TMS requirements checklist and vendor scorecard

How to run an evaluation with this checklist

1. Rank before you look. Go through every line with whoever does the work: the dispatcher, the person who does billing and settlements, and whoever keeps driver files. Mark a requirement must-have only if you would refuse a system without it. Most lines should end up nice to have or not needed.
2. Add what is missing. No generic list knows your freight. If you haul hazmat, run dedicated lanes with customer portals, or bill a shipper through EDI, write those requirements down and ask about them by name.
3. Shortlist on must-haves. Use a vendor's documentation and a first call to drop anyone who plainly misses a must-have. Then book demos with two or three.
4. Score in the demo, not after it. Mark "Yes, shown" only for things you watched work. "Partly" covers a workaround, a feature in another plan or one that depends on an add-on. "No" means no. Leave a line "Not checked" until it has been demonstrated, so the scorecard shows how much is still unverified.
5. Read the score last. The weighted score counts must-haves three times as heavily as nice-to-haves. It is a tie-breaker between vendors that meet every must-have, not a substitute for that test.

Your choices are saved in this browser as you go, so you can fill the checklist in over several demos. Use the print button for a paper copy to take into a meeting or to save as a PDF.

Requirements US carriers most often miss

These are the lines that tend to surface only after the contract is signed, usually because the system was demonstrated by someone thinking about dispatch rather than compliance or pay.

The driver qualification file

Under 49 CFR 391.51, a carrier keeps a qualification file for each driver: the employment application, the motor vehicle record from each state licensing authority, the road test certificate or its accepted equivalent, the medical examiner's certificate, and each annual motor vehicle record with a note of the annual review, including who did the review and when (49 CFR 391.25). Ask the vendor to show a driver file with those documents, what happens when a medical certificate is about to expire, and how the annual review note is recorded. A system built for another country's rules may store documents without tracking the US set.

Drug and alcohol records

Part 382 requires a full pre-employment query of the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse before a driver performs safety-sensitive work, and a query of every driver at least once a year (49 CFR 382.701). Many systems store test results and Clearinghouse status as documents; very few run the queries for you, because they happen in FMCSA's own Clearinghouse. Ask exactly what the system does and what you still do yourself.

IFTA by jurisdiction

An IFTA return reports miles and fuel for each member jurisdiction every quarter. A useful system gets miles by state from the ELD or trip records and gallons from fuel card imports, then produces the jurisdiction totals for you to check and file. Ask where each number comes from and what happens to a trip with no ELD data.

Owner-operator settlements

If you lease owner-operators, federal leasing rules shape the settlement. When an owner-operator is paid a percentage of revenue, the lease must provide that they receive a copy of the rated freight bill at or before settlement (49 CFR 376.12(g)), and every chargeback must be specified in the lease, with the documents needed to check it available to them (49 CFR 376.12(h)). Ask to see a settlement statement with deductions itemized and the freight bill behind a percentage load.

Hours-of-service records

Records of duty status and supporting documents must be kept at least six months (49 CFR 395.8(k)). If your TMS reviews logs or stores supporting documents, ask how long it keeps them and how you would produce them in an audit.

How to verify a vendor's claim in a demo

• Bring your own load. Send a real (anonymized) rate confirmation ahead of time and ask to see it go from entry to dispatch to invoice to settlement. Canned demo data hides the gaps.
• Ask "show me", not "can it". The answer to "can it" is almost always yes. "Show me where the POD lands after the driver sends it" has a visible answer.
• Find out which plan it is on. Many systems sell tiers. For each line you score yes, ask whether it is included in the plan you were quoted or needs an upgrade or add-on, and score "Partly" if it does.
• Check the integration that matters to you. "Integrates with ELDs" means nothing until you know which providers. Name yours, your fuel card and your accounting system.
• Ask about leaving. How do you export everything, in what format, and what happens to your documents if you cancel? A vendor confident in its product will answer plainly.
• Talk to the people who will use it. Let your dispatcher and billing person run the demo for ten minutes. Their questions are better than the checklist's.

After the scoring

Once a vendor clears every must-have and wins on the weighted score, check the cost against the office time you expect to save with the TMS ROI calculator, and ask for the onboarding plan in writing: who imports your data, how long it takes, and when you stop running the old process. A checklist gets you to the right system; the rollout decides whether it pays off.