Load Management
Loads keep the shipment workflow in one place: customer details, stops, pricing, dispatch, tracking, documents, billing, and payment.
Load lifecycle
- Available: entered and ready for carrier assignment or dispatch planning.
- Pending: awaiting confirmation, carrier acceptance, or final details.
- Dispatched: carrier is assigned and the shipment is active.
- Delivered: delivery is complete and paperwork is ready for review.
- Ready or invoiced: billing and settlement work can begin.
- Paid or closed: customer billing and carrier payment work is complete.
- Deleted: removed from active work while keeping the load available by exact search or direct link.
What belongs on a load
- Customer and customer reference number
- Pickup and delivery stops
- Dates, times, time zones, and appointment details
- Equipment and load size
- Commodity and notes
- Customer pay, accessorials, and billing instructions
- Carrier assignment, carrier pay, driver, and dispatcher
- Vendor expenses when paid third-party services should reduce margin
- Tracking provider or tracking method
- Required documents, including BOL, POD, rate confirmation, invoice, and support files
Load details tabs
- Info: customer, lane, stops, dates, equipment, pay, and notes.
- Dispatch: carrier assignment, carrier pay, vendor expenses, driver, dispatcher, instructions, and dispatch history.
- Tracking: provider selection, driver tracking, ETA, location, notes, and tracking history.
- Documents: rate confirmation, bill of lading, proof of delivery, invoice, and supporting files.
- Market intelligence: lane history, recent rates, current bids, and carrier context when available.
Working safely
Keep customer, carrier, stop, and pricing details current before dispatch. After dispatch, review changes carefully because tracking, documents, billing, carrier communication, and customer updates may already depend on the load.
Permitted users can edit inactive dispatch history rows for canceled, repowered, TONU, or historical billing adjustments. Editing inactive dispatch history does not re-dispatch the load, move an Available load into Pending, reassign active stops, or change the active carrier currency.
Deleted loads are read-only except Undelete and Clone. Deleting a dispatched or pending load cancels the active dispatch workflow, and undeleting it returns the load to active work. If the undeleted load no longer has an active dispatch, ARK TMS moves it back to Available.
Delivered loads can be deleted while customer and carrier billing remain at Delivered and no active pay holds or downstream billing activity exist. Deleting removes the unadvanced billing rows and active pay lines. Clear or reverse advanced billing activity first, then delete the load or use UNDELIVER when it should return to dispatch.
Vendor expenses are separate from carrier pay. Use them for paid third-party costs that belong on the load but should not increase carrier due, carrier settlements, AP, or QuickBooks vendor bills.
When a vendor expense should be billed back to the customer, mark it billable to create a linked customer charge. Edit that rebill from the vendor expense workflow so the linked customer pay stays aligned.
After billing, vendor expense edits and deletes require adjustment permission. ARK TMS records the change without requiring a separate adjustment reason.
Common load actions
- Dispatch: assigns the carrier, driver, and shipment instructions.
- Rate confirmation: sends carrier terms after dispatch details and safety checks are ready.
- Deliver and bill: moves eligible delivered work toward billing review.
- Status override: updates status when the normal workflow needs correction.
- Pay hold: pauses carrier payment until paperwork, pay, or approval issues are resolved.
- Lock or unlock: controls who can edit the load when load locking is enabled.
- Delete or undelete: removes a load from active boards or returns it to active work.
- Copy load number: helps share or search for a shipment quickly.
Load-board posting
When load-board posting is enabled, load cards and load details can show provider status and actions such as Post, Update, Refresh, or Remove for enabled providers such as DAT, Sylectus, and Truckstop. Posting may be blocked until stop city, state, and arrival start times are complete.
Posting can also be blocked when the scheduled cutoff time has already passed. This cutoff applies to new posts; existing provider posts can still be updated or removed after the local pickup timing becomes stale. Previously failed posting attempts remain in Attention until the issue is resolved or the load is removed from the provider.
Bulk posting uses existing load values and organization defaults. Truckstop posts require the posting user's own connected Truckstop account and are public by default unless private posting is selected. Review individual loads first when rates, contact details, user authorization, or private posting rules need per-load attention.
Truckstop refresh availability follows the provider's next-refresh time when Truckstop returns one. If Truckstop does not return a refresh time, ARK TMS makes the next refresh available after six hours.
Carrier safety gates
When Carrier Safety is enabled, load details can show safety status for the assigned carrier. When enforcement is on, failed safety checks can block dispatch and rate confirmation sending.
Open the carrier safety panel to review blockers. Resolve the carrier issue, refresh provider data, choose another carrier, or request an exception when permitted.
Load numbers
Load numbers may be sequential or randomized depending on workspace setup. Gaps can happen after deleted, reserved, imported, or renumbered loads.
When deleting or undeleting a load, type the displayed load number in the confirmation window before the action becomes available. Deleted loads do not appear on active boards, but users with access can still open them from a direct link or exact load-number search. If delete is blocked for a delivered load, resolve active pay holds and downstream billing activity first.