Connecting a carrier

Last reviewed: 2026-10-10

What this is

CanShip ships on your own carrier accounts. You connect each account once under Settings > Carriers and choose which clients can ship with it. Its rates then appear when you rate a parcel. This article covers what is the same for every carrier. Each carrier's own steps are in its own article:

• Connecting Canada Post
• Connecting UPS
• Connecting Stallion Express
• Connecting ShipStation
• Connecting UniUni

Where carriers live

Go to Settings > Carriers. Each carrier has a card, and a chip beside its name gives its status:

• Not Configured: no account is connected.
• Configured: the account is connected and can quote.
• A chip that starts with Needs: the account is saved but something is missing. The chip names it.

Two ways to connect

• Sign in at the carrier. Canada Post and UPS are connected by signing in on the carrier's own site. You do not type a carrier password into CanShip.
• Paste a key. Stallion Express, ShipStation and UniUni are connected with an API key or token that you create in the carrier's own portal.

The Configure form

Click Set Up on a carrier's card, or Edit once it is connected. Every form has the same three parts:

1. The carrier's own account details.
2. A shipper or sender address. Fields marked with a star are required.
3. Which clients can ship with this carrier? Choose All clients, None for now, or pick individual clients.

Save stays greyed out until the required fields are filled and you have chosen the clients. The line beside it says what is missing.

A key you have saved is not shown again. The form shows Saved, with a Replace button to enter a new one.

Test the connection

Where a carrier's form has a Test Connection button, click Edit on the card and use it after you save. It answers "Connection test successful." or "Connection test failed:" followed by the carrier's reason.

Assign carriers to clients

A client cannot ship on a carrier it is not assigned to. A carrier assigned to nobody is saved, but it does not appear on any rate quote.

• On a connected carrier's card, Assigned Clients shows how many clients can use it. Click Manage to change them.
• If a client has no carrier at all, a warning at the top of the Carriers page names it and says it cannot ship.

Client overrides

Assigned clients ship on your company's account by default. If a client has its own account with a carrier and wants to ship on it, use Add Override on that carrier's card to store separate details for that client.

Test accounts

A carrier connected to its test environment shows a Test account chip on its rates. Those prices are not real, and its labels are not valid for shipping.

What can go wrong

• A client still cannot ship after you connect a carrier. Check the client is assigned to that carrier, not only that the carrier is connected.
• Save stays greyed out. Read the line beside it. It lists the fields still empty, or says the clients have not been chosen.
• A connected carrier is missing from a quote. Check the order's client is assigned to it. A carrier also only quotes the destinations it serves, so it can be missing from one quote and present on the next.
• A carrier did not return rates. At the packing station the rate step says so above the list, with the carrier's own reason in quotation marks. The other carriers' rates are still listed. Click Retry to ask again, or ship with another carrier.