If you’re running a brokerage with a handful of your own trucks — or a carrier that’s started brokering overflow freight to keep customers happy — you already know the headache. You’re logging into one system to tender loads to your own drivers and another to manage the carriers you’ve booked for the loads you don’t have equipment for. Two logins, two rate structures, two places where a RateCon can get lost. ...
Buying a TMS is a lot like buying a used truck. The paint job tells you nothing about what’s happening under the hood, and the salesperson’s job is to keep your eyes on the paint. Most TMS evaluations fail for the same reason: brokers and carriers shop features when they should be shopping fit and honesty. The short answer: to choose a TMS, write down how a load moves through your business today, make every vendor demo a messy real load (not the happy path), get the full price in writing (per user, per load, add-ons), and run a free trial on a week of your own freight before you sign. The checklist below breaks that down. Use it against any vendor you’re looking at, including us. ...