How-to guides
How to dispatch a load and track it to delivery
Who this is for: dispatchers.
A load starts as a real commitment — you took the freight — and ends when the money lands. This is the path through the app.
1. Create the load
Either Create load from this on an approved opportunity (keeps the call, email, screening, and profit calculation attached), or Loads → New for freight that came in some other way.
Fill in the load number, the broker, the lane, the rate, and the pickup and delivery appointments. A dispatch number field is available for carriers who run their own numbering.
2. Assign a driver and truck
Assign driver on the load. Assignment does three things:
- Puts the driver on the load for check-ins and status texts.
- Switches the driver's status to On load.
- Re-prices the load against that specific truck and driver — their MPG, their maintenance cost, their pay rate — instead of your fleet defaults.
3. Move it through the statuses
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Planned | Booked, not yet rolling. |
| Dispatched | Driver has the load. |
| At pickup | On site at the shipper. |
| Loaded | Freight is on. |
| In transit | Rolling. |
| At delivery | On site at the receiver. |
| Delivered | Freight is off. |
| POD received | Signed POD is filed. |
| Invoiced | Invoice is out. |
| Paid | Money is in. |
| Cancelled | It fell through. |
Each change is stamped on the load's timeline with who made it and when.
Two things happen automatically:
- On Delivered, the driver is freed up and dispatcher pay accrues for the load (once, on that transition).
- On Delivered, POD received, or Paid, the load stops generating new check-in escalations. Nobody gets paged about a driver going quiet on a load that finished hours ago.
4. Let the app text the driver on transitions
Settings → Operations → Auto-SMS driver on load status changes (off by default). When it is on, these transitions send the assigned driver a short text:
| Transition | Message |
|---|---|
| Dispatched | Dispatched on the load, asks for an ETA to pickup. |
| Loaded | Confirms pickup, asks for a photo of the BOL. |
| Delivered | Asks for a photo of the signed POD so you can invoice. |
| POD received | Confirms receipt, says invoicing is under way. |
These need the driver to have a mobile number on file, texting to be enabled, and your number to be approved for texting. If any of that is missing, the status change still succeeds — the text is simply skipped.
5. Track expenses as they happen
The Expenses panel on the load takes fuel, tolls, lumper, scale, repair, driver advances, parking, permits, and detention paid. Attach the receipt document to the expense and it stays with the load. These feed the load's actual margin and the driver's pay statement, so entering them as they happen beats reconstructing them at the end of the month.
6. Collect the paperwork
Rate confirmation, BOL, POD, lumper and fuel receipts, scale tickets — upload them to the load. PODs come in as Needs review so somebody eyeballs the signature before it goes to the broker. See Upload documents and send a carrier packet.
7. Close it out
- Complete marks the load delivered.
- Load packet PDF produces the load's paperwork as a single file for the broker or your factor.
- Then invoice it: Invoice a load and work with factoring.
Where to see everything at once
- Calendar — pickups and deliveries by date.
- Dashboard — what needs attention right now.
- Daily Report — a written summary of the day.
- The load's timeline — every call, email, text, document, status change, and decision on that load, in order.
Related
Still stuck?
Email support@dynamanic.io with your company name, what you did, what happened — quoting any message on screen — and when, with your timezone.