Search for "TMS" and most of what comes back is built for shippers or freight brokers. A trucking company has a different job: keep its own trucks loaded, its drivers moving and legal, and its invoices paid. That's what a carrier TMS is for. Here's what one should do, the questions to ask before you sign up, and where ReadyTMS fits.
All three are called "TMS," but they manage different things.
| Type | Who uses it | What it manages |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier TMS | Trucking companies and owner-operators with their own trucks | Loads, dispatch, drivers, trucks, paperwork, invoicing, driver pay, safety and compliance |
| Broker TMS | Freight brokers | Finding and vetting carriers, carrier payables, the margin between shipper rate and carrier rate |
| Shipper TMS | Companies that ship freight | Choosing carriers and modes, tendering freight, auditing freight bills |
If you run trucks, a broker or shipper TMS will feel wrong: it won't know about hours of service, driver qualification files or driver settlements. If you also broker some freight, look for a carrier TMS that can handle brokered loads too, so you aren't running two systems.
Rate confirmations arrive by email as PDFs. A good system reads them and creates the load, so nobody retypes pickup, delivery and rate, and the rate con stays attached to the load.
Before you book, you want to know whether the rate is good for that lane, based on what you've actually been paid there before, not a national average.
Drivers should see their loads, check in and out at stops, and send PODs and receipts from their phone. If they have to text photos to dispatch, paperwork gets lost.
Location and hours-of-service clocks should come from the ELD you already use, so dispatch doesn't plan a load the driver can't legally run.
Signed PODs and BOLs should land on the right load, and the system should flag a missing signature or an amount that doesn't match before you invoice.
Invoices should go out as soon as the paperwork is clean, and the system should track aging, follow up on late invoices and catch short pays.
Settlements are where small carriers lose the most time and trust. The system should handle percentage pay, owner-operators, advances, itemized deductions and escrow without a spreadsheet on the side.
Driver qualification files, truck paperwork, maintenance due dates, accidents and insurance should live in one place, along with what each truck actually earns after fuel and repairs.
ReadyTMS is a carrier TMS built for small fleets and owner-operators. Here's what it does for each of the eight jobs:
If you broker some freight too, ReadyTMS has a brokerage mode with a carrier list, carrier payables and margin reporting. You can import loads, drivers and trucks from a spreadsheet to get started.
Price: $149 a month flat for the whole fleet, with unlimited trucks and users and every feature included. The first month is free and no card is required.
A carrier TMS is transportation management software for the company that owns or leases the trucks and employs or contracts the drivers. It covers taking in loads, dispatching drivers, tracking trucks, collecting paperwork, invoicing, paying drivers and keeping safety files. A broker TMS is built around finding and paying outside carriers instead.
A carrier TMS manages your own trucks and drivers: dispatch, hours of service, driver pay, maintenance and driver qualification files. A broker TMS manages loads you hand to other carriers: carrier vetting, carrier payables and margin between what the shipper pays and what the carrier is paid. Some systems, ReadyTMS included, have both modes.
Pricing varies widely and many vendors charge per truck or per user, so check how the bill grows as you add trucks. ReadyTMS is $149 a month flat for the whole fleet, with unlimited trucks and users, and the first month is free with no card required.
First month free. No credit card required.
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