Getting Started
Core Concepts
The following are explanations of core concepts that will help you understand how Curri and our API should be properly used.
In short:
- Quotes are ways to get pricing before you book with us.
- You can book a delivery with or without requesting a Quote.
- Your quote or delivery must provide a priority, origin, destination, and manifest of goods.
Quotes
Quotes are purely optional. You can book a delivery with or without requesting one. However, they are a good way to compare our prices with other delivery platforms you might use.
All of our quotes expire after 15 minutes. Every quote has an id
field. If you want to book with a particular quote, please use that id
.
If that quote has expired, you will receive an error message when you try to use it.
To provide a single quote we need the following information:
- An origin or pickup location
- A destination location
- A manifest (see below)
- A scheduling priority (see below)
- A delivery method (i.e., desired vehicle type)
Deliveries
Deliveries are our main primitive. Most of your usage of our API will involve creating, canceling, and monitoring deliveries. You can always book a delivery directly with us, no quotes required.
To book a delivery we need the following information:
- An origin or pickup location
- A destination location
- A manifest (see below)
- A scheduling priority (see below)
If you do not provide a delivery method, we will use the manifest to determine the most appropriate vehicle to assign.
Manifests
Manifests are lists of the goods and materials being delivered. They are made of manifest items.
For each manifest item, we want to know:
- Dimensions (height, length, width)
- Weight
- A brief description or name
Giving us this is extremely important. It is information we pass along to our delivery providers. They use it to ensure that they are picking up the right goods or materials.
Additionally, there are some materials we may not be able to deliver. The manifest helps us ensure those materials are not present.
Weight is extremely important, as we use it to determine the final price of the delivery. If the weight is grossly understated, you might be subjected to overage charges and/or the delivery might not be able to be completed.
Priority
We have three main priorities:
- Rush - Deliveries that should be completed as fast as possible.
- Same Day - Deliveries that need to be completed by the end of the business day they are booked.
- Scheduled - Deliveries that need to be picked up on a specific date.
Generally, Curri deliveries are meant to be completed in a single day.
Tracking
All deliveries booked via our API provide real-time tracking and status updates.
You can receive tracking information in a variety of ways:
- A URL to a live tracking webpage in the response object for your delivery.
- Long polling our deliveries API for status updates.
- Subscribing to webhooks that post update information to your system every 20 seconds.