A Stop is a single pickup or dropoff on a Tour. Each stop carries its planned arrival and departure times, the actual times recorded in Orbit Cockpit, and any proof of delivery captured at the stop.
A Tour is an ordered list of places a driver visits, and each place on that list is a Stop. A stop is either a pickup, where cargo is collected, or a dropoff, where it is delivered. Only a Tour has stops — an Order or a Shipment on its own does not. When you route a Shipment onto a Tour, its pickup and its dropoff take their places in that tour's sequence of stops.
Every stop tells you when the driver was meant to be there and what happened during the visit. As the driver works through the Tour in Orbit Cockpit, each stop fills in with its arrival, departure, and any proof of delivery required at that location. In Orbit MissionControl you can read the plan, the actual times, and the proof.
Key highlights:
A position on the tour — Each Stop is one pickup or dropoff in the Tour's ordered sequence of visits.
Planned versus actual — A stop shows its planned time window and its recorded arrival and departure.
Proof of delivery at the stop — Photos and signatures are captured in Orbit Cockpit at the moment the driver visits, then appear against the stop in Orbit MissionControl.
Filled in by execution — Times and proofs are recorded as the driver works; you read them rather than enter them.
One visit can serve several shipments — When several shipments share the same address, they are combined into a single stop.
Think of a Tour as a route with a running order of places to visit. Each place in that order is a Stop. A pickup stop is where the driver collects the Load; a dropoff stop is where they hand it over. A simple tour that moves one Shipment from Berlin to Lisbon has two stops — the Berlin pickup and the Lisbon dropoff — in that order.
When more than one Shipment collects from or delivers to the same address, Orbit combines them into a single stop, so the driver makes one visit rather than several to the same place. Each shipment keeps its own contact, company, and documents under that shared stop, so nothing is lost by grouping them.
Every stop holds two kinds of time, and it helps to keep them apart.
Planned times — The time window the stop is scheduled for, shown as Planned Arrival and Planned Departure. This is the plan, worked out before the driver sets off.
Actual times — The Arrival and Departure recorded when the driver reaches and leaves the stop. These appear only once the visit has happened.
The two are read together to judge how a Tour is running: an arrival later than the planned window tells you a stop ran behind, while a stop with no arrival yet has not been reached. A planned window is never an arrival time; it is the intention, not the event.
When automatic stop detection is enabled and Orbit Cockpit has background location permission, it records arrival when the driver reaches a stop. The arrival appears in the stop view, with an Undo option for one minute. The driver can still use the stop controls in Orbit Cockpit.
Orbit Cockpit records departure automatically when the driver leaves a stop and all required loads and proofs are complete. If something is missing, Orbit Cockpit sends a notification and shows what remains on the stop. After the driver completes the missing work, they can select Ready to depart to record the departure.
If background location is not allowed, the tour can still start, but automatic stop detection is unavailable. Orbit Cockpit shows Automatic stop detection off: background location not allowed under Start Tour. The driver can continue using the stop controls to record arrival and departure.
The driver checks the access in Orbit Cockpit under More > Location. The page shows whether Orbit Cockpit may read the location always and whether the location is precise. A row that is not in order has an arrow: a tap on it asks for the access or opens the system settings.
There is also a third, forward-looking time while a Tour is on the road: the Expected Arrival, a live estimate of when the driver will reach an upcoming stop. That estimate is covered in its own article — see Live Tracking & Expected Arrival — because it behaves differently from the planned window and the logged fact. In short: the planned window is the intention, the Expected Arrival is the live estimate, and the logged Arrival is what actually happened.
Proof of delivery is captured at the stop, at the moment of the visit, by the driver in Orbit Cockpit. It is the evidence that a pickup or dropoff really took place — a photograph of the goods in position, a recipient's signature, a signature with the signer's name, or a scanned document.
A stop can carry proof requirements — for example, one signature and one photo before the delivery counts as complete. As the driver works the stop in Orbit Cockpit, the app prompts them for anything still outstanding and offers Record Proofs Now. To capture each piece the driver can Record with Camera for a fresh photo or signature, or select an existing file from the device. Once captured, the proof is stamped with the time it was taken.
Orbit Cockpit asks for every outstanding proof before the driver can complete the stop. Where nobody can sign a documented signature, the driver records why instead (see Documented Signatures & Delivery Receipts). Orbit Connect asks too: a carrier who completes the stop there uploads the missing photos, documents and signatures first, and may continue only without the proofs Orbit Connect cannot capture, such as a documented signature or a proof for one company at a stop with several shipments. The server does not refuse a departure without its proofs: a stop completed without them keeps the gap on record, and an operator sees the missing proofs when reviewing the tour.
Back in Orbit MissionControl, the proofs captured at a stop appear against that stop, grouped by kind — Photo Proofs, Signature Proofs, Signature with Name Proofs, and Document Proofs — each showing when it was taken. This is where an operator confirms that a delivery was completed and reviews the evidence behind it.
An empty proof list on a stop the driver has not reached yet is completely normal — it is not a missing document or a gap to chase. Proofs appear only after the visit happens, so a stop still ahead on the route simply has nothing to show yet.
The proof captured at a stop is also stored as a file you can view, download, and share, alongside other paperwork such as delivery notes and invoices. That file side — how documents are versioned, linked across an Order, Shipment, and Tour, and who is allowed to see each one — is covered in the Documents article.
A driver, Mohammad, is running a Tour for Spaceport Shipping Co. with a delivery to ACME Ltd in Lisbon. The stop was planned for a window between 13:00 and 15:00. Mohammad arrives at 14:41, and Orbit Cockpit prompts him for the delivery's proof requirements: a photo of the pallets on the loading bay and a signature from the warehouse supervisor. He taps Record Proofs Now, uses Record with Camera for the photo, and captures the signature. Later, Julia — an operator watching the run in Orbit MissionControl — opens the Lisbon stop and sees a logged Arrival of 14:41 against a Planned Arrival window that opened at 13:00, together with the photo and signature timestamped to the visit. She confirms the delivery is complete without having entered a single value herself.
Stops, their planned and logged times, and the proofs captured at them are all available programmatically through the Tour they belong to. For endpoints and schema details, see the API Reference.
Because the driver hasn't reached it. A logged Arrival appears only once the visit happens. Until then the stop shows just its planned window — which is the plan, not a missing time.
What is the difference between the planned window and the Expected Arrival?
The planned window (Planned Arrival and Planned Departure) is the schedule worked out before the tour moves. The Expected Arrival is a live estimate that updates while the Tour is running. The logged Arrival is what actually happened. See Live Tracking & Expected Arrival for how the estimate is calculated.
A stop shows no proof of delivery — is something wrong?
Not if the driver hasn't been there yet. An empty proof list on an unvisited stop is normal; proofs are captured at the moment of the visit. Once the driver reaches the stop in Orbit Cockpit and records the required proofs, they appear against the stop in Orbit MissionControl.
Can a delivery go ahead if the driver can't capture every proof on the spot?
Not in Orbit Cockpit: the driver captures the outstanding proofs before completing the stop, or records why nobody signed a documented signature. Orbit Connect asks for the missing proofs as well, and lets the carrier continue only without those it cannot capture. A stop completed without its proofs is not refused, and an operator sees the missing proofs when reviewing the tour.
Why do several shipments share one stop?
When more than one Shipment collects from or delivers to the same address, Orbit combines them into a single stop so the driver makes one visit. Each shipment keeps its own contact, company, and documents under that shared stop.
Can Orbit Cockpit record arrival and departure automatically?
Yes. When automatic stop detection and background location are available, Orbit Cockpit records arrival and records departure when all required loads and proofs are complete. If work is missing, it notifies the driver and shows what remains. Without background location permission, the driver can still start the Tour and use the stop controls to record arrival and departure.
Can I edit a stop's arrival or proof myself in Orbit MissionControl?
Yes, while you review the finished Tour. In the review, Edit Times corrects a stop's arrival and departure, and Upload Proof adds a proof the driver could not capture. Corrected times are saved when you complete the review. See Reviewing a Tour.
Where do the proof files themselves live?
Each proof is also stored as a file, alongside delivery notes, invoices, and other paperwork. How those files are versioned, linked across the Order, Shipment, and Tour, and made visible to different parties is covered in the Documents article.
