Shipment Step Templates by Industry

Introduction

When you create your account, Sistrack comes with the Standard template: 7 shipment steps covering the full cycle of a local courier service (pickup, out for delivery, delivery, retry, return, and cancellation). For most companies, that configuration works from day one without touching anything.

But every industry has different flows: an e-commerce business with a distribution center doesn’t move the same way as an international shipping company dealing with customs. For those cases there are ready-made templates by industry you can apply with one click.

💡 This guide is about templates. If you already have your statuses set up and want to create a new one, reorder them, or understand the flow health notices, see the full Shipment Statuses guide.

Before configuring your steps

Every shipment step has 4 key properties:

1. Name and subtitle: what your customers see in tracking.
2. Canonical type: the step’s universal category (Delivered, In transit, Picked up, etc.). This lets the system know what each step means for reporting, automatic notifications, and integrations.
3. Next stage: which step the order moves to when the courier confirms the next action from the app. Templates already come with this flow configured, including the delivery retry.
4. Notifications: whether to send email or WhatsApp to the sender or recipient when the order reaches this step.

💡 The Canonical type matters. Even if you call a step “Leaving the distribution center,” choosing the canonical type In transit makes the system understand it as such for reports and comparisons between shipments.

⚠️ Only one step per canonical type. Every template uses each canonical type exactly once. If two steps shared the same type, the system wouldn’t be able to tell which one to move the order to when an event is logged.

How to apply a template

1. Go to System → Shipment Statuses from the main menu.
2. Click Browse templates (visible to administrators).
3. Choose the template that most closely matches your operation. You can preview the full flow in the diagram before applying.
4. Confirm. The template’s steps replace your current ones, with the flow and notifications already configured.

⚠️ Applying a template replaces all your current steps. That’s why it’s only available while your account has no orders registered. If you already have orders and need to change your flow, contact support.

After applying, you can edit each step individually: rename it, adjust messages, turn on WhatsApp, or add new steps.

Which template is right for me?

Answer these 4 questions:

1. Does your operation include picking up packages from the sender’s location, or do you only receive packages already at your warehouse?

   • If you pick up on a schedule → the B2B template with scheduled pickup and failed pickup works for you.

2. Do you go through one or more intermediate distribution centers between origin and destination?

   • If yes → you need manifesting and distribution center steps.

3. Do you ship cross-border (crossing borders or customs)?

   • If yes → you need customs and customs clearance steps.

4. Do you deliver to the recipient’s address, or to lockers / pickup points?

   • If you deliver to lockers → you need a special Delivered at pickup point step.

Standard Template (local courier)

For whom: local courier services, simple e-commerce, intra-city parcel delivery. This is the default template that comes with your account.

Typical flow: you pick up the package, it goes out for delivery, and it’s delivered the same day or the next. If delivery fails, it’s retried; if it can’t be delivered, it’s returned.

✅ The flow already comes with delivery retry configured: when an order is left as “Not delivered,” the courier’s next action moves it back to “Out for delivery” instead of writing it off.

💡 If your operation moves packages between cities and you want a customer-visible “In transit” step, use the National e-commerce template or add the step manually.

Template: Same-day / express service

For whom: urgent courier services, local courier, on-demand delivery. When you pick up in the morning and deliver before the end of the day.

✅ Only 5 steps, with no return or cancellation as statuses — the service is fast enough that those closures are handled case by case from the panel.

Template: Small shipping company

For whom: entrepreneurs and SMBs just starting out in courier services who prefer a clear flow that’s easy for their customers to understand.

Template: National e-commerce with DCs

For whom: e-commerce with an intermediate distribution center (DC).

Typical flow: label printed → pickup at origin → consolidation at DC → transit → local delivery at destination.

💡 If your shipment passes through more than one DC, you don’t need a step for each one: the “At distribution center” step can be logged multiple times as an event in the history, while the shipment’s status reflects it just once.

Template: International cross-border

For whom: companies that ship packages between countries and go through customs.

⚠️ If customs requests additional paperwork, log it as the Documentation required event on the “In customs” step — the recipient gets the notification without the shipment changing steps.

Template: Lockers and pickup points

For whom: companies that deliver to smart lockers, neighborhood parcel shops, or partner stores instead of to a home address.

💡 The key difference: step 5 uses the canonical type Delivered at pickup point — this distinguishes home deliveries from locker deliveries in reports. Step 6 closes the cycle when the customer actually picks up the package.

Template: Refrigerated and cold chain

For whom: pharmaceutical, food, biological shipments, or any goods that require controlled temperature.

⚠️ Routine temperature checks (at origin or at intermediate points) don’t need their own step: log them as the Incident logged event with the measured temperature and a photo — they stay in the history without moving the shipment’s step. The “Thermal exception” step is for when the cold chain is actually compromised.

Template: B2B logistics and consolidated freight

For whom: companies that move palletized goods between suppliers and corporate customers, with consolidation and external carriers.

✅ This template comes with two retries configured: a failed pickup goes back to “Pickup scheduled” to reschedule, and a failed delivery goes back to “Out for delivery.”

Optional events worth knowing about

Besides shipment steps (which reflect the package’s current status), there are events you log at a specific point in time without necessarily changing the shipment’s step. They’re useful for noting things that happened, without “moving” the order.

Some common examples:

These events remain visible in the shipment’s history and enrich reports and metrics (for example, “first-attempt delivery rate” is calculated by counting delivery attempts).

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I change a step’s canonical type after it’s been created? Yes, but keep in mind that orders that already went through that step will keep their history with the previous canonical type.

Can I have two steps with the same canonical type? It’s not recommended: when an event is logged, the system moves the order to the step that corresponds to that canonical type — if there are two, it will always pick the first one and the second will go unused. That’s why templates use each type only once. Recurring moments (several distribution centers, several customs checkpoints) are logged as events in the history.

What happens if I leave a step without a canonical type? The step will keep working for your users, but it won’t appear in grouped reports or trigger automatic notifications that depend on the canonical type. We recommend always assigning one.

What happens to the “Next stage” when I apply a template? It’s configured automatically, including retries (failed delivery goes back to out for delivery). You can adjust it later by editing each step.

Can I combine two templates? Templates are applied as a whole, but after applying one you can freely add, remove, or edit steps to adapt it to your hybrid operation.