CETAIN replaces the e-mail, phone and chat chain behind most road-freight bookings with a single shared record — from booking to proof of delivery — for the sender, the transport company, the driver and the receiver. The paperwork and compliance rules of Indian and European road transport are built into that record, not bolted on.
E-way bill · Part B MH12 AB 1234Vehicle RC · fitness · permit · PUC · insuranceValid 5 days · 840 km
Submitted
Acknowledged
Assigned
Picked up
In transit
Delivered
Tracking 8KXM2Q7TRZ4PSample data
CMR International consignment note · sample
No. CMR/26/001093 Rotterdam → Oslo
01 Sender
Rotterdam · NL 3089
VAT ✓ checked against VIES
02 Consignee
Oslo · NO 0581
Outside the EU customs union
03 Goods
6 pallets · 3,200 kg
UN 1263 · class 3 · PG II (ADR)
04 Consignment note
CMR · version 2
Regenerated after an edit · Nederlands
VIES valid
05 Gates before pickup
Customs declaration · pendingDriver ADR certificateDriving today 6 h 40 of 9 h
Submitted
Acknowledged
Assigned
Picked up
In transit
Delivered
Tracking 3HQ9VD2LWM7CSample data
Sample booking · Indian entity: LR note, GSTIN checks, e-way bill gate.
§ 01 — Who is on the record
Four parties. One booking. One status timeline.
Each party sees the same booking at the level of detail that fits their job, so nobody has to ask anyone else where the shipment is.
01 · SENDER
Shipper
Books single, bulk (CSV) or template-based loads, follows every status change and sees proof of delivery the moment it is captured.
02 · CARRIER
Transport company
Works one dispatch queue, assigns driver and vehicle, and gets early warning on SLA breaches, expiring documents and exceptions.
03 · DRIVER
Driver
Gets the shift itinerary, completes the pre-trip check, captures proof of delivery and reports a problem in a few taps.
04 · RECEIVER
Consignee
Knows what is coming and when, can ask to reschedule or flag unavailability, and rates deliveries — with one verified login across every carrier.
Booking record→one ID · one timeline · every edit audited
§ 02 — Why it exists
The booking hand-off is still a one-way message.
For many small and mid-sized operators a booking is an e-mail or a call with no confirmation loop, no shared status and no single source of truth. Compliance is checked after the fact — if at all.
Today
Exception-prone
Bookings by e-mail, phone and chat — re-typed into the carrier's own system.
No acknowledgement step — the sender doesn't know if the load was accepted.
LR, GC note or CMR filled in by hand from data that already exists elsewhere.
Expired licences and permits found at the roadside, not at assignment.
Receivers chase each carrier separately for arrival times.
With CETAIN
On record
The sender books once; the carrier works the same record in its dispatch queue.
Every booking is explicitly acknowledged, and every change after submission is logged with who and when.
Consignment notes are generated from booking data — versioned, in the entity's language.
Assignment is blocked when a required driver or vehicle document has expired; pickup is blocked without a valid e-way bill where one is required.
One verified receiver login across every transport company the receiver deals with.
§ 03 — How a booking moves
From request to proof of delivery, in the open.
The statuses below are the ones every party sees. The colours match the CETAIN app.
Book
Sender creates the booking — manually, from a template or by CSV import — with goods lines and pickup and delivery windows.
submitted
Acknowledge
The carrier accepts the load in its dispatch queue. Restricted goods are held for approval; escalation rules flag bookings left unacknowledged.
acknowledged
Assign
Dispatcher picks driver and vehicle. Compliance gates check documents, ADR certificates and inspections first.
assigned
Move
Driver completes the pre-trip check, picks up, and reports arrivals or exceptions from the mobile driver app.
picked_up · in_transit
Deliver
Proof of delivery records signature, recipient and accepted or rejected quantity per line — a rejection needs a condition photo. Dwell time feeds detention.
delivered
§ 04 — Built for two rulebooks
The rules follow the entity, not a hard-coded country.
Every company on CETAIN is an entity with a country and a jurisdiction profile. The profile decides the consignment document, tax-ID checks, postal formats, required documents, driver-hour limits and data-protection deadlines.
IN
India profile
LR, GSTIN and the e-way bill — checked before the truck moves.
LR or GC note, chosen per transport entity
GSTIN format, state code and checksum validation
GST on GTA: reverse-charge or forward-charge option set per entity
Pickup blocked until a valid e-way bill exists for the carrying vehicle
RC, fitness, permit, PUC and insurance gate vehicle assignment
Problems are stopped at assignment, not discovered at the roadside.
CETAIN checks compliance at the moment a decision is made. A blocked action tells the dispatcher exactly what is missing.
Blocks assignment
Driver documents
Expired licence, right-to-work, ID, medical or hazardous-goods certificates stop a driver from being assigned — the required set comes from the entity's jurisdiction.
Blocks assignment
Vehicle documents & inspections
Vehicle inspections are tracked for every entity; Indian entities add RC, fitness, permit, PUC and insurance. A daily pre-trip check is required before pickup.
Needs approval
Restricted & dangerous goods
Restricted goods rules hold a booking until it is approved. ADR-classified lines can only go to drivers with a valid ADR certificate.
Blocks pickup
E-way bill (India)
When a consignment needs an e-way bill, pickup waits until a valid bill exists for the carrying vehicle — recorded from the portal, or generated through a GST Suvidha Provider once one is connected.
Captures data
Customs boundary (Europe)
For lanes leaving the EU customs union, dispatch records HS code, customs value and origin per line, and CETAIN marks whether a declaration is needed. Filing stays with your broker.
Warns early
Driving time
Driver hours are estimated from booking timestamps and compared with the jurisdiction's limits, so dispatch sees a driver approaching a limit before assigning more work.
§ 06 — White papers
The thinking behind the platform.
Practical papers on the paperwork, regulation and architecture of road freight in India and Europe — with references to the primary sources.
Tell us where you ship and how you work today. We'll walk through CETAIN with your documents, your jurisdiction and your roles — and tell you plainly what is ready and what would need configuring.