import volume, on-time/early delivery rate or average transit time.
• Avoid setting up too many low-impact alerts, which can reduce focus on critical issues.

2. Use AI and historical data for a realistic threshold

• Leverage the AI preview panel to analyze past performance trends before setting thresholds to avoid unnecessary alerts.

3. Validate with “what-if” simulation

• Use the data preview to see how often your rule would have triggered in the past.
• Adjust thresholds to strike the right balance. Such that the rule is sensitive enough to catch real issues but not too sensitive that it sends too many false alerts.

4. Use the right notification channel

• Use the in-app Alert section for ongoing monitoring and visibility.
• Reserve email notifications for urgent alerts that require immediate attention and escalation.

5. Review and adjust regularly

• Revisit and adjust rules as business conditions evolve, such as busy seasons, new carriers, or updated SLAs. Keep alerts accurate, relevant, and actionable.

Recommended alert rules to create

To get the most out of shipment alerts, focus on rules that catch the most common and business-critical logistics risks:

Key takeaways

• Set up shipment alerts for key logistics issues like delays, exceptions, or stuck shipments.
• Use filters, metrics, and thresholds to define alert conditions that matter most to your operations.
• Leverage AI insights and preview historical data to optimize thresholds and reduce false alerts.
• Get real-time alerts through in-app (Tracking homepage) notifications or emails based on urgency.
• View, edit, pause, or delete alert rules anytime from the Alerts Management dashboard.
• Regularly review and adjust rules as business needs, carriers, or SLAs change.

FAQs

1. How to create a new shipment alert rule?

1. Go to Settings > Shipment Alert.
2. Click Create alert rule. 
3. Assign a name for the rule and description.
4. Apply filters to be more specific about a carrier, destination, etc. 
5. Set appropriate trigger conditions.
6. Choose a notification channel and set up a schedule. 
7. Click Save and enable the rule to make it active.

Updated on: 03/11/2025