How to Block Unvetted Carriers from Load Assignment

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Overview

Documenting a carrier or adding a carrier quote records that carrier in Alvys as Pending: captured, but not onboarded. Historically, assigning a Pending carrier to a load only raised a warning that anyone could click past — which meant brokers avoided documenting carriers at all, rather than risk an unvetted carrier ending up on a live load. You can now turn that warning into a hard block. An admin chooses which carrier statuses are blocked, and carriers in those statuses cannot be assigned to a load at all. Carriers in any status you have not blocked keep the previous warn-and-continue behavior, so you decide how strict this is. Also known as: block pending carriers, carrier status restriction, prevent unvetted carrier assignment, carrier vetting guardrail.

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Before You Start

• Turning this on is a company-level change, so you need an admin who can edit company settings. Individual dispatchers cannot enable or bypass it.
• Decide which statuses your operation should refuse. This is a business decision, not a technical one — a brokerage that quotes widely will treat Pending differently from one that only dispatches fully onboarded carriers.
• Nothing changes until the setting is turned on. Leaving it alone preserves today’s behavior exactly.

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Steps

1. Open your company settings and find the blocked carrier statuses setting.
2. Select the carrier statuses that should be blocked from load assignment. You can choose any combination of:
   • Pending
   • Do Not Load
   • Expired Insurance
   • Interested
   • Invited
   • Packet Sent
3. Save the setting.

From that point on, assigning a carrier whose status is in your blocked list is refused. In the Dispatch Planner the assignment control is disabled, with a tooltip explaining why.

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Result

Carriers you have not vetted cannot reach a live load. You can document and quote carriers freely — which is what carrier quotes are for — without the risk of a rate confirmation going to a carrier who was never onboarded.

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What happens on a load that already has a blocked carrier

The block applies when a carrier is newly assigned or changed. It does not lock you out of a load that already carries one. This matters when a carrier’s status changes mid-trip — insurance lapsing while a load is in transit is the common case. In that situation:

• The carrier stays on the load. Nothing is unassigned automatically.
• Dispatchers can still edit and re-save the load — updating stop times, references, and so on — so tracking and status updates keep flowing. They see a warning rather than a block.
• Replacing the carrier does require choosing one in an allowed status.

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Where the block applies

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This is not the same as the compliance override error

Alvys has two separate reasons it can refuse a carrier, and they behave differently. If you are troubleshooting a blocked assignment, check which one you are seeing: For the second, see Override Authorization Error When Assigning a Carrier.

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Troubleshooting

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A dispatcher cannot assign a carrier and there is no override option

1. Check the carrier’s status in Alvys against your blocked list. If the status is blocked, this is the setting working as configured — not a fault.
2. To use that carrier, progress them to an allowed status by completing onboarding.
3. If the carrier should never have been blocked, have an admin review which statuses are selected in company settings.

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A bulk import failed on carrier rows

1. Open the annotated file returned by the import. The rejected rows are marked.
2. Check the status of the carriers on those rows. Rows assigning a blocked carrier are rejected during validation.
3. Correct the carrier or complete their onboarding, then re-import.

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A carrier on a live load has just become non-compliant

You do not need to do anything to keep working the load. Dispatchers can still edit and save it, and will see a warning rather than a block. Replace the carrier when you are ready, choosing one in an allowed status.

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FAQs

Q: Is this on by default? A: No. Nothing changes until an admin turns it on and selects the statuses to block. Q: Can a manager override the block for one load? A: No. Unlike the compliance restriction, a blocked carrier status has no override. That is the point of it — the alternative was a warning people clicked past. Q: Will turning this on unassign carriers from loads that are already moving? A: No. It only applies when a carrier is newly assigned or changed. Existing assignments are left alone, and dispatchers can still edit those loads. Q: Does it stop us quoting or documenting a carrier? A: No. You can document and quote carriers as freely as before. The block applies only to assigning one to a load. Q: Which statuses can be assigned once this is on? A: Any status you have not blocked. Carriers who have completed onboarding remain assignable in every configuration.

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Go Deeper

• Override Authorization Error When Assigning a Carrier
• How to Verify a Motor Carrier in Alvys