How does chat with a logistics company work?
Start a chat from any posting, before or after you bid. Phone numbers and emails unlock in that chat once a rate is accepted.
Chat lets you message the logistics company that posted the freight, inside Cargado. You can start a chat from any posting, before or after you bid. Phone numbers and email addresses are blocked in a chat until a rate on that posting is accepted.
Step 1: Start a chat from a posting
Open a posting from the Load board. Below the bid card, click the Message... bar under Contact Broker. Your chat with that logistics company opens, and you type and send your message there. You do not need to bid first.
Use it to ask about the load, the lane or how to onboard with them. If you already bid, the same bar opens the same chat, and your bid shows up in it.
Tip: The bid card has no message field. To add a note to your bid, such as where your empty truck is, send it in the chat.
Step 2: Find your chats
Click Chat in the left menu. A red number or a red dot on it means you have unread messages.
- Each chat about freight shows the logistics company's name and a one-line summary of the posting it is about.
- Chats with unread messages show in bold. Some also show a red count.
- Use Search chats to find a chat. Chats you archive move to Archived.
Inside a chat, click the route at the top to open the posting. If the posting is closed and you won it, it opens the details of your matched freight. Click the company name to see its profile, with its legal name and address. If that logistics company has a record of you as a carrier, the profile also shows Onboarded or Need to onboard.
Messages can be translated. Use Show original and Show translated to switch between the two.
Step 3: Add teammates to a chat
Open the member list in the chat header and click Add member. Search by name, email or phone number. You can add people who are already members of your company on Cargado. You see Add member only when your company has at least one other member on Cargado. To add someone new, a person who manages your company's members first invites them with Invite teammates.
When phone numbers and emails unlock
Until a rate on the posting is accepted, Cargado blocks messages that contain phone numbers, email addresses or other outside contact details. A blocked message shows a red warning triangle next to it. Click the triangle to open Message Blocked, then click Edit Message to take the contact details out, or Delete.
The block lifts for that chat after a rate is accepted. That happens when the logistics company accepts your bid, when you book at the price on the Book now button, or when you accept their counter offer. From then on you can share phone numbers and emails, and keep talking in Cargado or outside it.
If you think a message was blocked by mistake, contact Cargado support.
Secure your account
If you have not turned on multi-factor authentication, a yellow note above the message box says Brokers can see your account isn't secured. Click Enable multi-factor authentication to set it up.
Won the freight? See I won the freight. What happens now?
Still stuck?
Email us and a person on our team will answer. Send the posting link or a screenshot if you have one.