Transportation ERP Consultant, USA

From rate confirmation to paid invoice in US trucking

A typical US truckload move starts with a rate confirmation from a shipper or a broker. Dispatch assigns a tractor, trailer and driver, the driver picks up, the ELD records the trip, and the bill of lading comes back signed at delivery. Billing then waits for paperwork: the signed BOL, lumper receipts, scale tickets and any detention evidence. Only then does an invoice go out, often to a broker rather than the shipper, and sometimes through a factoring company.

Every handoff in that chain is a place where revenue leaks. Detention that was never claimed because arrival and departure times were not captured. A lumper fee paid by the driver but never recharged. A fuel surcharge calculated on an outdated table. Before discussing software, I walk through a sample of recent loads with dispatch and billing and note where each piece of information is typed, by whom, and how late.

The output is a process map of the load lifecycle and a list of decisions: which document triggers billing, which charges need proof, who approves exceptions, and what the TMS sends to the ERP. This is different work from ERP for US forwarders and brokers, who buy transport instead of owning trucks. My transportation ERP overview covers the general fleet model; here the focus is how it plays out for US carriers.

Company drivers, owner-operators and settlement statements

Driver pay is where many US carriers keep their most fragile spreadsheet. Company drivers may be paid by the mile, with extra pay for stops, layovers, breakdowns or detention. Owner-operators leased to the carrier are usually paid a share of load revenue or a rate per mile, and their settlement carries deductions: fuel bought on the carrier's card, cash advances, insurance, trailer rental, escrow contributions and chargebacks.

An ERP design has to treat these as two different worlds. Company driver pay feeds payroll, with taxes and benefits handled by the payroll provider. Owner-operator settlements are payables to independent businesses, with their own statements, year-end 1099 reporting and lease terms. How each driver is classified is a legal question for your advisors, not for me; what I own is a design in which the ledger follows whatever the contract says.

In practice I design:

• pay codes linked to load events, so settlement lines come from dispatch data rather than memory
• a deduction schedule per owner-operator with balances printed on every statement
• an escrow ledger that the carrier can reconcile and the owner-operator can follow
• approval rules for pay adjustments, so disputes leave a record

When this works, settlement day stops being a negotiation and becomes a review of exceptions.

Fuel tax miles, registration and the ELD as the source

Interstate carriers report fuel use and miles by jurisdiction under the International Fuel Tax Agreement, and apportioned registration under the International Registration Plan also depends on miles by jurisdiction. Both rely on data the ERP does not generate. The ELD or telematics system records where the truck went; fuel cards record where fuel was bought. Hours of service are captured in the ELD too, and it should stay the record for that compliance.

The ERP's role is narrower and still important. It holds fuel cost by unit, fuel card invoices and their reconciliation, registration, permit and insurance costs per unit, and expiry dates for plates, permits, annual inspections and driver medical certificates. I design how miles by state flow into whatever tool prepares fuel tax returns, and how fuel purchases reconcile between card statements, the ERP and that tool, so discrepancies surface before a filing rather than during an audit.

I do not prepare filings or advise on tax positions. I do make sure the data behind them has one owner and a clean path, and that each unit's compliance calendar is visible to the people who renew things. Check current reporting requirements with your fuel tax or compliance provider.

Factoring, broker freight and cash flow

Many smaller US carriers sell invoices to a factoring company to get paid faster, especially on broker freight with long payment terms. Others factor only some customers, or have moved off factoring and still carry old balances. Each arrangement changes the accounting. A non-recourse sale, a recourse sale, a reserve held back by the factor, fees per invoice and rebates when the customer pays: if these are posted by hand, receivables and cash stop agreeing with the factor's reports.

I document the factoring agreement in system terms and design the entries with your accountant: when the receivable is transferred, how the advance and reserve are recorded, how fees reach cost per load if you want them there, and how a charged-back invoice returns to your books. I also clean up customer master data, since the same broker can appear under several names and remit-to addresses.

Cash planning for a carrier also depends on timing in the other direction: fuel is paid within days, drivers are paid on a fixed cycle, and some customers pay much later. Once loads, settlements and factoring live in one ledger, a weekly cash view becomes a report rather than a spreadsheet exercise.

Choosing a platform alongside your TMS, and working remotely

Smaller US carriers often run an entry-level accounting package next to a trucking TMS, linked by exports. The decision is usually one of three: keep the TMS for dispatch and settlements and move accounting to a stronger ERP; adopt an ERP and build trip and settlement functions into it; or replace both with a trucking suite and accept its accounting. Each has trade-offs that depend on fleet size, how many owner-operators you run and how much customization you can maintain.

I run vendor selection using scripted scenarios from your own data: a multi-stop load with detention, an owner-operator settlement with a fuel advance chargeback, a factored invoice that is later charged back, and a tractor's PM history. Vendors or implementers demonstrate those, not their standard tour.

Delivery is remote. Workshops with dispatch and billing run over video at agreed times; I review exports and draft requirements between sessions. Broader questions about ERP in this market are covered on the US ERP consulting page and the US hub.