Shipments and legs
Pick-up, delivery, multiple stops, a fixed time or a time window, legs subcontracted out.
CargoDesk TMS · Transport management system
Transport planning does not start in a spreadsheet — or end in an inbox.
CargoDesk TMS brings the shipment, the dispatch plan, the partner, the document, the warehouse, driver pay and invoice preparation into one system. Every piece of data is entered once — after that everyone sees the same thing, in real time.
- From the shipment to the invoice annex
- Web interface + Windows client
- Your branding, your company data
- Can run on your own server
Take a look inside
What CargoDesk looks like in day-to-day work.
Screenshots from the running system, with sample data. Page through from the dashboard to the AI assistant — click any image to see it full size.
01 / 08: Dashboard
At a glance
What lives in three places today lives in one here.
Dispatch board
A schedule by driver or by vehicle, with conflict detection — who is where today and what is left uncovered.
Partners and invoicing
Billing cycles for collected-invoice partners, items waiting to be invoiced, an annex in one click.
Warehouse and storage
Warehouses, inbound and outbound, pallet stock, storage fees among the billable items.
Vehicles and drivers
Master data, expiring documents, servicing, archiving — without losing the references on past shipments.
Documents
CMR, waybills and contracts by category, with permission-bound downloads and search.
Driver pay settlement
Work log, per-diem, mileage, drop money, supplements — gross settlement exported to Excel for payroll.
Reports
Revenue, breakdown by partner and vehicle, month-on-month — from the same source as the dashboard.
The daily reality
Admin does not grow because there are more shipments. It grows because the same data is created again and again.
At most haulage companies the same shipment is written down at least four times: once in the quote, once in the dispatch plan, once for the driver, once for invoicing. Every rewrite is a chance to get it wrong, and a phone call.
A spreadsheet cannot speak up
It will not tell you that a completed shipment has not been invoiced, that a driver's licence expires in two weeks, or that a collected-invoice partner's cycle has closed.
The knowledge sits in one person's head
When the dispatcher is on holiday, nobody knows what was promised to the partner. In the system that is recorded data, not a verbal agreement.
Month end is always a scramble
Invoicing means collecting completed shipments, storage, prices and annexes. In the system that is a list already waiting, not two days of gathering.
Mistakes cost more than the software
A shipment invoiced twice, a lost CMR or a driver who was never notified costs far more than the monthly fee you are trying to avoid.
The time you get back
Run the numbers with your own figures.
The estimate below comes from our own rollouts: it measures the manual work that disappears once data is created once and everyone works from it. Set your own volumes — the assumptions are shown openly, and we refine them during discovery.
20800
160
Manual work that disappears
41.5hours per month
- working days per month
- 5.2
- hours per year
- 498
| Task | Assumption | Hours / mo |
|---|---|---|
| Entering and tracking a shipmentTemplates, saved addresses, recurring shipments, no double entry | 6 min / shipment | 15.0 |
| Collecting billing data and the annexA completed shipment lands among the items waiting to be invoiced | 4 min / shipment | 10.0 |
| Dispatch planning and driver briefingDispatch board, conflict detection, drivers see their own shipments | 3 min / shipment | 7.5 |
| Finding and sending documentsCMR and waybill attached to the shipment, emailed from a template | 2 min / shipment | 5.0 |
| Preparing driver payWork log and rates in one place, pre-filled, exported to Excel for payroll | 25 min / driver | 2.5 |
| Compiling monthly reportsRevenue and the breakdown by partner and vehicle are already there | 90 min / month | 1.5 |
| Total | 41.5 |
The estimate covers administration, not driving. It does not include the value of the mistakes avoided — double invoicing, missed items, lost documents — because that cannot be generalised honestly.
What the system does
Not a feature list: every point in the day where work usually stalls.
Every module works from the same data. Change a shipment's price and the report, the billable item and the assistant's answer all change with it — there is no second version of the truth.
Transport planning
- Shipments with multiple stops, pick-up and delivery scheduled separately
- A fixed time or a from–to window per stop
- Recurring shipments and shipment templates
- Legs subcontracted out, with their own price and responsibility
- Dispatch board by driver or vehicle, in daily and weekly views
- Conflict detection: overlapping times, expiring licences, vehicles in service
- Site opening hours and a curated catalogue of saved addresses
Invoice preparation
- Immediate or collected invoicing, on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly cycle
- Items waiting to be invoiced, per partner, with due dates
- Invoice annexes created and finalised as PDF
- Protection against double invoicing: an item on an annex leaves the pool
- Multiple currencies with the exchange rate stored on the line
- Price visibility as a separate permission: not everyone sees the numbers
Fleet, drivers, pay
- Vehicle and driver master data with document expiry tracking
- Archiving instead of deletion — references on past shipments stay valid
- Driver portal: a driver sees only their own shipments and payslips
- A daily work log: working days, days abroad, mileage, drop count
- Gross settlement: base pay, per-diem, mileage, drop money, hourly rate, supplements, deductions
- A closed settlement is immutable: every value is stored on the line
Warehouse and documents
- Multiple warehouses with capacity, opening hours, chilled and ADR flags
- Inbound, outbound and pallet stock
- Storage fees among the billable items
- Document management by category with permission-bound downloads
- Email from the system, with templates and attachments, sent per recipient
- Excel and PDF export from every list
Oversight and security
- Dashboard: today's schedule, open shipments, uninvoiced items
- Reports: revenue, breakdown by partner and vehicle, month-on-month
- Watchlists: named to-do monitors assigned to specific users
- Four roles — superadmin, admin, editor, reader
- A full audit log: who changed what, and when
- Global search and command palette (Ctrl+K)
- Real-time updates: what a colleague saves appears on everyone's screen
AI assistant (optional)
- Ask questions about your own data: schedule, partner, shipment, reports
- Disabled by default — you decide whether to turn it on
- It never changes anything on its own: it asks for approval and names what it would do
- Its permissions are never wider than the person asking
- Daily limits and a cost ceiling, so the bill cannot run away
Why it pays off
Eight decisions we have already made for you.
Enter once, see it everywhere
A shipment's data is the same in the dispatch plan, on the document, in the report and among the billable items. Nothing is copied, so nothing drifts.
The system speaks up before it hurts
Completed but uninvoiced shipments, legs without a driver, expiring documents, a due collected invoice — the watchlist is on every page.
It runs under your brand
Company name, tax number, logo, brand colour and numbering format are all settings. Your staff are not using someone else's software.
Web and Windows client at once
The same interface in a browser and as an installed Windows application, on the same data. On the desktop, saving is native and the credentials live in the Windows credential store.
Permissions are not an afterthought
Four roles, and pay data carries its own separate right. Price visibility is a right of its own too — a dispatcher can work without seeing your margin.
Every change leaves a trace
The audit log shows who changed what and when. In a dispute that is no longer a matter of memory.
Your data, inside the EU
We can run it on our server or on yours. Backups are encrypted and restoring them is a documented procedure.
Development does not stop
We keep developing the system, and if a feature is missing for the way you work, we can build it — with the same team.
The life of a shipment
Four steps where today there are at least eight.
01
Record the order
Pick the partner, use saved addresses, add stops, set a fixed time or a window. For recurring work, start from a template in a few clicks.
02
Plan and notify
Assign the driver and vehicle on the shipment; the dispatch board shows it instantly. On a conflict the system asks, but the dispatcher decides.
03
Delivery and paperwork
The driver sees their own shipment on their own screen. The CMR and waybill are attached to the shipment, searchable and emailable from there.
04
Prepare the invoice
A completed shipment moves into the items waiting to be invoiced on its own. For collected-invoice partners, the annex is one click at the end of the cycle.
Hosting and security
What is non-negotiable when the data belongs to a haulier.
On your server or ours
A Docker-based deployment with automatic TLS certificates. The data stays inside the EU; you choose where.
Encrypted, tested backups
Daily encrypted backups with a documented restore procedure — a backup is only worth something once you have tried it.
Audited security setup
The application runs with a restricted database user, sessions can be revoked, and logins and bulk exports are logged.
Updates without downtime
Version upgrades are scheduled and reversible. The Windows client updates itself.
FAQ
Questions hauliers ask before deciding
How long does onboarding take?
The system works from day one; onboarding is about company data, branding, permissions, numbering formats and master data (partners, vehicles, drivers). That is usually measured in days, not months.
Can we migrate our existing data?
Partner, vehicle and driver master data can be imported from Excel. Shipments in progress are usually not worth migrating: close those the old way and start new ones in the system.
Does it replace our invoicing software?
No. CargoDesk prepares invoicing — it collects the billable items and produces the invoice annex — while your invoicing software issues the invoice. Driver pay works the same way: gross settlement here, payroll calculation stays with your accountant.
What if a feature is missing?
We talk it through, and if it fits the logic of the system, we build it. The same developer who delivers custom projects develops the product — there is no offshore support queue between the request and the fix.
Where is our data?
Wherever you want it: on our server inside the EU, or on your own. Either way with encrypted backups and a documented restore.
Can it be used on a phone?
The system is web-based, so it opens in a browser, and the driver interface is designed for phones. For dispatch work we recommend a larger screen — the schedule and the shipment list carry many columns.
What does it cost?
It depends on the size of the company, the number of users and where it is hosted, so we do not publish a template price. After a short conversation you get a concrete written proposal.