What is a TMS in trucking? A carrier’s guide

A transportation management system, or TMS, is software that keeps your loads, drivers, equipment, documents and invoices in one place. For an owner-operator or small fleet, it replaces the spreadsheets, paper files and email threads most carriers use to run the business.

Every load comes with paperwork, an invoice to send and records to keep. A TMS gives that admin a home, so you spend less time chasing it. Here is how a TMS works for a carrier.

How does a trucking TMS work?

A TMS follows a load from the day you book it to the day you get paid. Each step lives in the same place, so you stop rebuilding the same information in different tools.

Add loads

Every load starts as a record in your TMS. Most TMS let you add a load by typing it into a form. Some also read a rate confirmation or pull in a load from a load board, and you review the details before you save.

Manage drivers and equipment

Add your drivers, tractors and trailers once, then attach them to each load. You can see who is running what without checking a separate list.

Track load status

Mark each load as open, dispatched, in transit or delivered, so you can see what is active at a glance.

Invoice and get paid

When a load is delivered, you create the invoice from that load, with the customer and load details already attached. You do not rebuild it from a spreadsheet or a stack of paperwork.

If you use a factoring company, a TMS can let you send invoices to it from the same place, subject to the factor’s approval and terms.

Handle documents and IFTA

Upload the rate confirmation, BOL and other paperwork to the load, so nothing lives in a separate folder or inbox.

IFTA is the quarterly fuel tax report that multi-state carriers file. It means tracking miles and fuel by state, then building the numbers yourself.

A TMS can help you calculate IFTA mileage and fuel estimates from your load data and the fuel purchases you enter. You review the numbers, and you file the report.

Who uses a TMS?

A TMS fits any carrier who handles their own paperwork. That includes owner-operators running their own authority, new authority carriers building a customer base, and small fleets of 1 to 3 trucks. It also fits carriers who factor invoices or keep their books in QuickBooks Online.

You may be ready for a TMS if you retype loads into a spreadsheet, hunt for paperwork at invoice time, or rebuild IFTA numbers every quarter.

Benefits of using a trucking TMS

The benefits of a TMS come down to less admin and fewer things falling through the cracks. For a small carrier, that means:

• Less retyping, because loads move from booking to invoice in one record.
• Fewer lost documents, because paperwork lives on the load.
• Invoices that start from delivered loads, with customer and load details attached.
• Drivers and equipment recorded once and reused on every load.

How do you choose a TMS?

The right TMS matches how you run loads today, not how a fleet of fifty runs them. Before you commit, check these five things.

• Load entry. Can you add a load the way your loads reach you, whether that is a form, a rate confirmation or a load board?
• Invoicing and factoring. Can you create an invoice from a delivered load and send it to your factoring company without starting over?
• IFTA support. Does it help you calculate mileage and fuel estimates, or does it leave you a spreadsheet to build?
• Accounting. Does it connect to the software you already use, such as QuickBooks Online?
• Limits and setup. Are the limits on active loads, records and invoices clear before you start?

Carriers choosing a TMS for the first time should start with the paperwork that slows them down most. Test the TMS on your own workflow, one real load from booking to invoice, before you move everything over.

Manage loads, invoices and IFTA with Truckstop TMS

Truckstop TMS is built for owner-operators and small fleets who run their own paperwork. It puts your loads, drivers, equipment, documents and invoices in one place and connects to the Load Board you already use, so the load you find is the load you run.

TMS Free is included with your Load Board subscription. Save a load from the Load Board and it lands in TMS, or upload a rate confirmation and review what AI fills out. When the load is delivered, create the invoice from it.

If you factor with Truckstop, connect your factoring account and submit invoices without leaving TMS, subject to approval and terms.

TMS Basic is for carriers who need more than loads and invoices. It adds:

• Help calculating IFTA mileage and fuel estimates, so your quarterly numbers start from data already in TMS. You review them, and you file.
• A QuickBooks Online connection, so customers and invoices go from TMS to QuickBooks without a second round of typing.
• Your company logo on your invoices.

The result is less time on admin.

Run more of your business in one place

A TMS follows a load from booking to payment and keeps your drivers, equipment, documents and invoices in the same place. TMS Free covers the basics and is included with your Load Board subscription, and TMS Basic adds IFTA estimates, QuickBooks Online and your logo on invoices.

Start with one load this week. Save it from the Load Board, add the driver, upload the rate confirmation, and create the invoice after delivery. Truckstop TMS is one part of the platform that keeps your business moving and growing.

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