User Roles

Every person you invite to your organization gets one of these roles. Pick the role that matches what the person actually does day to day, not the org chart title.

Org-wide roles reach the whole company: Org Admin, Ops Manager, Dispatcher, Permit Coordinator, Viewer. Field roles reach only the loads assigned to the person: Driver, Rigger/Operator Supervisor, Crane Operator, Escort. Project Manager is a per-project assignment, not an org-wide role: you give it to someone on a specific project (covered below).

If you're not sure which role to pick, use the Scenarios page to look up the goal first.

Tip: Most roles can read your company's basic info (name, address, USDOT). Drivers and Rigger / Operator Supervisors are the exception: they never see the company record, settings, or team roster, only the loads, resources, and locations they work with. Only Org Admin can change company-level settings or invite/remove users.

Org Admin

Who it's for: the person responsible for setting up and running Offload at your company. Often the IT lead, ops director, or owner.

What they can do:

• Invite, remove, and change roles for every other user
• Edit company settings (name, USDOT, insurance, address)
• Manage every project, load, permit, route, document, schedule, and resource (truck, trailer, person, equipment) in the company
• Export everything that supports export

Why this role exists: every Offload organization needs at least one. Without an Org Admin, no one can invite the next teammate.

Use this role sparingly. Most people on your team don't need to manage the company itself. Give them Ops Manager or a more specific role instead.

Ops Manager

Who it's for: a regional or branch lead. The person running operations across multiple jobs but not running the company.

What they can do:

• Read company info, but not change it
• Read team members, but not invite or remove
• Manage every truck, trailer, person, equipment type, point of interest, and saved location in the company
• Manage every project, load, permit, route, document, and schedule in the company

The difference from Org Admin: Ops Manager owns operations, not the company. They can't add or remove users or change USDOT/insurance details.

Project Manager

Who it's for: the person who owns a specific job or contract from start to finish. Not running every project, just their own.

Project Manager is an assignment, not an org-wide role. You don't set someone's role to "Project Manager." You give them an org-wide role (usually Viewer, so they can browse the company for context) and then assign them as PM on a specific project. The assignment is what grants the power.

What the assignment gives them, on the assigned project only:

• Manage the project: edit project details, manage schedule and crew
• Manage all loads under the project
• Manage permits, planned routes, and documents on those loads

What they get everywhere else comes from their org-wide role, not from being a PM. A PM whose org role is Viewer can read the whole company (browse the calendar, find context) but can only change the projects they're assigned to.

How assignment works: an Org Admin, Ops Manager, or another Project Manager assigns the PM to a project from the project's settings. Assigning a new PM replaces the previous one. Until they're assigned, they have only their org-wide role's access.

Dispatcher

Who it's for: the person scheduling loads and assigning trucks/drivers/trailers day to day.

What they can do:

• Read every project and load in the company
• Manage every load in the company: edit details, change the schedule, configure equipment setup, assign resources, manage permits and load surveys, upload documents
• Manage planned routes and load documents (with export) across the company
• Points of interest, resources, and saved locations are NOT included by default - that's an Ops Manager job

The mental model: dispatchers live on the loads. They don't redefine the company's resource catalog or its project structure, but they own moving the work.

Permit Coordinator

Who it's for: the person pulling permits and reviewing routes against jurisdiction rules.

What they can do:

• Read every project and load
• Manage permits on every load (request, scan, edit, attach to routes)
• Manage planned routes and exports across the company
• Manage and export project documents and load documents
• Read schedules but not manage them - that's the dispatcher's job

Why permits and routes go together: anyone with manage on permits also gets manage on standalone routes. In heavy haul, the permit and the route are the same conversation; the role reflects that.

Driver

Who it's for: the person actually moving the load.

What they can do:

• Read only their assigned loads (and the projects those loads belong to)
• Update equipment setup on assigned loads (mark trailer hooked, etc.)
• Create commodities, planned routes, permits, and documents on assigned loads (drivers add things from the field)
• Propose a schedule change ("request" - the change is held as pending until dispatch approves it)
• Update permit route review (propose route fixes from the field)
• Manage their own points of interest and saved locations

Assigned-only by default. A driver who isn't on any load sees an empty home screen. Until dispatch assigns them, there's nothing to do.

Drivers do not delete. Anything that needs deletion goes through someone with manage (dispatcher, ops manager, etc.). Drivers create and propose; they don't remove.

Rigger / Operator Supervisor

Who it's for: an on-site rigging supervisor or crane/equipment operator who needs to coordinate around the load but isn't responsible for the route or permit.

What they can do:

• Read only their assigned loads (and the projects those loads belong to)
• Propose a schedule change (request only, like the driver)

Why so narrow: the supervisor is at the job site, watching the lift or rig-up. They need to see the load and ask for a schedule shift if conditions change. They don't need to upload documents or scan permits.

If your on-site lead does more than this (uploads photos, edits details), assign them as a Driver on the load instead.

Crane Operator

Who it's for: the operator running a crane on site for a specific lift.

What they can do:

• Read only their assigned loads (and the projects those loads belong to)
• Update the equipment setup on assigned loads (crane configuration)
• Upload documents from the field
• Propose a schedule change (request only)

Why it exists: the crane operator owns the equipment configuration for the lift but doesn't run the route or the permit. Like the other field roles, they see nothing until dispatch assigns them.

Escort

Who it's for: a pilot-car or escort driver who is part of your own organization. (An outside escort company gets a share instead, see Share Roles.)

What they can do:

• Read only their assigned loads (and the projects those loads belong to)
• Upload documents from the field
• Propose a schedule change (request only)

Why so narrow: escorts follow the route, they don't edit it. They see the load, the schedule, and the route they're escorting, and can flag a schedule shift if conditions change.

Viewer

Who it's for: anyone who needs visibility but should never change anything. Customer relationship managers, executives, auditors, finance, the CFO.

What they can do:

• Read everything in the org: projects, loads, permits, routes, schedules, documents
• Export documents and routes (so they can share or print)
• Change nothing

Viewer is for people inside your company who shouldn't have edit rights, like account managers, finance, or auditors.

Picking a role: quick rules

• One Org Admin minimum. More than two or three is rare for a single company.
• Default to Viewer when you're unsure. You can always upgrade later.
• Field roles don't see anything until they're assigned. Drivers, Rigger Supervisors, Crane Operators, and Escorts will look "broken" at first, that's normal. Assign them to a load and they light up.
• Project Manager is an assignment. Give the person an org-wide role (usually Viewer) and then assign them as PM on the project they own.

Next: Permission Matrix for the full grid.