Digital freight broker Transfix has launched its first standalone software. Fleet Planner is a free online tool for small and midsize motor carriers giving them access to a centralized platform for managing fleets and streamlining operations. 

Fleet Planner complements the company’s existing digital brokerage platform.

Transfix explained in a release that while dispatchers at small to mid-sized carriers struggle with many of the same complexities as much larger carriers – managing driver schedules and preferences, organizing key load information, communicating with drivers – budget constraints have made technology solutions inaccessible, leaving dispatchers to rely on pen and paper spreadsheets to organize information and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

“As a result, carriers are left with siloed views of the business and massive inefficiencies that can cost them up to thousands per year. They also run the risk of missing loads, hurting relationships with customers or wasting truck capacity -- driving further impact to their bottom line.”

With Fleet Planner, the company says, fleet management capabilities are now available to carriers for free. It gives users the ability to organize fleets, seamlessly assign loads (including non-Transfix loads), and quickly communicate load details with drivers.

A&B Carriers and Delivery Management Services, who were early Beta users of the software, saw dramatic impacts on their operations, according to Transfix, including savings of upwards of 525 hours of annualized administrative time.

"Fleet Planner makes it so much easier to manage my business and day-to-day as a dispatcher,” said Erin Burton, from A&B Carriers. “Before [Fleet Planner], I had to search across multiple spreadsheets, documents, and apps for key load information, but now it's all in one place. It saves me two hours per day! I especially love that I can easily send texts with load info to my drivers, right from the product," she said. 

Fleet Planner users can quickly log in anytime from anywhere, with the ability to:  

• View fleet:get an immediate, unified view of all in-progress and upcoming loads, with a convenient calendar view 

• Add and assign loads: add important details for all loads -- including those with Transfix and beyond -- and assign to the right drivers 

• Share load details:streamline communications with drivers via text and save time

This milestone follows the April launch of the Transfix Core Carrier Program, which allows it to forge strategic partnerships with carriers that demonstrate reliability, strong performance and provide exceptional service for their shared customers. In March, Transfix also announced the promotion of Lily Shen to CEO.