Use this article to find out which carrier credentials Ingrid needs for each Ingrid product, who usually holds those credentials, what happens if they arrive late, and what to do now to protect your go-live date.

This article is for retailers starting an Ingrid implementation, especially project leads and logistics teams. Carrier credentials are the most common critical path in an Ingrid implementation. They are not the hardest problem, but they are the one that most often sets the go-live date, because the credentials usually belong to a team that is not in the project.

Wherever Ingrid calls a carrier on your behalf, Ingrid needs credentials for that carrier. Which carrier credentials are needed depends on the Ingrid product and the carrier.

The table below shows, for each Ingrid product, what Ingrid calls the carrier for and whose carrier credentials are used:

* If Ingrid Transport or Ingrid Care is in scope, your own credentials are always required for that carrier, and the same credentials then power Ingrid Promise and Ingrid Engage too. One collection of carrier credentials covers every Ingrid product.

Who holds your carrier credentials is worth checking this week rather than at your next project meeting.

Carrier credentials are frequently held by your 3PL (third-party logistics provider) or your logistics team, not your e-commerce team. If that is your setup, your first action is securing the release of the carrier credentials, and that request often moves at the speed of a third party rather than your project.

Where carrier credentials sit with a carrier account manager rather than internally, expect the same. Start the conversation before you need the answer.

What happens if carrier credentials are late depends on the Ingrid product, and the difference matters.

Ingrid Promise and Ingrid Engage have fallbacks. Ingrid can go live without a carrier's credentials for Promise and Engage, with reduced function:

These fallbacks are real compromises, not equivalents, but they let you launch and add the full experience later.

Ingrid Transport and Ingrid Care have no fallback. Nothing can be booked without carrier credentials. There is no reduced mode, no placeholder, and no way to test the end-to-end flow. If Ingrid Transport or Ingrid Care is in your scope, carrier credentials are a hard gate on go-live, not a nice-to-have.

To protect your go-live date, follow these steps:

Releasing carrier credentials early is the single most effective thing you can do to protect your Ingrid go-live date.