If you are an Enterprise customer with individual subsidiary organizations, remember that shipper settings are organization specific. Settings must be configured at the individual subsidiary organization level to ensure each subsidiary’s operations work as expected.
Dashboard → Shipper Settings → Quoting
Carriers need weight, dimensions, freight class, and commodity to price a shipment. Your team rarely has all of it to hand. These settings tell Owlery what to assume, so quotes go out complete instead of half-filled.
Everything in Shipment Defaults is a fallback: Owlery uses the real value whenever it has one, and only reaches for your default when the real value is missing. Two settings are exceptions and change the calculation itself — Freight Class with its override switch on, and Pre-2025 Freight Class Rules.
Settings in This Group
Shipment Defaults
Pallet Dimensions
What it does: Sets the length × width × height used when the items being shipped have no dimensions of their own. When you’d set it: If you ship on standard pallets. It’s the most useful default here — LTL carriers need dimensions to price at all.Preferred Pallet Dimensions
What it does: Gives your team a short list of pallet sizes to pick from while quoting, instead of typing measurements each time. When you’d set it: List your standard configurations — say a 48×40, a half pallet, and an oversize — and picking becomes one click. Unlike Pallet Dimensions, which is a silent fallback, these are a menu your team chooses from on purpose.Fractional Pallet Height Padding
What it does: Adds extra height when Owlery calculates a part-full pallet from your item data, since a half-height stack isn’t exactly half the height once you count the pallet, packaging, and stretch wrap. When you’d set it: Only if you use item-driven pallet calculations and find the computed heights come out consistently short.Pallet Weight
What it does: Sets the weight of an empty pallet, added on top of the weight of the goods. When you’d set it: Always, if you ship palletized. Match it to the pallets you actually use — a standard wooden pallet is typically 30–50 lb.Full Pallet Weight
What it does: Sets the total weight assumed for one loaded pallet when Owlery doesn’t know what the items weigh. When you’d set it: If your pallets are consistent. When to leave it unset: If your product mix varies a lot — an unset value is better than a number that’s often wrong.FTL Weight
What it does: Sets the weight assumed on a full-truckload quote when item weights are unknown. When you’d set it: FTL is priced by the lane rather than exact weight, so a round number is fine — many shippers set this near the legal maximum for a full trailer.Reefer Settings
What it does: Prefills the target temperature and how it should be maintained on refrigerated shipments. When you’d set it: If you ship at a consistent temperature. It means a required temperature is never left blank on a load that needs one.Commodity Description
What it does: Provides a plain-English description of what you ship — for example “Packaged food products” — used on quotes, loads, and documents when nothing more specific is available. When you’d set it: Whenever your item data doesn’t already describe the freight. A carrier or driver reading a document should be able to tell roughly what’s on the truck.Cargo Value
What it does: Sets the declared value of the goods, used on quotes and Bills of Lading when the items have no value recorded. Declared value affects the carrier’s liability if your freight is damaged or lost, and can affect the price. When you’d set it: If you ship goods of broadly similar value and your item records don’t carry values.Default Load Notes
What it does: Places text in the notes on every new quote or load. When you’d set it: Only for instructions that apply to everything you ship, like “Call 30 minutes before arrival”. When to leave it empty: Anything shipment-specific will appear on all the shipments it doesn’t apply to, and notes that are usually irrelevant get ignored — including the times they matter.Freight Class
What it does: Sets the LTL freight class — the standard category between 50 and 500 that largely determines what an LTL shipment costs. Owlery usually works it out from weight and dimensions; this setting covers the cases where it can’t. When you’d turn on the override: Turn on Will override computed values only if you have a class agreed with your carrier — for example a negotiated FAK (“freight all kinds”) arrangement where everything is billed at one class.Pre-2025 Freight Class Rules
Value: On / Off What it does: Keeps calculating with the freight classification rules that applied before 2025. The national rules changed that year, including how density-based sub-classes work. When you’d turn it on: If you have carrier contracts or customer agreements written against the old rules. When to leave it off: Everywhere else — off is the current standard.Carrier Quoting
Preferred Brokers
What it does: Sets which of your connected carriers and brokers are ticked by default when someone opens a quote. When you’d set it: Put your primary partners here so your team gets the rates that matter without ticking boxes each time. They can still add or remove carriers on an individual quote.Additional Rates
Value: On / Off What it does: Also asks for rates from brokers you don’t have an account with, so you see market pricing alongside your contracted rates. When you’d turn it on: To check your negotiated rates are still competitive, or when your usual partners can’t cover a lane.Competitive Bid Carrier Visibility
Value: On / Off What it does: Tells a carrier that has submitted a quote that a materially lower bid exists — but not who, or how much. When you’d turn it on: Carriers who know they’re beaten sometimes come back with a better number. When to leave it off: If your carrier relationships are contracted rather than competitive.Carrier SCAC Blacklist
What it does: Excludes carriers from quoting entirely, identified by SCAC. When you’d set it: After a service failure or a decision not to work with a carrier, so nobody on your team accidentally books them again.Weight/Quantity Threshold
What it does: Sets the size at which a shipment stops being LTL and starts being FTL, so quotes offer the right mode options. A shipment above either FTL minimum (weight or quantity) triggers a full-truckload quote; it must be under both LTL maximums to get an LTL quote. When you’d set it: When your team is getting quote options that don’t fit how you ship — LTL rates on shipments that really need a truck, or the reverse.These settings appear only when the feature is active on your account.
Quote Form Fields
Stop Requirements
What it does: Sets the accessorial services ticked by default for a stop — liftgate, inside delivery, appointment, or limited-access location. There’s one setting for pickups and one for dropoffs. When you’d set it: Where a requirement is true almost every time, for example if all your deliveries are residential and need a liftgate. Your team can still change it on an individual quote.Pickup Date Fallback
What it does: Sets the window Owlery assumes when a quote arrives with no pickup date — a range of days from today, for example 1 to 3 days out. When you’d set it: Rates vary with date, so this keeps pricing realistic on quotes that reach you without dates.Allow Same-Day Pickup
Value: On / Off What it does: When On, an order asking for pickup today keeps today’s date. When Off, a pickup date of today or earlier moves to tomorrow. When you’d turn it on: Only if your dock and your carriers can act on a request made this morning. When to leave it off: Otherwise — leaving it off keeps quotes honest.Dropoff Date Fallback
What it does: Sets the window Owlery works backwards over to set a pickup date, for when you know when goods have to arrive but not when they need to leave. When you’d set it: Set the range wide enough to cover realistic transit time.Remove Dimension Field
Value: On / Off What it does: Hides the dimension fields on the quote page. When you’d turn it on: Only if dimensions always arrive automatically from your item data. When to leave it off: If your team enters dimensions by hand — hiding the field means quoting without them, which usually means worse pricing.Remove Date Field
Value: On / Off What it does: Hides the pickup and dropoff date fields on the quote page. When you’d turn it on: If your team quotes for indicative pricing and real dates get set later. Pair it with the two date fallbacks above so Owlery still has something sensible to price against.Appointment Time Increment
What it does: Sets how the appointment time menu is divided — every 15 minutes, every 30, every hour. When you’d set it: Match it to how your facilities book docks. Your team can always type an exact time regardless.Quote Date Warnings
Value: On / Off What it does: Warns you when a carrier’s estimated pickup or delivery date falls outside the dates you asked for. When you’d turn it on: Worth turning on generally — carriers routinely return a quote that’s cheap but slower than you need, and the date difference is easy to miss. For how the comparison works, see Quote Response Date Warnings.Dock Scheduling
Show Same Order Appointment Action
Value: On / Off What it does: Adds a Same Order action, which creates another dock appointment against an order that already has one, carrying the details over. When you’d turn it on: If orders regularly need more than one appointment — split shipments, partial pickups, or multiple trucks over several days.This setting appears only when Dock Scheduling is active on your account.