Growing fleets
Several dispatchers, mixed drivers and customers who want to look things up.
Small drayage carriers
Dispatch software for small drayage carriers
If you run a handful of container trucks and keep the day in a spreadsheet, a whiteboard and your phone, this is how Dispatch Board replaces them without adding a back office.
Built for the owner who dispatches
A small drayage company usually has one person who knows everything: which box is on which truck, which line charges per diem from which day, and which driver is out of hours. That person is often the owner, and the same person is also driving, quoting and chasing invoices. Dispatch Board puts that knowledge on a shared board so the day does not live in one head or one phone.
The board shows each driver as a lane on a timeline, with the same loads available as Kanban columns and as pins on a live map. You drag a load onto a truck or a driver to assign it, and you can undo the move. Recurring lanes and a bulk import mean you are not retyping a week of freight every Monday.
Plan the day in one click
Plan day drafts the whole day for your fleet and explains each pick, so you can see why a driver was chosen. You can pin the rows you have already decided and let the rest move around them. It also shows the empty miles and late minutes saved against the way you had it.
The planner respects hard limits. Licences, endorsements and TWIC are checked, and so are 11 hours of driving and 14 on duty. Travel times are learned from your own drivers’ completed stops rather than a generic table. If a terminal is shut that day, Plan day avoids it, and you get a hold alert before a driver is sent to a box that cannot be picked up.
- A Problems tab lists holds, last free days, late moves and missing information
- Street turn and dual transaction suggestions skip an empty that the place will not take that day
- A week grid shows what is coming for each customer over the next seven days
Money you would otherwise lose
For a small carrier, one unrecovered per diem bill or one wrong chassis invoice can eat a day’s margin. Dispatch Board records the reason each per diem day was charged: a terminal closure, a hold, the container not being available, a later appointment, a late customer delivery, or nothing on record. Where the reason points at the customer, one click bills their share to the load or to a replacement invoice. Where it points at the line, the dispute letter carries the dates, reasons and a packet of tracking events, appointments and closures.
Chassis bills from DCLI, TRAC and Flexi-Van can be checked against when your own loads actually had the chassis, and the checker produces a dispute letter and a CSV. A waiting-time audit uses GPS pings inside the terminal geofence, so detention claims come with evidence. The Money Check adds it up as one figure, with an optional Monday email.
Drivers need a phone, not training
The driver app is a web app drivers add to their home screen, so there is nothing to download from an app store. Each move shows its stops, documents and a to-do list before the driver leaves. Drivers can take photos, collect signed PODs and upload PDFs, which are saved on the phone and sent when signal returns, which matters in a yard or a terminal with weak coverage. Dispatch can chat with the driver on each load.
If you want it, drivers can accept, decline with a reason or tap “on my way”, and clock in before starting a move. Both are switches, off until you turn them on. Drivers also see their own pay, with settlements, deductions and PDF statements.
Billing that ends in your accounting software
Rates, tariffs and accessorial rules, including a fuel surcharge table, live in rate profiles. Completed loads land in a billing queue; you make invoices, credit memos and payments from there, and see aging and collections. Credit limits can be set per customer. QuickBooks Online and Xero sync is included, and Canadian tax (GST, HST, QST and PST) and CAD or USD are set per customer and load. QuickBooks Desktop is not supported.
What it costs a small fleet
Pricing is by the truck, in Canadian dollars. Lite is $149 a month and includes 5 trucks, with extra trucks at $15 each up to 15. It includes the dispatch board, the driver app with GPS, customer invoices, and unlimited dispatcher logins, so the second person in the office costs nothing extra. Driver, customer and carrier logins are free. Container tracking, the customer portal and driver settlements sit on higher plans, so check the pricing page against the features you need. Plans are month to month and every company gets a 14-day free trial with no card.
Where it will not fit
Dispatch Board does not book terminal appointments for you in systems such as eModal. It stores appointment rules, slot capacity and booking links, and your team still books. There is no EDI, and no QuickBooks Desktop. If those decide your purchase, say so in the trial and test the rest first.
Getting started in the free trial
Self sign-up gives you a company with sample data and a get-started checklist, so you can look around before you enter anything of your own. Then bring in your real freight: import drivers, trucks, chassis, customers, rate tables and loads from Excel, CSV or a PDF rate sheet. The importer matches columns by heading, checks every row before saving and flags duplicates.
Add your terminals and their gate hours, invite your drivers to the driver app, and run a real week alongside your current system. The Help Center has a guide for every screen. A bar at the top of the board shows the days left in the 14-day trial, and the account owner gets an email two days before it ends. Plans are month to month, and you can download a backup file and a CSV of your loads at any time.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Can I move my spreadsheet into it?
Yes. You can import drivers, trucks, chassis, customers, rate tables and loads from Excel, CSV or a PDF rate sheet. The importer matches columns by heading, checks every row before saving and flags duplicates. Try it on a copy of a real week.
Do my office staff cost extra?
No. Dispatcher and admin logins are unlimited on every plan. Driver, customer and carrier logins are free. The price follows the number of trucks.
What if I only have three trucks?
Lite includes 5 trucks, so three trucks fit inside the base price of $149 a month in Canadian dollars, plus tax. You are billed month to month and can cancel any time.
Will my drivers need a new phone or an app store account?
No. The driver app runs in the phone’s browser and is added to the home screen. Photos and documents are kept on the phone and uploaded when there is signal again.
What happens to my data if I leave?
You can download a full backup file and a CSV of your loads before you cancel, so your records are not locked in.
Related pages
Owner-operators
The driver app, settlements and waiting-time proof for one-truck operators.
Per diem and detention
A reason for every charged day, rebill and dispute letters.
Run your small fleet from one board.
Every company gets 14 days free with no card. Import a week of your own freight and judge it yourself.