We're excited to introduce the Plan Board, a new feature designed to help you visualize and manage your loads more efficiently.

In this article, we'll walk you through how to use the Plan Board to improve your planning and optimize your fleet's performance.

• What is the Plan Board?
• How to Use the Plan Board?

What is the Plan Board?

The Plan Board is a feature in CarrierTMS that helps you visualize your entire operation—whether you're managing a single truck or an entire fleet. It allows you to see all of your active and upcoming loads, track the time intervals between those loads, and identify potential planning issues such as overlaps or unused time slots.

This first version (V1) focuses on visualization, giving you a clear, organized view of your load assignments, available time between loads, and more.

How to Use the Plan Board

1. Accessing the Plan Board

To access the Plan Board in CarrierTMS:

• Navigate to the Operations menu
• Go to the "Plan Board" section in your dashboard.
• Once you're in, you'll see the Plan Board view, which shows your loads in a calendar-like format, with each truck and driver’s assignments listed.
• 
• 

2. Viewing Loads and Time Gaps

Once you're in the Plan Board, you’ll see:

• Loads and Status: All the loads assigned to your drivers and trucks. You are able to track the status of each load (e.g., "Scheduled," "In Progress," "Completed").
• Available Time: The empty or unassigned time slots between loads with the number of empty miles within it. These are represented by blank squares in the calendar view and shows the difference between the last load's drop-off and the next load's pick-up.
  • • • You can use existing loads, loadboard search, or custom events to fill in available time slots
      • 
      • Existing Loads: choose between all the loads you have in your organization's database within a specific period.
      • Loadboard search: you can use this option as a quick start for your loadboard search. The system does a loadboard search using the drop-off information of the previous load as the pickup of the next one, and also the radius.
      • Custom Events: add asset information according to the view you are using, Driver or Truck, to better plan your operation and capacity

        • In the Driver View, you can add compliance/certification, home time, PTO/sick leave information

        • In the Trucks View, the options are breakdown, cleaning or detailing, inspection/compliance, registration/permit renewal, and shop.

• Time Indicators: There’s a 'Now' marker that shows the current location of each truck and driver, so you can quickly see who’s active and where.

3. Choosing Your View

The Plan Board gives you several ways to view your schedule:

• Driver-based View: If you're managing drivers, you can filter the Plan Board to show only the loads assigned to each driver.
• Truck-based View: Alternatively, you can filter by truck, showing you all the loads assigned to each vehicle in your fleet.
• Time Span: You can choose between different time spans:
  • 1 Day: Focus on the next 24 hours.
  • 3 Days: Get a broader view of your upcoming schedule.
  • 5 Days: Focus on a 5-day schedule.
  • 15 Days: See a larger picture of your loads, helping you plan long-term.

If you have any questions or need assistance with using the Plan Board, don't hesitate to reach out to our support team!