Booking freight by email and phone with no systematic carrier rate comparison, leaving cost savings on every load?
Freight invoice errors discovered manually when reconciling against agreed rates, weeks after the shipment delivered?
Transport Management System Development
Custom TMS for freight brokers, logistics companies, and shippers with own transport who need load planning, carrier rate management, shipment tracking, and freight invoice auditing in one system -- not a patchwork of carrier emails and spreadsheets.
Built for operations where freight booking by phone and email is costing money on every load and freight invoice errors are discovered manually when someone finds time to reconcile.
Load planning and carrier tendering with rate comparison across your carrier network
Carrier rate management with contract rates, lane rates, and accessorial charges
Shipment tracking and visibility from booking to proof of delivery
Automated freight invoice auditing that flags overbilling before you pay it
RaftLabs builds custom transport management systems covering load planning and tendering, carrier management and rate management, shipment tracking and visibility, freight invoice auditing, customs and documentation management, performance analytics by carrier and lane, and ERP and WMS integration. Most TMS projects ship in 10-14 weeks at a fixed cost.
100+Products shipped
·24+Industries served
·FixedCost delivery
·12-14Week delivery cycles
Freight booked by email and audited by hand is a cost problem, not a process preference
Most freight operations graduate to a TMS after the same inflection point. The volume of loads has grown past the point where booking by phone and email is manageable without errors. Carrier rate comparison happens informally -- the broker knows roughly what each carrier charges and picks based on experience. Invoice reconciliation is done by a logistics administrator at month end, comparing invoices against rate sheets line by line, and catching the errors that are large enough to notice.
The cost of that approach isn't just the hours spent booking and reconciling. It's the rate savings missed because the comparison wasn't systematic. It's the overbilling that wasn't caught because the invoice looked right and nobody had time to check the accessorial charges. It's the carrier performance problem that isn't visible until you look at on-time data across six months of shipments.
A custom TMS puts a system around those decisions: rate comparison at booking time, carrier selection based on data rather than habit, automated invoice matching against agreed rates, and performance reporting by carrier and lane.
What we build
Load planning and tendering
Load planning tools that group shipments into loads by destination, pickup point, delivery date, and vehicle type. Carrier tendering workflow that sends load details to your carrier network and collects quotes against your rate agreements. Spot market tendering for loads that fall outside contract lanes. Load tender acceptance and booking confirmation recorded in the system with full audit trail. Load board integration for spot market sourcing where required. The alternative to emailing three carriers and booking with the one who replies first.
Carrier management and rate management
Carrier database with contract details, service areas, equipment types, insurance and compliance document expiry tracking, and carrier performance history. Rate management covering contract lane rates, zone rates, weight break tables, fuel surcharge tables, and accessorial charge schedules. Rate effective dates so historical shipments are rated against the rates that applied at booking time. New rate negotiations captured and applied from the agreed effective date. Carrier compliance document expiry alerts before a carrier's insurance or operating authority lapses. The carrier record that tells you what you've agreed, whether the carrier is compliant, and how they're performing.
Shipment tracking and visibility
Shipment tracking from booking to proof of delivery. Carrier check-call schedules with automated reminders for carriers to provide status updates at configured milestones -- pickup confirmed, in transit, out for delivery, delivered. Tracking event ingestion from carrier APIs and EDI feeds where carriers provide them. Exception alerts for late pickups, transit delays, and missed delivery appointments. Customer portal and shipper portal showing shipment status without requiring a call to your operations team. Proof of delivery image storage against the shipment record.
Freight invoice auditing
Automated freight invoice matching against the rates booked at shipment time. Invoice line items matched against contract rates, fuel surcharge tables, and accessorial charge schedules. Overbilling identified and flagged before the invoice is approved for payment -- not discovered at month-end reconciliation. Dispute workflow to send overbilling evidence to carrier billing teams and track resolution. Invoice approval workflow for loads where the audit finds no discrepancies. Cost-per-load reporting by carrier, lane, and freight type. The audit process that finds billing errors automatically rather than depending on someone noticing a number that looks wrong.
Customs and documentation management
Customs and shipping documentation management for cross-border shipments. Bill of lading generation, consignment notes, commercial invoice, and packing list generation from shipment data entered once at booking. Customs declaration data capture for export and import filings. Document storage against the shipment record for compliance and audit purposes. Automated document distribution to carriers, customs brokers, and consignees at the right point in the shipment lifecycle. The document workflow that replaces manually preparing customs paperwork for each international shipment.
Performance analytics by carrier and lane
Carrier performance reporting across your shipment history: on-time pickup rate, on-time delivery rate, transit time variance against quoted transit, claims rate, and invoice accuracy rate. Lane analysis showing cost per unit and service performance by origin-destination lane. Carrier ranking by lane so your procurement team can identify which carriers should receive more volume and which have performance problems that need addressing. Trend reporting by period so changes in carrier performance are visible before they become problems your clients are complaining about.
Frequently asked questions
A TMS is the system that manages the planning, execution, and financial settlement of freight movements. It covers load planning, carrier selection and booking, shipment tracking, freight invoice auditing, and performance reporting. Off-the-shelf TMS platforms like MercuryGate, TMC, or Oracle TMS handle standard freight operations well. A custom TMS makes sense when your operation has requirements that standard platforms can't handle -- unusual carrier mix, proprietary rating logic, specific customer portal requirements, or deep integration with a custom ERP or WMS that standard connectors don't support. Freight brokers with unusual commission models and logistics companies with carrier agreements structured differently from standard tariffs are common candidates for custom development.
Freight invoice auditing works by matching each line item on a carrier invoice against the agreed rates recorded in the TMS at booking time. When a carrier invoices a load, the system pulls the original quoted rate, the fuel surcharge that applied on the shipment date, and the accessorial charges that were agreed for that lane or carrier. Each invoice line is matched against those records. Where the invoiced amount matches the agreed rate, the line is approved. Where there is a discrepancy -- a higher base rate, an accessorial charge not in the agreement, or a fuel surcharge calculated on the wrong base -- the line is flagged as disputed and goes into the exception workflow for carrier follow-up. The audit runs automatically on invoice receipt, not when someone finds time to check.
Yes. TMS integration typically covers two directions: receiving order and shipment data from your ERP or WMS, and writing freight cost and carrier data back for financial settlement and inventory updates. Common ERP integrations include SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, and industry-specific ERPs. WMS integration covers outbound shipment creation, load confirmation, and inbound receipt confirmation for inbound freight. The integration complexity depends on what APIs or EDI capabilities your existing systems expose. We scope integrations specifically during discovery -- we confirm what data flows in each direction, what the authoritative source is for each data element, and what the error handling should be when the integration fails.
A focused TMS covering load planning, carrier rate management, shipment tracking, and basic invoice auditing typically runs $45,000--$100,000. A full TMS with spot market tendering, EDI carrier integration, customs documentation, client portal, and full analytics typically runs $100,000--$220,000. Cost depends on the number of carrier integrations, the complexity of the rating model, EDI requirements, and the scope of the customer portal and reporting. We scope every project before pricing it and give you a fixed cost before development starts.
Freight Management Software -- shipment booking, customs documentation, and customer portals for freight forwarders
Supply Chain Automation -- PO automation, demand forecasting, and supplier onboarding workflows
Talk to us about your TMS project.
Tell us your carrier mix, your current booking process, and where the cost and visibility gaps are. We'll scope the right platform and give you a fixed cost.
