FTL: Full Truckload Management Software
Run full truckload movements end to end — planning, carrier assignment, in-transit visibility and settlement — in one system instead of a spreadsheet, a phone and an inbox.
Book a Demo Explore the PlatformKey takeaways
- FTL is a different problem to parcel: fewer, larger, higher-value movements where the cost of a bad carrier choice or an idle trailer is measured in hundreds, not cents.
- The cost usually hides between systems: tendering by phone, tracking by WhatsApp and settling from PDFs is where margin and hours disappear.
- One record per load: Fleet keeps planning, assignment, tracking, documents and settlement against the same load, so rate agreed and rate invoiced can actually be compared.
Full truckload moves one shipper's freight on one vehicle, direct from origin to destination. There is no consolidation and no hub sortation, so the work is not sortation throughput — it is choosing the right carrier at the right rate, knowing where the truck is, and closing the load out correctly once it delivers.
That sounds simple until volume grows. Tendering happens over the phone, rates live in someone's spreadsheet, status updates arrive by message, and proof of delivery turns up as a photo days later. Nothing reconciles, and disputes are settled from memory.
What Fleet does for FTL
- Load planning. Build loads from orders, set equipment type, weight and temperature requirements, and schedule pickup and delivery windows.
- Carrier assignment. Tender to your own fleet or to contracted carriers, with agreed rates and performance history attached to the decision. See carrier management.
- In-transit visibility. Track the load against its plan with GPS tracking and driver check-ins, so a delay is a notification rather than a surprise.
- Documents in the right place. Bill of lading, weighbridge tickets, gate passes and proof of delivery captured against the load in the driver app.
- Settlement. Compare agreed rate, accessorials and detention against what was invoiced, and close the load out with the supporting paperwork already attached.
FTL and LTL are not the same workflow
Teams often try to run both out of one process. These are the differences that actually change how the software has to behave.
| Full truckload (FTL) | Less than truckload (LTL) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicle | One shipper, one vehicle | Shared with other shippers |
| Routing | Direct origin to destination | Via consolidation hubs |
| Handling | Loaded once, unloaded once | Handled at each transfer |
| Priced on | The whole vehicle and the lane | Space, weight and freight class |
| What software must get right | Carrier choice, rate accuracy, detention and settlement | Consolidation, sortation and route optimization |
If most of your volume moves as complete vehicle loads, the FTL column is where your cost sits. If you run the mixed picture, Fleet handles both alongside first mile, mid mile and last mile in the same platform.
From tender to settlement
- 1. Build the load. Orders become a load with equipment, weight and window requirements attached.
- 2. Tender it. Offer to your fleet or to a carrier at an agreed rate, with their scorecard visible at the point of decision.
- 3. Move it. The driver runs the trip in the mobile app; dispatch sees position, status and exceptions against the plan.
- 4. Prove it. Signatures, photos and documents are captured at the stop and attached to the load, not emailed later.
- 5. Settle it. Agreed versus invoiced is reconciled with the evidence already in place, and the result feeds reporting and cost analysis.
Why it matters
In truckload, margin is lost in small, repeated leaks: an empty return leg, detention nobody logged, a rate that drifted from the contract, a delivery disputed because the paperwork never made it back. None of those are visible when the load lives across three tools. Keeping one record per load from tender to settlement is what makes them measurable, and measurable is the precondition for fixing them.
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