Separate intake lookup failures from message-delivery failures

General lesson: When a customer says a load “did not send automatically,” split the investigation into intake/creation and downstream message delivery before assigning a cause. Query the stable load-group identity, creation source, and any prior matching group first; then independently inspect SMS queue and provider-acceptance evidence. A TMS lookup 404 followed by a dashboard-created group is an intake/provider-availability failure even if the newly created group later queues and delivers its initial SMS successfully. Conversely, a persisted automatic group with failed or absent SMS evidence points to delivery. This distinction applies to systems where “send” can mean either load ingestion or driver notification; it does not prove why an upstream provider omitted a record.

Applies when: A support report ambiguously says a load or request did not “send automatically.” Keywords: load intake TMS lookup SMS delivery provider accepted manual creation