Setting up your Notifications

CitizenShipper helps you stay informed about new shipments posted on the platform, currently active bids, and more, by sending you email and/or text notifications. Receiving timely updates ensures you don’t miss out on business opportunities or important customer communications.

To make the most of these notifications, you can customize your preferences based on what’s most relevant to you and choose how you’d like to receive them. The notifications tab of your account settings page can help you set that up.

To start, click the gear icon and select Settings from the drop-down menu:

On the Settings page, locate the Notifications tab in the left-hand menu, showing multiple notification settings in the panel to the right:

Here’s a breakdown of the available notification types and how they can help you:

New message

Get notified each time a customer/prospect sends you a message on CitizenShipper.

New shipment matching my city and state settings

The bottom half of the notification settings page allows you to choose which cities and states you want to be notified about. Whenever a shipment is posted in one of the locations you've selected, you’ll receive a notification.

Note that, depending on the locations you choose, this can lead to notifications flooding your inbox! We suggest that you only choose the locations currently relevant to your business.

New shipment along my routes

On the Routes page, you can set up specific routes that you're interested in, simply by choosing a starting point and an endpoint. When a shipment is posted along one of these routes, you'll be notified of it.

New shipment along shipments I’m bidding on

When a shipment is posted along the route of another shipment you're bidding on, you can choose to be notified about that. This can help with bid planning but can also be overwhelming at times; try out both settings to find the one that best suits your needs. 

New shipment along shipments I won

A great way to optimize your profit margins is to combine multiple shipments along the same route into a single "rideshare". When a shipment is posted along the route of another shipment you've already won, you can choose to be notified about it. This is a highly recommended option.

Confirmation of lost bid

This notification informs you when another driver has won a bid or the shipment listing is no longer available. This goes out for each bid you place. You can use it to keep track of all the bids you and your team have placed. Only available via email.

Confirmation of posted bid

This notification goes out for each bid you place. You can use it to keep track of all the bids you and your team have placed. Only available via email.

Subscribe to marketing emails

Uncheck this box if you no longer wish to see promotional emails from CitizenShipper in your inbox.

Categories Notifications

CitizenShipper offers the flexibility to take on a variety of shipments, whether it’s pets, vehicles, motorcycles, boats, or household moves. However, most drivers specialize in certain shipment types based on their preferences, experience, and equipment. To tailor your notifications to match your expertise, follow these steps to update your settings.

Below your general SMS and email notification settings, you should find a box where you can type and choose one of our 12 different shipping categories you wish to be notified about such as Pets and Animals, Motorcycles, Vehicles, Boats and Water Vehicles, and others. When done, scroll all the way to the bottom of your screen and click the Save Settings button.

Here's how these settings impact your experience on the CitizenShipper platform:

• We filter shipments so that you'll only receive alerts for shipments that match the categories you selected.
• The Recommended tab on your homepage will display shipments only from your chosen categories.
• If you later decide you're interested in additional categories, just visit the Notification Settings page, add a new category, and you're all set.

By fine-tuning your notifications, you can focus on shipments that align with your skills and equipment, making your time on CitizenShipper more efficient and productive.

Cities and States Notifications

In the section directly below the notification screen, you can choose the locations you wish to be notified of. Simply click the "Search" box and start typing the name of a city or state. The menu should display all the locations matching your search - click any one of them to add them to your notifications criteria:

To remove an existing city or state from your notification criteria, simply click the little X mark next to its name. You can search for it again and add it back whenever you choose.

Once you're done editing your notification settings, don't forget to click "Save Settings" to instantly apply all the changes you've made.

Automatic Notification Disablement

CitizenShipper doesn’t like spam any more than you do. That’s why we turn off our notifications to you, as a driver, if we don’t hear from you for 4 weeks.

Currently, we send email and SMS notifications to you when a shipment matches your geography and category preferences.

If you don’t place a bid on a shipment for 4 straight weeks, we’ll stop sending you both email and SMS notifications, so we don’t spam you.

Don’t fret, if you still want to hear from us, you can quickly and easily re-enable notifications. Bidding on any shipment will re-enable your email and SMS notifications. 

If you change your mind on a bid, you can easily retract it. 

What to read next

For more advice on setting up your account, see the articles on account settings (2-min read) and category settings (1-min read).

For advice on making your first steps on the CitizenShipper platform, see Getting your bearings.

For advice on winning shipments, see Bidding and payments.