Short answer
A good TMS for small carriers handles loads, dispatch, invoicing and paperwork without charging big-fleet prices. For a 1 to 10 truck operation, published prices run from free (UROUTE) to about $25 to $130 a month (TruckingOffice) to $30 per truck with a $300 minimum (Vektor). Pick on what you actually do every day, not the longest feature list.
Shopping for a TMS for small carriers is harder than it should be. Most of the search results are vendor blogs ranking their own product first. Half the pricing pages say “book a demo” instead of showing a number. And a lot of the software is built for fleets with a full back office, not for an owner who dispatches from the cab and does invoices at the kitchen table.
This guide is for fleets of 1 to 10 trucks. We cover what a carrier TMS does, what a small fleet actually needs, and real published prices we checked on each vendor’s own pricing page, as of October 2026.
What a carrier TMS does
A broker TMS is built around buying and selling freight. A carrier TMS is built around trucks, drivers and getting paid for the miles. The core jobs are the same across most products:
- Load entry. Get the load from a broker’s rate con into the system without retyping everything.
- Dispatch. Assign a truck and driver, send the load details, and see who is where.
- Paperwork. Keep the rate con, BOL and POD attached to the load.
- Invoicing. Bill the broker or shipper, or send the packet to your factoring company.
- Driver pay. Figure settlements by mile, percentage or flat rate.
- IFTA. Track miles and fuel by state for the quarterly fuel tax return.
Bigger systems add maintenance tracking, safety and driver qualification files, ELD integrations and accounting. Those are useful, but you pay for them whether you use them or not.
What small fleets actually need
If you run one to ten trucks, here is our honest take on what matters and what can wait.
Must have
- Fast load entry from rate cons. You get a rate confirmation on every brokered load. Some tools now read the PDF for you. ezLoads, for example, says on its site that it pulls load details from broker rate cons using AI parsing.
- Invoices that go out the day the truck empties. Every day a load sits unbilled is a day you float the fuel.
- Documents tied to the load. If you factor, a missing POD or unsigned BOL means a held payment.
- A price that does not punish you for adding users. Your spouse or office person should be able to log in without a second seat fee.
Nice to have
- IFTA reporting, if you are still doing it by hand
- Driver settlements, once you have company drivers or leased owner-operators
- ELD integration, so you stop asking drivers where they are
- Load board connections, if you run a lot of spot freight
Can wait
- Full accounting inside the TMS. Most small fleets are fine with QuickBooks and a clean export.
- Maintenance and DQ file modules, until you have enough trucks that a spreadsheet stops working
- Custom reports. Revenue per truck and per mile covers most of what an owner needs.
TMS for small carriers: published prices (as of October 2026)
| Product | How it charges | Published price | Trial |
|---|---|---|---|
| UROUTE | Free for motor carriers | $0, with unlimited trucks and dispatchers | Not needed |
| TruckingOffice | Flat monthly by fleet size | Basic $25 (1 to 2 trucks), $55 (3 to 7), $90 (8+). Pro $35, $75, $130 | 30 days on Pro |
| TruckLogics | Flat by fleet size, monthly or yearly | From $35.96 a month billed yearly (1 to 2 trucks). Small Fleet from $71.96 (3 to 7) | 7 days |
| AscendTMS | Per user | Basic $69, Premium $119, Pro $149 per user per month | 30 days |
| Vektor TMS | Per active truck | $30 per truck a month for 1 to 25 trucks, $300 monthly minimum | 2 weeks |
| Truckbase | Per truck, driver, load or flat annual | Minimum $290 a month, billed annually | Demo only |
| ezLoads | Not published | No price on the pricing page | 15 days, no card |
| Alvys | Per load | Quoted by load volume, no price shown | 14 days on Foundations |
Sources: UROUTE, TruckingOffice, TruckLogics, AscendTMS, Vektor TMS, Truckbase, ezLoads, Alvys. All checked on the vendor’s own pricing page in October 2026. Prices change, so confirm before you buy.
A closer look at the options
Free: UROUTE
UROUTE’s motor carrier page says the software is free with unlimited users, dispatchers and trucks. It lists dispatch, automated invoicing, a driver app, driver settlements and ELD integration. The catch is that UROUTE is also a freight marketplace, and the automation is built around freight that comes through its network. Its own announcement admits there can be a learning curve, and says loads from customers outside UROUTE still need manual data entry.
Cheap and simple: TruckingOffice and TruckLogics
These two are the budget picks for a one or two truck outfit. TruckingOffice’s pricing page starts at $25 a month for one or two trucks on the Basic plan, which is built for FTL. Its FAQ says extra users are free and there is no contract. TruckLogics lists IFTA, a mobile app and integrations with Motive, Samsara, DAT, QuickBooks and others, but its page does not say which features come with which tier. IFTA reports are also sold separately at $24.95 per report. Ask before you buy.
Per user: AscendTMS
Ascend sells to both brokers and carriers. Its pricing page lists Basic at $69 per user per month, and says it never charges for drivers, trucks or loads. That works well for a fleet with one office person and several trucks. It works less well once you have three or four people in the office. Driver pay and IFTA reports are not in the Basic feature list, so check which plan you need for them. Load board access inside Ascend still requires your own paid DAT or Truckstop subscription.
Per truck: Vektor and Truckbase
Vektor publishes its whole rate card. It is $30 per active truck per month with a $300 monthly minimum that covers the first 10 trucks, and parked trucks drop off the bill. For a five-truck fleet that still means $300. Truckbase does not publish per-truck rates, but its pricing page sets a minimum of $290 a month, billed annually. Both have a monthly floor, so they cost more than flat plans for very small fleets.
Call for a quote: ezLoads and Alvys
ezLoads offers a 15-day trial with no credit card but shows no price on its pricing page. Alvys prices by load volume with unlimited users and a 14-day trial on its entry plan. Neither one is bad, but you cannot compare them until you get on a call.
How to choose the best TMS software for small carriers
Before you start any free trial, write down what you did last week. How many loads, how many brokers, how many invoices, whether you factor, and who did the paperwork. Then run one real week of loads through each tool you are trying.
- Count your real cost. A per-user price looks cheap until you add your dispatcher and your bookkeeper. A per-truck price with a minimum can cost more than a flat plan when you only have three trucks.
- Test rate con entry. Upload five actual rate cons. If you are retyping most of the fields, that tool will not save you time.
- Test your factoring workflow. If you factor, make sure the invoice packet comes out the way your factor wants it. Our factoring glossary entry covers the basics.
- Check the exit. Ask how you get your data out if you leave. Month-to-month with an export is the safe bet.
- Ignore features you will not use this year. You can switch later. A simple tool you actually use beats a full one you avoid.
If you mostly haul dry van on brokered freight, your needs are simpler than a bulk or hot shot operation. If you run hot shot, look closely at how each tool handles short, quick-turn loads and partials.
Where FreightVero fits
FreightVero’s live product is a TMS for freight brokers. Our carrier TMS for small fleets is in early access with no general release date and no published price, so we did not put it in the table above. Today it has no driver app, ELD integration, IFTA, maintenance or driver settlements. If you haul for brokers and want to help shape it, the early access page explains how to join.
Final thoughts
There is no single best TMS for small carriers. A one-truck owner-operator who factors everything needs something cheap that turns paperwork into an invoice packet fast. A ten-truck fleet with company drivers needs settlements and IFTA, and will happily pay more to stop doing them by hand.
Start with the published prices above, cut the list to two or three that fit your size, and run a real week of loads through each. The one that saves you the most time on paperwork is the one to keep.