Last month a holiday closure left one of my trailers stuck at a terminal overnight and I was able to spot its exact location in the yard on Kaleris and reassign another carrier before the customer even called. That yard-to-TMS visibility saved me a day's layover and a headache. I'm an owner-operator with three trucks and 22 years in the Midwest; I don't need frills, just something that cuts down surprises, so I give it 4/5.
Emerald Heller
Member since January 2026
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94 reviews · average 3.8
Owner-operator with three trucks and 22 years under my belt - needed something to plug gaps on Midwest routes. Signed up, hooked it to my TMS in under an hour via a simple CSV import, and had a live carrier match that same afternoon. That quick setup and instant results is what sold me.
I've used DAT Broker TMS for about eight months. Before this I was juggling Excel, a separate billing program and the DAT load board - switching between three apps to close a load for my three trucks. After 22 years in the business, the thing that made me happiest was how it pulls load details straight into invoices so I don't retype miles and rates; that alone cut my billing time in half and stopped the little mistakes that used to cost me. Only gripe is the mobile interface could be snappier, but it's saved me real time.
Last Wednesday LoadPilot auto-assigned a load to a carrier who never accepted it, so my driver pulled into the yard and there was no paperwork or pallet to move. I'm an owner-operator with three trucks in the Midwest and 22 years' experience, so that glitch cost me hours and a rightly pissed-off driver. It's simple for day-to-day booking and I like that it doesn't cram in useless features, but between that assignment bug and the confusing acceptance flags I'm on the fence - support refunded the fee fast, yet I still double-check everything now.
...support can be hit-or-miss; one rep walks you through a billing mess like they actually care, the next goes radio silent for days. I run three trucks and after 22 years in the Midwest, I can't afford downtime, so when a ticket drags it ends up costing me runs - which makes me twitchy about calling back. There are flashes of helpfulness that keep me from ditching them, but paying full price for that kind of inconsistency leaves me torn.
The Transport Pro mobile app finally stopped my drivers from calling me every hour. That photo-POD and signature capture that auto-syncs when a truck gets signal is the one thing that actually made my life easier - we stop waiting on receipts, invoice the load same day, and my bookkeeper is happy. I run three trucks out of the Midwest and after 22 years on the road I’m picky about phone apps, but this one’s straightforward enough my oldest driver learned it in an afternoon. Not flashy, just reliable on the go.
I've used RigBooks for about eight months. Most days it does what I need - dispatches push through and drivers see their loads - but there were a couple of morning outages that left me scrambling and we missed a pickup once because the app wouldn't load; support fixed it, just not quickly enough. I run three trucks in the Midwest and the IFTA/mileage reports actually cut down on paperwork, which makes me torn: handy when it's up, but I can't bank on it for time-sensitive runs.
Bottom line: it does what it says, but at this price I'm not sold on the value. I run three trucks in the Midwest and after 22 years in the business I noticed the built-in dispatch/billing cut down on double-entry, yet the monthly fee plus a couple of necessary add-ons wiped out most of that gain. If you care more about time than cash, it might make sense, but for my small shop the numbers leave me on the fence.
Bottom line: for what you get it's solid value - the price makes sense for a small fleet. With 22 years running trucks in the Midwest and three trucks of my own, the simple dispatch screen that slashed paperwork was the one thing that actually made it pay for itself. It won’t replace a full-blown TMS, but if you want to cut admin time without dropping a ton of cash, the monthly cost was worth it.
Customer support is the reason I keep using bulkTMS. I called on a Saturday when a load had the wrong commodity code and the rep stayed on the line, fixed the booking, and sent a screenshot of the corrected invoice - saved me a headache and a driver wait. I run three trucks in the Midwest and after 22 years on the road I don't hand out praise easily, but that hands-on attitude made a real difference.
Drove 180 miles for a supposed 3,200-bushel corn load that vanished off the manifest when I showed up. The phone number on BulkLoads went straight to voicemail, the posting stayed live for hours after the shipper told me they'd reassigned it, and after 22 years hauling in the Midwest and running three trucks I don't chase ghost posts - except I did this time and it cost me about $600 in fuel plus two missed loads. No follow-up, no refund, just a stale listing and a pissed-off driver; not using BulkLoads again.