Help Center / Loads and Dispatch

Use the Dispatch Board

The dispatch board shows unassigned loads, active loads and your drivers side by side. Use it to assign drivers, set the truck and trailer, and move loads through their statuses.

Where in CloudTMS: /dispatch

Find Your Way Around

The board has four tabs: Board, Schedule, Map and Trailers. You can also switch tabs with Cmd/Ctrl + 1 to 4 when you aren't typing in a field.

On Board, the left column is Available Drivers. Use Avail to see only free drivers or All to see everyone. On the right, Unassigned Loads is on top and Active Loads is below it. Click any load to open its detail panel, which has the tabs Overview, Route, Driver, Financials, Docs, Tracking and Activity.

Assign a Driver, Truck and Trailer

Assigning from the board sets the driver and moves the load to Dispatched in one step. That only works if the load already has a truck, and a trailer when a trailer type is set. Otherwise you'll get an error saying the truck or trailer isn't assigned. Setting a driver's default Tractor and Trailer with Save Equipment on their card updates the driver's profile, not the load. The most reliable way to dispatch is through the load's detail panel (steps 3 to 5).

Every assignment runs a dispatch-readiness check on the driver. Only active drivers can be dispatched, and a driver can be blocked by things like a missing pay rate or, depending on your company's compliance settings, missing documents.

  1. Drag a card from Unassigned Loads onto a driver in Available Drivers. Or click a driver to expand their card, choose a load under Loads and click Assign. (page: /dispatch)
  2. To see a ranked list of drivers, click AI Suggest on an unassigned load, then Assign to next to a driver. This ranking is rule-based. It scores drivers on hours of service remaining, time until pickup and projected margin, and it doesn't call an AI model. (page: /dispatch)
  3. To dispatch from the detail panel, click the load and open the Driver tab. Set Truck and Trailer, then click Assign driver (or Reassign) and pick a driver. Click Team to add a second or relief driver. (page: /dispatch)
  4. Open the Route tab and choose the next status in the Status dropdown. Move one step at a time: Created, Dispatched, At Pickup, Loaded, In Transit, At Delivery, Delivered. (page: /dispatch)
  5. To take a driver off a load, open the Driver tab, click Unassign and confirm with Yes, unassign. The load goes back to Unassigned Loads. (page: /dispatch)

Relay Handoffs

A relay is a stop where the trailer switches to a different driver. Choosing a stop type such as drop yard or fuel stop doesn't create a relay on its own. You have to mark the stop as a relay.

  1. In the load's Route tab, click Add stop and fill in the stop details. (page: /dispatch)
  2. Check Mark as relay handoff, pick the receiving driver, then click Add Stop. (page: /dispatch)

Use the Map

The Map tab shows where your drivers are. Trucks is the only working list in the side panel. Trailers, Loads and Yards are shown but can't be opened yet. A driver only shows a live position if their ELD or the driver app has reported one. Otherwise the list shows "No fix".

  1. Click the radius tool button (its tooltip reads "Radius tool — drop a center pin to find nearby drivers"), then click the map to drop a center pin. The Trucks list narrows to drivers inside the radius, sorted by distance, and you can change the radius in miles. (page: /dispatch)

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