Suboptimal dispatch planning decisions cost American heavy-duty trucking fleets between $150 billion and $200 billion annually, according to BeyondTrucks. The company says it has a solution using AI-powered optimization.

BeyondTrucks provides a transportation management system (TMS) designed to replace legacy software and manual processes with a platform built for artificial intelligence.

The company recently added an Optimization Solution that enables a new, real-time, AI-powered approach to optimization. 

Company officials said it’s the first of its kind in two ways. 

1. It’s built directly into BeyondTrucks' TMS platform, the dispatcher’s primary workspace

2. It has a natural language interface to adjust plans in real time.

Yes, there are other optimization solutions available, but BeyondTrucks contends that those often require exporting information out of the TMS, into the optimization program, then back into the TMS.

“Our platform empowers companies to adapt to last-minute changes, exceptions, and unexpected challenges with speed and precision, because everything happens natively within the TMS,” said Hans Galland, CEO of BeyondTrucks.

The Problem With Depending on Tribal Knowledge for Dispatching Loads

Today, many companies rely on the “tribal knowledge” of their dispatchers. However, BeyondTrucks noted, that approach scales very poorly. 

Even with decades of tribal knowledge, human decisions are biased and sub-optimal.

And when those dispatchers retire or leave, that experience and knowledge walks out the door. It’s not captured in order to do a better job in the future.

“We know that some of the largest fleets in the country would say one of the biggest bottlenecks to growth is dispatch talent,” Galland said. 

This kind of technology “creates a bridge between the knowledge that a fleet has accumulated and makes it easier to onboard new talent because that knowledge is now captured in data,” he explained.

This technology allows dispatchers to manage more trucks and makes it easier to onboard new talent, he pointed out. And dispatchers can become more involved in taking care of drivers. 

Optimizing in the Ever-Changing Environment of Trucking

Unlike traditional systems that assume a static operating environment, the BeyondTrucks Optimization Solution is designed for the real-world complexities of the highly dynamic context in which fleets operate. 

“An optimization tool that only works when everything goes smoothly is the wrong tool for transportation,” Galland said. 

“The reality is, in trucking, things rarely go as planned. Plans become obsolete the moment they're created. And making adjustments requires either waiting days for engineering support or manually overriding the system — undermining the very efficiency the technology promised to deliver.”

The new BeyondTrucks Optimization Solution allows optimizing and re-optimizing load assignments across drivers, tractors and trailers, routes, and schedules using AI-powered algorithms and constraint management.

“This means when something changes, whether a driver can’t leave their home state, or other new delivery constraints arise, the user can flexibly adjust constraints and run the optimization again instantly,” Galland explained.

More About the BeyondTrucks Optimization Solution

BeyondTrucks combines proprietary data from a customer’s TMS with information from other systems — such as ELDs, fleet management platforms, and driver applicant tracking systems — in its native data integration layer. 

Enabling real-time interaction with human load planners in their primary workspace, it offers advantages such as:

• Faster data access across an increasingly complex fleet tech stack.

• No data delays across systems, such as preventive maintenance scheduling solutions, navigation systems with weather information, or driver qualifications and preferences.

• Fewer manual overrides by employing machine learning from a broader set of information that informs decision-making.

“Transportation management systems have tried to deliver optimization natively, but traditionally struggled because of the lack of real-time data and intuitive load planning interfaces,” explained Galland. 

“Therefore, today, the market offers optimization only as bolt-on solutions, which struggle to unlock value as load planners often override recommendations. With BeyondTrucks’ data structure being architected for the demands of AI, the platform can now deploy optimization algorithms natively and present recommendations in an intuitive way.”