Booking schedule and planner: which truck is committed, which is free, and what runs next week
A load comes in for Thursday and the question is which truck can take it. Today that is three phone calls and a guess. NShine ERP puts every booking on a calendar by month, planner or year, labelled with its LR number and vehicle, so a truck that is not on Thursday is free, and the one that is on Thursday is already spoken for.
*No credit card required
The question the schedule answers
Dispatch runs on one question asked many times a day: is this truck free then? The register answers it badly, because it is ordered by booking date rather than by truck and day, and because the truck a driver says is free may already be promised to another load by someone else in the office. Once every booking carries a vehicle and a date, the calendar answers the question for everyone at once.
- Which trucks are committed tomorrow, and to which LRs
- Which day next week has room for one more load
- Which recurring load runs every week and on which truck
- Which bookings have no vehicle yet
What the schedule shows
Month, planner or year
Booking Schedule under the Bookings menu shows every load by month, in a planner view, or across the year. Switch views without losing the filter.
Labelled by LR and vehicle
Each load on the calendar reads "LR - vehicle", so the day shows which trucks are out and on which consignment, not just a count.
"+ N more" on busy days
A day with more loads than fit shows the first few and a "+ N more" link; open the day to see all of them.
Recurring loads
A load that repeats shows on every day it runs, so a weekly contract run is visible across the month without re-entering it.
Free is the absence
A vehicle that does not appear on a day is free that day. Planning next week is reading the gaps, not calling the drivers.
The booking behind each label
Open a label to reach the booking: parties, material, pickup and drop-off addresses and dates, driver, vehicle, readings, custom fields.
Bring next week’s loads
A 30-minute demo where we put them on the calendar and read which trucks are free. No credit card, no setup fee.
The list beside the calendar
The booking list is the same bookings in rows, as cards or a table, filtered to a period and a status. It has print, Excel export, AI Data Import and Add at the top, and a Choose Status filter for seeing only what is unassigned, in transit or waiting for an invoice.
Column | What it tells the planner |
|---|---|
LR NO. | The consignment, as it prints |
Vehicle | Which truck, or blank if none is assigned yet |
Pickup -> Dropoff Date | The days the truck is committed |
Started | Whether the load has left |
Driver | Who is on it |
Paying Customer, Supplier | The party, and the owner if the truck is hired |
Container No, Invoice No. | The box, and whether billing has picked it up |
Status, Booking Status | Pending Invoice, Invoice Created, Partial Payment, Payment Received; Booked |
The form that feeds both
A booking carries the LR number, paying customer, booking status, pickup and drop-off dates and addresses, driver, vehicle and vehicle type, material, notes, start and end readings and distance, and the customer contact. Custom fields such as seal numbers, sales person, in and out times and loaded capacity sit on the same form. The calendar and the list read from it, and so do the invoice, the owner’s bill and the driver’s trip pay later.
Planning a week
- Open Booking Schedule in planner view for next week.
- Read which trucks are committed on each day and which are not.
- Book the new loads with vehicle, driver and dates; they appear on the calendar at once.
- Filter the list to bookings without a vehicle and assign them.
- Print the LRs; drivers see their assignments in the app.
What the planner does not do
It does not optimise routes or suggest which truck should take a load. It shows what is committed and what is free, and leaves the decision to the dispatcher who knows the trucks, the drivers and the roads.
What stops happening
Three phone calls to find one free truck
Two loads promised to the same truck on the same day
A recurring run forgotten in a busy week
A booking with no vehicle found on the morning it leaves
Next week planned on paper and lost by Wednesday
The office and the owner holding different versions of the week
Watch the product in action
A walkthrough of the transport management software, in your preferred language.
Frequently asked questions
The schedule and the list are included in every plan
Plans are priced by bookings per month and own vehicles, with a free trial and no setup fee. Pick the one that fits, or book a demo first.