Trucking Dispatch

Dispatch Software for Trucking and Freight

Tepia builds custom dispatch software for trucking companies that assigns loads using live hours of service from your ELD provider, automates check calls and captures signed bills of lading from the driver's phone. Builds connect to Samsara, Motive or Geotab, EDI tenders from shippers and QuickBooks or NetSuite.

The essentials at a glance

A trucking dispatch system has to match every load to a driver who has the hours, the right trailer and a realistic way home.

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Live HOS Data

Tepia pulls remaining drive and duty hours from your ELD provider, so planners see who can legally take a load before they call.

Read: Trucking Company App Development
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Driver Documents

Drivers photograph signed bills of lading and lumper receipts in the app, and Tepia files each one against the right load.

Read: Telematics Integration with Samsara, Geotab and Motive
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EDI Tenders

Shipper tenders arrive as EDI 204 messages and status goes back as 214s, so planners stop rekeying loads from email.

Read: ELD and Hours of Service Integration
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Settlements Ready

Driver settlements calculate from completed loads, miles and accessorials, so payroll stops depending on paper trip sheets.

The numbers matter.

Trucking figures Tepia keeps in view when scoping dispatch software.

72%

Freight Moved By Truck

The American Trucking Associations reports trucks move about 72 percent of US freight by weight, more than any other mode.

32%

HOS Violations

CVSA's 2025 Roadcheck found hours of service caused about 32 percent of driver out of service violations, the top category.

39%

Stops With Detention

ATRI research found drivers were detained at about 39 percent of stops in 2023, hours that dispatch has to plan around.

How a trucking dispatch day actually runs

A planner at a regional truckload carrier starts the day with tenders from shippers, a board of trucks spread across three states and a list of drivers who each have a different number of hours left on their clock. Every assignment is a trade off. The closest truck might be pulling a dry van when the load needs a reefer, the driver with the most hours may be due home tonight, and the strongest lane might leave a truck stranded with no reload. Tepia builds dispatch software around those decisions, not around a generic job list.

Once a load is assigned, the work shifts to execution. Planners chase check calls, confirm pickup and delivery appointments, log detention when a receiver keeps a driver waiting, and collect paperwork before the load can be billed. Owner operators and company drivers follow different settlement rules, and a team truck needs two drivers’ hours tracked against one tractor. These details are where spreadsheets and whiteboards start to fail, and where Tepia focuses the first version of a custom system.

Features a trucking dispatch board needs

Tepia scopes the board around how your planners work today. Most carriers end up with a core like this:

Feature Who uses it Why it matters
Tender inbox with accept and reject Customer service and planners Answers shipper tenders inside their response deadline
Driver and truck availability by location and hours Planners Shows who can legally and practically take the next load
Equipment matching for dry van, reefer and flatbed Planners Prevents sending the wrong trailer type
Automated check calls from GPS Customer service Updates shippers without phone tag
Appointment and detention tracking Planners and billing Records arrival and departure times to support detention claims
Driver app with document scan and messaging Drivers Sends signed paperwork the moment a load delivers
Driver settlement rules Payroll Handles per mile, percentage and flat rate drivers correctly
IFTA mileage by state Compliance Builds fuel tax reports from GPS miles

Tepia adds a home time planner to most trucking builds, because a driver who repeatedly misses home time is a driver who leaves. Planners see each driver’s requested days off on the same board as the loads, and the software flags any assignment that would make that date impossible.

Hours of service, ELD data and the driver app

Under FMCSA rules, a property carrying driver gets 11 hours of driving inside a 14 hour window after 10 consecutive hours off, plus a 60 or 70 hour limit across 7 or 8 days. Tepia does not recreate the logbook, because your ELD provider remains the legal record. Instead, the dispatch software reads remaining drive, duty and cycle time from Samsara, Motive or Geotab through their APIs and projects whether a driver can reach the receiver within those limits, including the 30 minute break.

The driver app carries the rest: load details and stops, truck specific navigation, a document camera that crops and flattens paperwork, messaging with dispatch, and large buttons for arrived, loaded and empty. Tepia builds it offline first, since a rural grain elevator or a mountain pass loses signal, and syncs everything when coverage returns. Read more on ELD and hours of service integration and driver app development.

EDI, telematics and accounting integrations

Trucking dispatch lives between other systems, and Tepia builds those connections early so planners never enter a load twice:

  • EDI with shippers: 204 load tenders in, 990 responses and 214 shipment status messages out, and 210 freight bills for shippers that require them, through a VAN or a direct AS2 connection.
  • Telematics and ELD: GPS positions, engine data and hours of service from Samsara, Motive or Geotab.
  • Mileage engines: practical truck miles from a commercial source such as PC*MILER, so rates and driver settlements use the same distances.
  • Accounting: QuickBooks or NetSuite for billing and driver settlements, plus exports to your factoring company.
  • Fuel cards: transaction feeds matched to trucks and states for IFTA reporting.

When a shipper tenders through a web portal instead of EDI, Tepia can parse structured emails or call the portal’s API. See our telematics integration work for the device side.

How Tepia approaches dispatch software for trucking

  1. Discovery: sitting with planners through a busy Monday, reviewing EDI partner specs and your ELD account, and mapping every driver settlement rule. Deliverables are an Investigation Summary, an Interview Summary and User Stories such as a planner swapping drivers mid route after a breakdown.
  2. Design: a design questionnaire, moodboards and wireframes for the dispatch board, load detail screen and driver app, tuned for planners who work across two monitors all day.
  3. Development and Testing: EDI certification with each trading partner, an Alpha with one terminal, a Beta across the fleet, and test plans covering hours projections, settlements and offline sync.
  4. Training: separate sessions for planners, customer service, billing and drivers, using real loads from your history.
  5. Launch: migration of customers, lanes, drivers and open loads, a cutover planned for a slower day of the week, and support reps on call for the first weeks.
  6. Support: bug tracking, new trading partners and features such as a customer tracking portal.

Typically Discovery runs 1 to 3 months, development and QA 2 to 6 months, and launch about a month. See our process.

Replace your TMS or build around it

Many carriers already run a trucking TMS for accounting and compliance. If it handles your freight well and the pain is a weak driver app or poor visibility, Tepia will usually recommend keeping it and building around it through its API or database exports. A full replacement makes sense when:

  • Your freight mix, such as dedicated runs, drayage or specialized hauling, does not fit the TMS data model.
  • Planners keep a parallel spreadsheet because the board cannot show what they need.
  • You have grown through acquisition and now run several dispatch systems.
  • Shippers demand visibility and EDI that your current vendor cannot deliver on time.

Compare options on trucking company app development and build or buy software, then talk to Tepia about your fleet.

Frequently asked questions

Who builds custom dispatch software for trucking companies?
Tepia builds dispatch boards, driver apps and integrations for asset based carriers, with a US based project manager and engineers working US overlapping hours. Typical builds use React for the planner board, React Native for the driver app and Node.js or .NET services.
Can custom dispatch software use hours of service from our ELD?
Yes. Tepia reads remaining drive, duty and cycle hours from providers such as Samsara, Motive and Geotab through their APIs so planners see legal availability, while the ELD stays your official record of duty status.
Can it receive load tenders from shippers by EDI?
Tepia builds EDI 204, 990, 214 and 210 exchanges and certifies them with each trading partner during testing. Shippers who tender through portals or email can be handled with API connections or structured email parsing.
Will our drivers actually use a new dispatch app?
Tepia designs the driver app with drivers during Discovery and Design, keeps the main actions to a few large buttons and tests it in Beta on real loads before fleet rollout. Drivers stop calling dispatch for every update, which they notice quickly.
How long does it take to build trucking dispatch software?
Tepia typically spends 1 to 3 months in Discovery, 2 to 6 months in development and QA including EDI certification, and about a month on launch. A driver app added to an existing TMS usually takes less time than a full dispatch replacement.

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Dispatch every load to the right driver