For small- to mid-sized asset-based carriers, the right transportation management system (TMS) choice is as critical as hiring the right drivers. This decision can have a pivotal impact on a trucking company’s ability to grow and adapt to changing market conditions. While McLeod Software, particularly its LoadMaster solution, holds a significant market share, Truckbase is rapidly emerging as an alternative.
So which one is best for those seeking simplicity, efficiency, and affordability? Keep reading to find out.
And when you’re finished, check out the other articles in our ‘Truckbase trucking dispatch software’ series:
- Best truck dispatch software systems
- Truckbase vs ITS Dispatch for fleets of 10-100 trucks
- Truckbase vs McLeod Software for small- to mid-sized carriers
- Truckbase vs TruckLogics for small- to mid-sized freight carriers
What is Truckbase TMS?
Truckbase is a cloud-based TMS designed to help asset-based regional and long-haul OTR carriers manage their operations. Here are some key details:
- It helps manage operations including dispatch, tracking, invoicing, reporting, and more in one TMS platform.
- Features include AI-powered load builder, dispatching tools, truck and trailer tracking, freight billing, QuickBooks integration, carrier and driver management.
- It aims to help trucking companies optimize routes and loads, automate workflows, improve fleet utilization, reduce overhead costs and streamline operations.
- Truckbase offers different tiers for companies of different sizes — from small fleet owners to medium and larger-sized carrier fleets. Because it’s all within a single platform, Truckbase can scale as a business grows.
- It has mobile apps for drivers and dispatch managers to access info on the go and stay updated on load statuses.
- Analytics and reporting provides insights on operational performance, customer analysis, and other KPIs.
- The TMS platform includes ELD and EDI integrations for load tracking, connecting with your customers’ systems, and automating check calls.
Truckbase is an easy-to-use, scalable, affordable and feature-rich transportation management platform designed to meet the operational needs of trucking and transport companies with small-to-mid-sized fleets. Its automated tools and integrations help optimize logistics management while reducing overhead time and costs.
What is McLeod Software TMS?
McLeod Software is also a TMS solution used by trucking, private fleet, brokerage, and 3PL companies to manage their operations.
Here are a few things to know about McLeod Software’s LoadMaster TMS:
- It helps companies manage dispatch, accounting, billing, equipment maintenance, driver payroll, and analytics via an integrated TMS tool.
- Key features include load management, routing and optimization, accounting, document management, CRM, reporting, and more.
- The TMS technology aims to help transportation companies increase efficiency and productivity, automate manual processes, improve customer service, reduce costs, and manage compliance.
- Like Truckbase, McLeod’s TMS system can integrate with other technologies via API to connect the flow of data across platforms.
McLeod’s Loadmaster is a popular, comprehensive transport management platform designed specifically for carriers. Many mid-sized and large trucking and logistics companies rely on it as their central software system.
Comparing Truckbase and McLeod Software
For an accurate understanding of how Truckbase and McLeod stack up against each other for small- and mid-sized carriers, their features and capabilities must be broken down into several categories. Based on our research, including reviews from actual customers, here’s how the two compare across six crucial categories.
Process automation
Truckbase
By automating mundane dispatching, invoicing and payroll processes Truckbase improves the efficiency of your back-office operations. This reduces the likelihood of human error while minimizing associated delays, which ultimately helps to build your brand’s reputation among existing and potential customers.
McLeod Software
McLeod Software enables clients to set up complex workflow rules that trigger automated dispatch, billing, reporting, and other operational activities without human intervention. It also allows for customization around manual touch points, which can be useful for large companies with complicated process rules and exceptions.
Winner: For fleets in the 10-100 truck range, Truckbase is the clear winner. For larger, more complex operations, McLeod tends to be the better choice.
User-friendliness
While McLeod’s feature set tends to be more robust, Truckbase was built with intuitive user experience design at the forefront while still offering a comprehensive TMS solution. In this category, we pulled directly from user reviews posted on the Capterra website. Here are several examples:
Truckbase
- “Truckbase is the most intuitive and easy software I’ve found after evaluating over 20 TMS providers. Any dispatcher can pick it up within 30 minutes.”
- “Truckbase has exponentially increased our back office efficiency. They’ve helped us streamline our processes as we evolve from a company with just a couple trucks into a larger organization.”
- “Our previous system was clunky, ugly, and more expensive. Truckbase is user friendly and did not require extensive training.”
McLeod Software
- “When you are running a lot of reports or one large report, sometimes it can make the program crash or lag. At times it can even freeze.”
- “Takes so much effort to integrate and customize. It can be difficult for beginners. Also, the system looks old, like Windows 98.”
- “This is not a user-friendly software; it took me over a month to understand. Though there are so many helpful features, the features are hard to find and there is tons of useful data that gets hidden.”
Winner: Truckbase
Integrations
Truckbase
Truckbase prides itself on the breadth of its integrations with leading ELD, accounting, and shipper/broker systems. Its connections with 30+ telematics providers, for instance, give dispatchers access to vehicle locations and status changes for better planning. APIs that sync invoice and settlement data into Intuit QuickBooks desktop and online products enable real-time financials. At the same time, bi-directional EDI data pipes directly into major shipper/broker systems to reduce double entry and paperwork.
McLeod Software
McLeod TMS features an open API and EDI interface that enables integrations with other software platforms. This allows for two-way data movement between the TMS and other systems to eliminate duplicate data entry and manual processes. The solution can be made to work with everything from accounting software and telematics systems to warehouse management tools and sensor platforms.
Winner: McLeod, if you’re looking for warehouse integrations
Financial management
Truckbase
Along with increasing operational visibility, Truckbase provides insights into the financial aspects of clients’ businesses, enabling better decision-making and business management. With APIs that sync invoice and settlement data into QuickBooks, Truckbase enables instant invoicing from real-time load data and AR tracking that accelerates billing and payments. Customizable pay rules by driver and automated weekly settlements simplify payroll processing and foster trust with drivers.
McLeod Software
McLeod TMS automates invoicing workflows and revenue management activities while integrating with popular accounting platforms to handle financials and cash flow. This enables transportation companies to track receivables and payables. In turn, they can improve cash flow visibility, connect billing and accounting, model profitability by customer or route, and run financial reports.
Winner: Tie
Affordability
Truckbase
Budget-friendliness is key for Truckbase. The company makes essential features like dispatch, invoicing, driver settlements, ELD integrations, and EDI accessible at an affordable price that’s ideal for businesses eyeing expansion without heavy financial strain. By automating and streamlining various processes, Truckbase empowers trucking companies to scale operations without necessarily increasing office staff headcount, leading to cost-effective growth.
McLeod Software
McLeod tends to work best for fleets of 500+ trucks that can afford investments of higher magnitude than what’s required for Truckbase. Moreover, this cost is not just in dollars, but also in time. The level of effort to learn, train, and adapt McLeod is a substantially greater lift than getting up and running with Truckbase.
Winner: Truckbase
Customer support
Truckbase
A standout factor of working with Truckbase is its responsive and highly personalized white-glove customer service experience that’s included standard on all plans. Customers have unparalleled access to senior management, who routinely go above and beyond to surprise and delight. Customer support was called out as a key differentiator in their reviews.
McLeod Software
McLeod offers fairly comprehensive and responsive customer support capabilities for freight TMS users of varying technical skills and needs. Standard support is included in the base software price, while extra services and training come at additional cost. Some users mention hold times for standard calls.
Winner: Truckbase
And the winner is…
While McLeod Software offers a comprehensive carrier TMS with LoadMaster, it may not suit the specific needs of smaller, growth-focused trucking businesses. Truckbase, on the other hand, is specifically designed for small to mid-sized fleets focused on affordability and streamlined operations. In contrast to McLeod’s system, which some users find overwhelming and challenging to learn, Truckbase stands out with an intuitive design, seamless financial integrations, and responsive customer support,
Ultimately, Truckbase comes out as the clear winner for asset-based carriers seeking a scalable, straightforward solution with a simple, cohesive experience for all users. By promoting transparency and collaboration to streamline operations, this customer-centric TMS solution paves the way for success in the trucking industry.
FAQ
Truckbase AI is an artificial intelligence and machine learning system developed by Truckbase, a trucking software company, that aims to help users with intelligent load and rate confirmation importing. It removes manual data entry from the process and includes various error-checking processes to turn a long and tedious task into an instantaneous one.
A transportation management system (TMS) provider is a company that develops and sells software designed to help transportation and logistics companies efficiently manage day-to-day operations. Functions may include, for example, dispatching, routing, load tracking, and compliance monitoring.
A transport management system, or TMS in freight, is comprehensive transportation industry software for managing shipping and carrier business activities. It integrates operational data like order management and fleet tracking with functions like load planning, routing, mode selection, carrier communication, and freight bill administration.
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