Transport orders

# Assign orders and trips automatically

Use assignment rules to fill in fields or assign a team, vehicle, driver, equipment or carrier when an order, shipment or Trip is created or changes status.

Updated October 13, 2026

**Who can do this:** The assignmentRules platform feature, access to the Variables tab (role level above 600) and the assignment rule permissions, such as get:assignmentRules and create:assignmentRule. Applying rules from a list needs apply:assignmentRules.

Assignment rules do routine work for you. For example: orders with dangerous goods to the Netherlands go to team Rotterdam, shipments for one customer always get a remark, or Trips to the UK get a certain carrier. A rule checks its conditions and, when they hold, sets fields or assigns resources.

## Open the assignment rules

1. Open **Settings** and click the **Variables** tab.
2. Go to the section **Assignment rules**.

The table shows each rule's **Order**, **Name**, what it **Applies to**, **When** it runs, its **Conditions** (**Always** when there are none), **Actions**, **Group** and whether it is **Active**.

## Create a rule

1. Click **New rule**.
2. Optionally, under **Describe the rule**, type the rule in your own words and click **Draft rule**. AI fills in the form below; nothing is saved until you check it and click **Save**.
3. Under **General**, enter a name and choose what it **Applies to**: **Transport order**, **Shipment** or **Trip**. Optionally enter a **Group** and a **Description**, and check that the rule is **Active**.
4. Under **When does the rule run?**, tick **On create**, **On status change** (optionally only for certain statuses) and/or **When applied manually**.
5. Under **Conditions**, add the filters that must hold. Without conditions the rule always applies. Besides the record's own fields you can use derived values such as the pickup or delivery country, postal code and city, the total weight, load meters and volume, ADR, the customer and the transport modes.
6. Under **Actions**, click **Add action** and choose what happens: **Set field**, **Set extra field**, **Add attribute** or **Assign team**. For Trips you can also choose **Assign vehicle**, **Assign driver**, **Assign equipment** and **Assign carrier (capacity contract)**, either a fixed one or the **Best recommendation**.
7. Tick **Overwrite** if the action may replace a value that is already filled in. Without it, an action only fills an empty value.
8. Click **Save**.

For many combinations, such as a team per postal code area, tick **Use a decision table**. Each row works like a line in a spreadsheet: the first row whose filled cells all match supplies the outputs. Use **Paste rows from a spreadsheet** to fill it quickly.

## Test a rule

Under **Test against an existing order**, pick a record and click **Test**. You see whether the rule matches and what it would change. Nothing is saved.

## How rules work together

* Rules run from top to bottom. Drag a row (**Drag to change the order**) or use **Move up** and **Move down** to change the order.
* Rules in the same **Group** are alternatives: only the first matching rule of a group applies. Rules without a group all apply when they match.
* When two rules set the same field, the first one wins, unless a later rule has **Overwrite**.
* Values entered by hand win, unless a rule overwrites them. Values that came from [order defaults](/en-us/help/order-defaults) do not count as entered by hand.
* Assigning a team to an order also moves its shipments that have no team yet.
* A rule that cannot be applied never stops the save. The record is saved without the change, and an alert tells you which rule failed.
* Changes made by rules appear in the record's activity as **Assignment rules applied**.

## Apply rules to existing orders or Trips

1. In the transport orders list or the Trips list, select the rows.
2. Choose **Apply assignment rules**.
3. Wait for the message, for example "3 of 10 changed."

Only rules with **When applied manually** run this way, for at most 200 records at a time.

## Rules on teams

Teams can still have their own **Order auto-assignment rules**; see [Organize users in teams](/en-us/help/teams). With assignment rules switched on, those team rules run after the assignment rules. The **Assignment rules** section lists such teams; click **Convert to assignment rules** to manage everything in one place.

## Related articles

* [Organize users in teams](/en-us/help/teams)
* [Set order defaults per customer and location](/en-us/help/order-defaults)
* [Check orders with validation rules](/en-us/help/validation-rules)
* [Find and manage transport orders in the list](/en-us/help/transport-order-list)
* [Set up capacity contracts with carriers](/en-us/help/capacity-contracts)

## Still need help?

Our support team is happy to answer any question about Transportial.

[Contact support](/en-us/contact)[Report an issue](/en-us/report-issue)

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Canonical page: https://transportial.com/en-us/help/assignment-rules