Avoylo

Avoylo Shipping & Carrier Policy

Version: 0.1 Last Updated: September 28, 2026 Effective Date: [TBD BEFORE PUBLICATION]

This Shipping & Carrier Policy defines how Avoylo handles carrier selection, shipping labels, pickup, carrier acceptance, tracking, shipping charges, transit exceptions, address issues, shipment cancellation, returns, and carrier-related operational evidence.

This Policy is designed for Avoylo's initial prepacked, sealed-parcel fulfillment model.

It should be read together with the Avoylo Operations Policy, Seller Services Policy, Host Services Policy, Billing & Payment Policy, Claims & Incident Policy, Prohibited & Restricted Items Policy, Seller Packing & Inbound Standards, and applicable Terms of Service.

This Policy does not guarantee carrier performance, create insurance coverage, or make Avoylo the carrier unless Avoylo expressly states otherwise for a specific service.

1. Core Shipping Principles

Avoylo shipping follows these principles:

  1. Avoylo coordinates fulfillment; the carrier performs transportation.
  2. The authoritative carrier handoff is CARRIER_ACCEPTED, not staging.
  3. A generated label is not proof of carrier possession.
  4. Carrier events are evidence and may arrive late or out of order.
  5. Shipping charges are separate from Avoylo handling charges.
  6. Pilot postage is passed through at actual provider cost without an Avoylo shipping markup.
  7. A Host may not independently substitute a carrier or shipping service.
  8. Retries, relabeling, or missed pickup must not create duplicate shipment records or duplicate financial effects.
  9. Shipping-provider secrets remain server-side.
  10. Live shipping is not active until Avoylo intentionally enables and verifies the live environment.

2. Definitions

For this Policy:

Carrier means the transportation provider responsible for physical shipment after authorized handoff.

Shipping Provider means a carrier, shipping API, label platform, aggregator, or other provider used to create or manage shipment services.

Shipment means the authoritative Avoylo record representing transportation of a specific Parcel.

Label means the authorized shipping label associated with a specific Shipment and Parcel.

Carrier Acceptance means sufficiently reliable provider evidence that the carrier has taken possession of the Parcel.

Provider Occurrence Time means the time the underlying carrier/provider says the relevant event actually occurred, as distinct from when Avoylo received the event.

Tracking Event means a provider event such as label created, carrier accepted, in transit, out for delivery, delivered, exception, returned, or another supported state.

Pickup means the authorized carrier collection or handoff process for a Parcel.

Capitalized terms not defined here have the meanings given in the Avoylo Operations Policy or another applicable policy.

3. Carrier Role

Unless Avoylo expressly states otherwise, transportation is performed by a third-party carrier or transportation provider.

The carrier controls matters such as:

Avoylo may create labels, coordinate shipment data, receive provider events, and expose shipping status, but Avoylo does not physically perform ordinary carrier transportation under the initial model.

4. Seller Shipping Responsibility

The Seller must provide materially accurate information necessary for shipping, including where required:

The Seller must not knowingly provide false information to obtain a lower shipping rate or bypass carrier restrictions.

5. Host Shipping Responsibility

The Host must:

The Host must not independently create a different Shipment for an Avoylo task unless Avoylo expressly authorizes it.

6. Carrier Selection

Avoylo may select or present an eligible carrier or shipping service based on:

The cheapest available rate is not necessarily the required rate.

Avoylo may exclude a carrier or service that is operationally incompatible with the shipment.

7. No Host Carrier Substitution

A Host must not independently:

unless Avoylo expressly authorizes that action for the specific Shipment.

8. No Seller Direct Carrier Override

The Seller must not instruct the Host to ignore the Avoylo Shipment and use a different carrier, destination, label, or pickup arrangement outside the authorized workflow.

If the Seller needs a shipping change, the Seller must use the applicable Avoylo cancellation, correction, or support workflow.

9. Label Creation

A Label may be created only after Avoylo has enough authoritative information to create the Shipment.

Label creation must be linked to:

A Label must not be treated as a generic reusable shipping credential.

10. One Label, One Authorized Shipment

A Label is valid only for the Shipment and Parcel for which it was issued.

The Host must not:

11. Reprinting a Valid Label

Reprinting the same still-valid Label does not create a new Shipment.

A reprint may be used where the original print is damaged, unreadable, or unavailable, provided the Label has not been voided or superseded.

A reprint must not be applied to more than the one authorized Parcel.

12. Replacement Label

If a Shipment requires a replacement Label, Avoylo must create or authorize the replacement through the supported workflow.

Once a replacement Label becomes authoritative:

13. Removing Superseded Labels

Where safe and practical, the Host must remove, cover, or permanently obscure:

before staging the Parcel for pickup.

The Host must not intentionally leave multiple conflicting active shipping labels visible.

14. Label Error

If the Host or Seller identifies a material Label error, the Shipment must not continue as if the Label were correct.

Examples include:

The issue must use the authorized correction or incident workflow.

15. Shipment State

Avoylo may use Shipment states such as:

Avoylo may use different internal labels if the operational meaning remains equivalent.

16. Parcel State and Shipment State Are Distinct

Parcel custody state and carrier Shipment state are related but not identical.

For example:

Avoylo must not collapse these separate state machines in a way that creates false custody history.

17. HANDOFF_READY Is Not Carrier Acceptance

A Parcel becomes HANDOFF_READY after the required Host-side staging workflow is complete.

This does not mean the carrier possesses the Parcel.

Avoylo must not treat:

as equivalent to authoritative carrier acceptance where provider confirmation is required.

18. CARRIER_ACCEPTED

CARRIER_ACCEPTED is the authoritative normal outbound storage-exit event.

It occurs when sufficiently reliable carrier or provider evidence establishes that the carrier has taken custody.

The provider occurrence time controls where trustworthy.

If the provider event reaches Avoylo later, Avoylo must not use the later ingestion time to extend Seller storage billing.

19. Carrier Event Ordering

Carrier events may arrive late, duplicated, or out of order.

Avoylo must not blindly apply events based only on ingestion order.

Where provider occurrence time and provider event semantics are available, Avoylo should use them to determine the correct progression.

A delayed older event must not overwrite a later valid state.

20. Duplicate Carrier Events

Duplicate provider events for the same underlying Shipment state must not create:

Avoylo should deduplicate or safely replay provider events.

21. Unsupported or Invalid Carrier Event

A provider event that is malformed, unsupported, belongs to another Shipment, or fails required verification must not change authoritative shipment or custody state.

Avoylo may log or reject the event through the appropriate provider boundary.

22. Pickup Scheduling

Where the enabled provider supports pickup scheduling, Avoylo may create or coordinate a pickup request.

A pickup request is not proof that pickup occurred.

The Host must continue to follow the applicable custody and staging rules until carrier acceptance is established.

23. Pickup Windows

Pickup timing may depend on:

Avoylo may show an estimate but does not guarantee exact carrier arrival unless an applicable service explicitly provides that guarantee.

24. Unattended Pickup

Unattended pickup may be used only where:

The Host must not use unattended pickup for a Shipment that requires a different handoff method.

25. In-Person Handoff

Where an in-person carrier handoff is required, the Host must provide only the correct authorized Parcel.

The Host must not hand the carrier unrelated Avoylo inventory.

If the carrier refuses the Parcel, the Host must use the incident or retry workflow.

26. Failed Pickup

A failed pickup occurs when an expected handoff does not result in carrier acceptance.

A failed pickup does not:

The Parcel remains in the outbound custody workflow until Avoylo records an authorized next step.

27. Failed Pickup Recovery

After a failed pickup, Avoylo may instruct the Host to:

The Host must not improvise a new shipment path.

28. Missing Carrier Acceptance

If the Host reasonably believes a carrier collected the Parcel but no reliable carrier acceptance appears, Avoylo may create a CARRIER_ACCEPTANCE_MISSING Incident.

Avoylo may review:

No fabricated acceptance time may be created solely to make the state machine appear complete.

29. Provider Readback and Reconciliation

Where supported, Avoylo may query the shipping provider after an ambiguous or missing event.

Provider readback may be used to:

A recovered provider event should update history through an auditable path rather than pretending the event arrived earlier in Avoylo.

30. Inbound Shipping

Seller-to-Host inbound shipping is operationally separate from outbound customer fulfillment.

The Seller must not send inventory to a Host until Avoylo authorizes the inbound Shipment.

An inbound carrier Delivered event does not automatically create Host STORED.

The Host receipt workflow remains authoritative for storage entry.

31. Inbound Transit Exceptions

Avoylo may create an inbound transit Incident if the carrier reports or evidence suggests:

Until Host receipt is completed, the Parcel remains outside normal Host storage.

32. Inbound Delivered but Not Received

If the carrier reports Delivered but the Host reports no receipt:

33. Inbound Damage

If inbound packaging is visibly damaged:

The Host must not open a sealed Parcel merely to inspect internal product condition unless Avoylo expressly enables that service.

34. Carrier Refusal

A carrier may refuse a Parcel because of:

If a carrier refuses a Parcel, the Host must not independently switch carriers.

Avoylo determines the next supported step.

35. Restricted and Prohibited Goods

Carrier acceptance capability does not override the Avoylo Prohibited & Restricted Items Policy.

A product may be lawful and carrier-eligible but still unsupported by Avoylo.

A Seller must not submit a restricted product merely because a carrier can technically transport it.

36. Shipping Charge Source

Under the initial pilot, ordinary carrier postage is passed through at the authoritative provider cost.

Avoylo does not add a shipping markup under the current pilot pricing policy.

Shipping cost remains separate from:

37. Carrier Surcharges and Adjustments

A carrier may later impose or correct charges such as:

An authoritative provider adjustment may create an auditable Seller debit or credit under the Billing & Payment Policy.

38. No Silent Shipping Markup

Avoylo must not silently add an undisclosed margin to carrier postage under the pilot.

If Avoylo later introduces a shipping platform fee or markup, it must be prospectively disclosed in an applicable pricing version or agreement.

39. Address Validation

Avoylo may validate or normalize a destination address before Shipment creation.

Address normalization must not silently change the intended destination to a materially different recipient or location without an authorized rule.

Where an address is materially invalid or ambiguous, Avoylo may block the order until corrected.

40. Seller Address Responsibility

The Seller is responsible for submitting materially accurate customer destination information.

If the Seller provides an incorrect address, resulting carrier corrections, returns, or additional provider charges may be passed through under the Billing & Payment Policy where allowed.

41. Host Origin Privacy

A Host's exact residential or storage address is private operational information.

Avoylo may use the Host Location server-side where necessary to:

The exact Host origin must not be exposed to a Seller or browser merely because a rate or Label is being generated unless the operational workflow actually requires such disclosure.

42. Shipping Provider Secrets

Shipping-provider API keys, account secrets, private tokens, and other server credentials must not be exposed in:

Provider operations requiring private credentials must execute through the server boundary.

43. Shipping Test Environment

A shipping-provider test or sandbox environment is not live shipping.

Test-mode labels, tracking, rates, and provider objects must not be represented as real commercial shipment execution.

SHIPPING_LIVE remains false until Avoylo intentionally activates and verifies live shipping.

44. No Live Postage Purchase During Sandbox

Avoylo's sandbox and QA environments must not intentionally purchase live postage.

Provider adapters must clearly distinguish test credentials and test behavior from live credentials and live shipping.

45. Shipping Idempotency

Creating or confirming a Shipment must be retry-safe.

Repeated requests for the same authorized shipment must not create multiple active provider shipments or duplicate billable postage unless a genuine replacement or new shipment is intentionally created.

Avoylo should use:

to prevent duplicate shipping effects.

46. Ambiguous Label-Creation Response

If a provider request may have succeeded but Avoylo loses the response, Avoylo should not immediately create a second independent Shipment.

Avoylo should first recover or query the existing provider attempt where technically possible.

The Seller or Host must not be instructed to use two different labels for the same Shipment merely because the first response was ambiguous.

47. Shipment Cancellation Before Carrier Acceptance

Where supported, Avoylo may attempt to cancel or void an unused Shipment before carrier acceptance.

A void request does not guarantee that the provider will refund or cancel every charge immediately.

The Label must be treated according to the provider result.

The Host must not use a Label that Avoylo has authoritatively voided or superseded.

48. Cancellation After Carrier Acceptance

After CARRIER_ACCEPTED, the Shipment cannot be treated as an ordinary unused-label cancellation.

Any interception, rerouting, return-to-sender, refusal, or other recovery depends on provider capability and the applicable service.

49. Postage Refund

Where a carrier/provider permits an unused-label refund, Avoylo may request or process that refund.

A refund is not final merely because Avoylo submitted the request.

The Seller's financial records are updated through the Billing & Payment Policy once authoritative refund evidence is available.

50. Tracking

Avoylo may display carrier tracking information to the Seller and use tracking internally for operations.

Tracking is informational evidence and may be delayed, corrected, or incomplete.

The carrier/provider remains the source of the underlying tracking events.

51. Tracking Privacy

Avoylo should expose only the tracking information reasonably needed for the Seller's Shipment.

A tracking interface must not unnecessarily expose:

52. Delivery

A Shipment may become DELIVERED when sufficiently reliable provider evidence indicates delivery or another expressly supported completion rule applies.

Delivery status does not automatically resolve every customer claim.

A delivery dispute may still enter the Claims & Incident process.

53. Delivery Photo and Signature

Where a carrier supplies:

Avoylo may use that evidence in Shipment status and Claims review.

Such evidence should be handled in accordance with Avoylo's privacy rules.

54. Delivery Exception

A carrier exception may include:

Avoylo may notify the Seller or create an operational Incident where action is needed.

55. Customer Refusal

If a customer refuses delivery, the Parcel does not automatically become Avoylo Host inventory again.

The subsequent route depends on the carrier and authorized return workflow.

A returning Parcel creates a new Host storage lifecycle only after authorized receipt and authoritative STORED.

56. Return-to-Sender

A return-to-sender Shipment may route to:

The destination must come from the supported Avoylo reverse-logistics workflow.

A Seller must not arbitrarily use a Host's private address as a general return-to-sender destination.

57. Customer Returns

Customer-initiated returns are not accepted at Host Locations unless Avoylo has authorized that specific return workflow.

Avoylo determines the authorized destination for Avoylo-managed returns.

A Host must not accept an off-platform customer return merely because the customer possesses the Host address.

58. Transfer Shipping

Host-to-Host transfer shipping uses its own authorized Shipment and custody workflow.

The source Host storage lifecycle ends only when custody authoritatively leaves that Host through:

The destination Host storage lifecycle begins only at destination STORED.

Transit time is not Host storage at either side.

59. Seller Removal Shipping

Seller removal or return-to-Seller shipping uses an authorized Shipment or verified in-person handoff.

Source Host storage ends at authoritative custody transfer, not at:

60. In-Person Authorized Transfer

Where Avoylo expressly supports an in-person transfer or removal, the custody change must be recorded through an authorized verification workflow.

A casual physical handover without the required Avoylo record does not create an authoritative storage exit.

61. Cross-Border Shipping

Cross-border shipping is disabled unless Avoylo expressly supports the route.

Where enabled, the Seller is responsible for materially accurate product, value, origin, destination, customs, tariff, and other information required from the Seller.

Avoylo does not become importer of record or customs broker merely because Avoylo provides fulfillment technology unless Avoylo expressly agrees to that role.

62. Duties and Taxes

Customs duties, import taxes, brokerage fees, and other cross-border government or provider charges are separate from ordinary Avoylo service fees unless expressly stated otherwise.

The applicable payer and workflow must be disclosed for any supported cross-border service.

63. Shipping Insurance and Declared Value

This Policy does not create shipping insurance.

Carrier declared value, carrier liability, third-party insurance, and Avoylo protection are distinct concepts.

Any insurance, protection, deductible, limit, or reimbursement rule is governed by the Claims & Incident Policy, applicable carrier terms, insurer documents, and the applicable Avoylo protection terms.

64. No Automatic Insurance Representation

Avoylo must not represent a Shipment as insured merely because:

Insurance or protection must be specifically documented before being described as coverage.

65. Claims After Carrier Acceptance

Loss or damage after authoritative carrier acceptance primarily enters the applicable carrier and Claims workflow.

Avoylo may provide or preserve:

66. Claims Before Carrier Acceptance

If a Parcel is lost or damaged before carrier acceptance, the Claims workflow must review the prior custody chain.

Possible evidence may include:

Physical location alone does not automatically determine fault.

67. Carrier Claim Deadlines

Carrier claim deadlines may vary by provider, service, event type, and jurisdiction.

Avoylo must not invent a carrier deadline.

Where a specific provider deadline applies, Avoylo should present or document it accurately for the applicable Claim.

Users should report suspected loss or damage promptly to preserve evidence and provider recovery options.

68. Shipping Support

Shipping problems should be reported through Avoylo's designated shipping or incident workflow.

A Host should not independently negotiate shipment correction with the Seller where doing so would bypass the authoritative Avoylo workflow.

A Seller should not direct the Host to make unrecorded shipping changes.

69. Provider Outage

If a shipping provider is unavailable:

70. Carrier Service Discontinuation

Avoylo may stop supporting a carrier, provider, service, or route prospectively.

Existing Shipments should be handled according to their current provider state and any applicable migration or recovery workflow.

A discontinued integration does not silently rewrite historical Shipment records.

71. No Guaranteed Carrier Rate

A previously displayed carrier rate is not guaranteed indefinitely.

Rates may change because of:

The authoritative purchased/provider-confirmed cost controls the pass-through record.

72. No Guaranteed Transit Time

Unless an applicable service expressly provides a binding guarantee, Avoylo does not guarantee:

Estimated delivery dates remain estimates unless specifically identified otherwise.

73. No Host Self-Delivery Under Ordinary Service

The ordinary Host role does not include personally driving the Parcel to the Seller's customer.

Host self-delivery is unsupported unless Avoylo later creates and authorizes a separate delivery service with its own terms, insurance, safety, and operational rules.

74. No Seller Pickup From Host Under Ordinary Service

The Seller must not appear at a Host Location to retrieve inventory outside an authorized transfer or removal workflow.

Seller pickup is not part of the ordinary service merely because the Seller knows or can infer the Host Location.

75. No Customer Pickup From Host

End customers must not be directed to a Host Location for ordinary order pickup unless Avoylo later expressly enables a customer-pickup service.

Hosts should not invite customers to retrieve Parcels directly.

76. Carrier Interaction Records

Avoylo may preserve records relating to:

Sensitive provider secrets are not part of user-visible records.

77. Provider Reconciliation

Avoylo may reconcile internal Shipment state against provider state.

Reconciliation may detect:

Reconciliation should flag inconsistency rather than silently falsify history.

78. Provider Reference Immutability

Once an authoritative provider Shipment or Label reference is recorded, Avoylo should preserve the historical reference even if the Shipment is later voided, replaced, refunded, or superseded.

A replacement creates linked new evidence rather than silently pretending the original provider record never existed.

79. Shipping Event Audit

Material shipping transitions should preserve an audit trail sufficient to establish:

80. Live Activation Requirements

Before SHIPPING_LIVE can be enabled, Avoylo should separately verify at minimum:

Sandbox or TEST success alone does not activate live shipping.

81. Policy Versioning

Avoylo may update this Policy prospectively.

A later Policy must not silently rewrite:

Where legally required or contractually promised, Avoylo will provide appropriate notice before a material change becomes effective.

82. Related Policies and Contact

This Shipping & Carrier Policy should be read together with:

Shipping Support: [TBD] Carrier Incident Contact: [TBD] Claims Contact: [TBD] Legal Contact: [TBD] Company Legal Name: [TBD] Business Address: [TBD]