Electronic Dispatch

This article will cover the following items for creating a shipment using Electronic Dispatching:

Sending an electronic dispatch directly to the carrier via EDI or API (General Overview: API vs EDI)
'Ready' status change

Carriers will always utilize at least 1 method of dispatch via EDI or API.
Once a shipment's status is updated to 'Ready' the system will automatically send a dispatch (pickup request) to the carrier; this is the shipment status that triggers dispatch. If a shipment is not put in this status, or if it is put in the status 'Dispatched' without having been in 'Ready,' then it will not dispatch.
API is completely automated, and, once configured, requires very little human interaction.
EDI is not automated, and requires human interaction; EDI is best thought of as if you were sending an email to the carrier, that they would then have to manually open and process, so this is usually a slow method and delays up to 3 hours have been seen in the past. It is not abnormal for a carrier to have significant delays when working with EDI.
You can request more information about which carriers have which integrations by reaching out to IT.