# Introduction

> Book a shipment end to end, from describing the freight to buying a rate.

![](https://developers.mothership.com/images/overview.svg)

This guide demonstrates the entire cycle of booking a shipment with Mothership: describing the shipment, retrieving rates, and finally booking the shipment. Together, we will be shipping a number of pallets from The Griffith Observatory to the LA County Museum of Art.

There are a variety of example requests and responses throughout this guide. Note that all of these requests should be tested using the [sandbox environment](https://developers.mothership.com/reference/overview#environments) to avoid being charged for booking a real shipment.

1. [Set up authentication](https://developers.mothership.com/docs/booking-authentication) with a sandbox token.
2. [Get rates](https://developers.mothership.com/docs/booking-rates) by creating a quote.
3. [Book the shipment](https://developers.mothership.com/docs/booking-order) with the quote and the rate you picked.