TMS: linehaul transport guide
Last updated 2026-10-14
What TMS is for, and which of the 4 pages covers orders, dispatch, tracking, or billing.
TMS handles linehaul — big trucks moving freight between cities. Creating the transport order, finding a carrier, tracking the truck on the road, and settling the freight bill all happen here.
The 4 pages in this section#
- tms-orders (Transport orders): how to create a transport order — by hand or auto-generated from a WMS load — and the three modes: LTL, FTL, parcel.
- tms-dispatch (Dispatch & tendering): assign a carrier directly, or send tenders for carriers to accept/decline in the Carrier Portal; merge several orders into one shipment (SH-) that travels together.
- tms-tracking (In-transit tracking): the status chain picked_up → in_transit → out_for_delivery → delivered, GPS-stamped tracking events, and drivers advancing statuses from the mobile app.
- tms-billing (Freight billing): build the freight bill (FB-), audit it against quoted costs within tolerance, plus accessorials, claims, and per-merchant splits.
When to use TMS#
- Long-haul freight between cities: shipping out of the warehouse or delivering to customers by truck.
- When you need to tender for better rates, or consolidate several small orders into one truck (shipment).
- When you want in-transit visibility, POD sign-off, and freight bill audit against carriers.
- Not for TMS: small parcels go through parcel carriers; moving goods inside the warehouse is WMS.
Small parcels do not enter the TMS auto-flow: only LTL/FTL loads from WMS can auto-generate transport orders. Ship parcels through the parcel carrier accounts in Integration — do not create TMS orders for them.
Where to start: create your first transport order in tms/orders, and keep your regular carriers on file in tms/carriers — dispatch is faster when the carrier master data is ready.
