What are you looking for in trucking management software? How do you want it to interact with your trucking business? That depends on your trucking business. If you’re leased on to a transportation company, you’re going to be required to use their software, if you use any. You’ll use their ELD, their software for dispatches and invoices, and they may take care of your IFTA or IRP. You might need your own maintenance software. How do you make those decisions when you’re on your own?

Trucking Business Software On the Road

In our opinion, it’s not a trucking management software if it doesn’t create a dispatch for the trucker and an invoice to send to the shipper. That’s basic. It should be simple and easy to enter data – not only the delivery date and BOL – but also all the other necessary expenses that need to be included. Any program (or Google form that you create) isn’t really a business management system at all if it doesn’t manage your accounting.

(We know – QuickBooks is THE accounting software in the world – but we have reasons why it’s not ideal for trucking. Keep reading.)

Modern trucking is business on the road

Most of trucking is on the road, at the shipping docks, or sleeping in the bunk in your cab. It’s not at home. So your trucking management software has to be able to go on the road with you. We used to have to explain that to truckers even a couple of years ago, but now we think pretty much everyone understands that we need access 24/7 to our data and our software to send out invoices. With the advent of direct deposit of funds (and skipping that credit card surcharge) we have access to our customers’ payments almost instantly. We don’t have to wait for the mail to deliver a check and then take it to the bank.

So why are trucking business management programs expecting us to behave like that? Like we’ve got plenty of time at home to handle our invoices, notify us about late pays, track our mileage, and do our IFTA filing? That’s insane.

Trucking life is on the road, so our trucking management software must be on the road too.

But is that all a trucking business management software should do? NO!

There are a few TMS programs that limit themselves to invoicing. Those are getting phased out as the big name trucking software programs have added extra features. One added a load board. Another interacts with a dashcam to reduce insurance costs. We can’t argue that those aren’t things that truckers need. But…

Do those manage your trucking business?

We don’t think so. Your trucking business isn’t about load boards or cameras. It’s about how your business runs and how you manage it.

What does any business owner need to know?

• Invoices: sending out new invoices, tracking payments
• Expenses: tracking expenses, creating reports that can show where the money is going
• Equipment maintenance: status of the equipment, scheduling equipment servicing*
• Personnel management: paying employees, tracking their required medical and driving records*
• Tracking your products or services.*

*Yeah, QuickBooks doesn’t do those. That’s why it’s a great product for accountants, but a lousy choice for truckers. That’s why we wanted a trucking management software full package that solved all of your trucking business data management issues.

Your trucking business manages more than just invoices.

Your trucking business needs to track mileage, not only for billing but for taxes like IFTA and IRP. It needs to consider when and how you take care of your equipment. You need to know how much money you’re making on a load.

That’s a very complicated set of computations. It’s not just accounting.

Add the ELD into the mix and suddenly, we have a lot more complications.

That’s why TruckingOffice took a long look down the road and came to the decision that adding electronic logging devices to our product line. Getting the most accurate numbers to get the most accurate answers to those complicated computations needs not just a vague memory of what the odometer said when you crossed the state line. You need specific numbers and TruckingOffice TMS and ELD work together to provide them.

ELD and TMS

Frankly, we don’t understand why you wouldn’t want your ELD and TMS to talk to each other.

If you’re audited, you’ve got the data at hand. If you have a disputed invoice, you’ve got the evidence you need. When you get held up in a shipping yard, you’ve got the evidence you need for detention pay.

That’s why we put them together. For the truckers like you who want the peace of mind that comes with using a system that works with you as a trucker, not as an accountant. Your trucking business is your life. Take care of it like you know you should and it will support you well.

If your trucking business is supporting you and your family, you deserve the best. You need the best.

That’s why we’re going to let you discover for yourself what TruckingOffice trucking management software is the tool you need to make your trucking business succeed. You can sign up for a no-strings trial now to discover everything we offer to help you manage your trucking business. We’ll give you plenty of time to try it all out.

Add our plug and play TruckingOffice ELD system with your own device and put your TMS and ELD together for your best trucking business experience.

Keep your trucking business on the road with TruckingOffice!