Confirming a Handover Between Trips
Where cargo changes vehicles part-way through its journey, both trips record the handover. When the first trip never did, the next driver confirms it instead, so the record closes without anyone guessing.
Overview
Where a shipment is carried in legs, cargo passes from one trip to the next at a hub. Usually the first driver reports the drop, the second reports the collection, and the two accounts agree.
Sometimes the first report never arrives. The driver forgets, loses signal, or finishes the day without closing the trip. The goods are at the hub regardless, and the next driver is standing in front of them. Orbit closes that gap by asking the person who can see the goods whether they are there.
Key highlights
A gap closed on the spot — The missing report is settled by whoever is standing in front of the cargo.
Two answers — Received, or not received. Both are recorded.
No invented times — Confirming does not fabricate an arrival or departure for a trip nobody reported.
Nothing is assumed — Without an answer the earlier leg stays open rather than being marked delivered.
Not only for drivers — Operators can settle a handover from the office.
When this comes up
The confirmation appears as a driver moves their tour forward, either starting it or moving past a stop, and as an operator advances a tour in Orbit MissionControl.
It appears only where cargo is arriving from an earlier leg carried on a different tour, that leg is still open, and nothing has been reported for the goods in question. In every other case the handover is already accounted for and nothing is asked.
What you are asked
The prompt lists the goods concerned and offers two answers: that you received them, or that you did not. There is nothing to type, because the answer is the whole record. Where one step forward meets goods from more than one earlier leg, a single answer covers all of them.
Answering
Received closes the earlier leg as Delivered and marks the goods as unloaded there. Orbit does not invent an arrival or departure time for a trip nobody reported, so those stay empty. The record shows the goods arrived, and stays honest about not knowing exactly when.
Not received records the earlier leg as Failed, and the goods as Not Loaded or Not Unloaded depending on whether they ever got aboard. This is the right answer when the goods are genuinely not there. It is not a complaint about the other driver, and it does not stop your own trip: you carry on with what you do have. What to do about the missing goods afterwards is covered in the When a Delivery Fails article.
Either answer settles the shipment straight away. Cargo that was waiting at the hub stops waiting, and the shipment moves on to reflect where its goods now are.
If you cancel
Cancelling abandons the step you were taking. Nothing is recorded, your tour does not move on, and you are asked again the next time you try. The prompt cannot be dismissed by tapping outside it, so a mistaken tap while starting a tour cannot skip past it.
What operators see
An operator does not have to wait for a driver. The same confirmation can be answered from Orbit MissionControl or Orbit Connect, so a handover can be settled from the office when a driver is unreachable.
Afterwards, the tour's action log carries an Out-of-Order Start badge on the step that was confirmed, recording which answer was given and how many earlier legs it settled.
Two things are worth knowing when reading that log. The confirmation is recorded against whoever answered it, not the driver whose trip it closes, so an earlier leg can carry a later driver's name. And answering that goods were not received does not make the shipment look alarming: the leg is recorded as failed, but the goods read as waiting to be collected again, because that is what they are. The action log is where a failed handover shows.
Example
Orion Industries ships four pallets from Paris to Prague through a hub in Munich. Julia drives the first leg and unloads at the hub on Friday evening, but her phone has no signal in the yard and she goes home without closing the trip. On Monday, Mohammad arrives to collect the pallets for the second leg. As he starts his tour, Orbit asks him to confirm the handover and lists the four pallets. They are on the dock in front of him, so he confirms he received them and continues. Julia's leg closes as Delivered, the shipment stops waiting at the hub, and the tour's log records that Mohammad was the one who confirmed it.
Frequently asked questions
Why am I being asked about someone else's trip?
Because the goods you are about to carry were never confirmed as handed over. You are the first person in a position to say whether they are really there.
I have never split a shipment. Why would I see this?
You would not. This only arises where cargo passes between two trips, so a shipment carried straight from pickup to dropoff never produces it. See the Legs article for how staged journeys work.
Both legs are on the same tour. Will my driver be asked?
No. One driver carrying goods through a hub on a single trip is not handing anything over, so the order of the stops is the record.
Can I answer for some goods and not others?
No. One answer covers every item listed. If the goods are partly there, answer for the situation in front of you and tell your operator what is missing.
Do I have to answer right now?
You have to answer to move your tour on. Cancelling leaves everything as it was and asks you again next time, so nothing is lost by waiting.
Will answering that I did not receive the goods fail my own trip?
No. It records that the earlier leg did not hand the goods over. Your own trip continues with whatever you are actually carrying.
Why does the earlier leg show the wrong driver's name?
Because it was closed by whoever confirmed the handover. The reason recorded alongside it shows that the completion came from a confirmation rather than from that driver's own report.