How Work Is Assigned: Companies, Teams & People

In Orbit, work can be assigned to a whole company, to one team inside it, or to a single person — and who can see that work follows the level you chose. This one pattern applies to shippers, carriers, and operators alike.

Every company in Orbit — whether a Shipper, a Carrier, or your own operator organisation — is arranged in three levels: the company as a whole, the teams within it, and the individual people (users). When you assign a piece of work, such as a Tour or a Callout, you choose which of those three levels it goes to. That single choice decides who can see and act on it.

The Three Levels

• The whole company — the broadest reach. Everyone in that company can see and act on the work.

• A specific team — narrower. Only the people in that team can see it.

• One person — the narrowest. Only that individual can see it.

Narrowing to a team or a person is optional. If you assign work only at the company level, it simply reaches everyone in that company — which is completely normal.

Visibility Follows the Level

The level you assign at decides who sees the work. Take a Tour handed to a carrier:

• Assign it to the whole Carrier, and everyone at that carrier can see it.

• Assign it to one carrier team, and only that team sees it.

• Assign it to one driver, and only that driver sees it.

The same pattern holds for shippers — a shipment can go to the whole shipper, to one shipper team, or to one shipper user — and for operators, where a saved board or view can be shared with your whole operator organisation or kept to one person. Because of this, an item that does not appear for someone may simply be assigned at a narrower level than their own. That is the pattern working as intended, not a fault.

Example

An operator hands a Tour from Lyon to Milan to a carrier. At first the tour is assigned to the whole carrier company, so every dispatcher there can see it and pick it up. The empty "driver" slot is normal at this stage — the carrier still has to choose the person. Once the carrier assigns the tour to a specific driver, only that driver sees it as theirs, and the rest of the carrier's users no longer see it in their own list. Nothing broke; the work simply narrowed from the company level down to one person.

Related Articles

To learn more about each party and its people, see Carriers, Carrier Teams, and Carrier Users and Shippers, Shipper Teams, and Shipper Users. For what each kind of user is shown, see What can each role see in Orbit?

FAQ

If a tour is assigned to a carrier but has no driver, is something wrong?
No. "Assigned to the carrier" and "assigned to a driver" are different levels. A tour sitting at the company level with no driver yet is normal — the carrier still chooses who drives it.

Someone on my team cannot see an item that I can. Why?
It may be assigned at a narrower level than their access — for example to one person or one team. Assign it at the level you intend it to be seen at, or check which level it currently carries.

Does this work the same for shippers and operators?
Yes. The company, team, and person pattern is identical for shippers, carriers, and operators. Only the objects being assigned differ.