Excel for transport management: when it works and when it becomes a limitation
How to tell when Excel is no longer enough for orders and the fleet: versions, access, drivers, documents, audit trails, statistics and simultaneous work.
Read resourceTrucksOut Observatory
Resources and insights for people running a small transport company
Practical guides and evergreen insights on orders, drivers, trucks, documents and the daily organisation of road haulage. The Observatory also brings together industry analysis and updates.
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How to manage a small road-haulage business with Excel
How to organise orders, trip planning, drivers, trucks and customers in Excel with unique IDs, validations, versions, backups and limits to understand.
Read resourceDriver apps: what they simplify and which privacy rules to consider
What a driver app can do for a small fleet and the precautions needed for personal data, geolocation, remote monitoring, access controls and data minimisation.
Read resourceHow to organise drivers' holidays, rest periods and unavailability
How to build a driver capacity calendar that distinguishes holidays, absences, rest periods under Regulation 561/2006 and operational availability without confusing separate plans.
Read resourceHow to manage changes to drivers' schedules
A method for reassigning missions and drivers during the day while respecting remaining capacity, driving/rest times, communications and traceability of changes.
Read resourceHow to communicate deliveries and collections to drivers
A standard task sheet for telling a driver about a collection, delivery, goods, contacts, documents, changes and priorities without relying on scattered messages.
Read resourceHow to organise drivers' work between working time, driving and rest
A practical guide for small fleets on mobile working time, driving and rest periods, loading/unloading, availability and planning under Legislative Decree 234/2007 and Regulation 561/2006.
Read resourceWhich documents may accompany a freight transport
DDT, CMR, Community licence, driver documents, ADR, customs and other documents: how to build a checklist without relying on a misleading universal list.
Read resourcePOD: what proof of delivery is and how to manage it
Proof of Delivery: what information to collect, signatures and reservations, digital POD, photographs, privacy and how to link proof of delivery to the order.
Read resourceAll resources by topic
The complete directory of evergreen guides from the TrucksOut Observatory.
Digitalisation
- How to avoid losing orders between email, WhatsApp and phone calls
- How to manage a small road-haulage business with Excel
- Excel for transport management: when it works and when it becomes a limitation
- How to move from Excel to transport management software
- Transport management software: what it is and what it does
- TMS: what a Transportation Management System is and how it works
- Transport management software and TMS: what is the difference
- How to choose management software for a small transport company
- Management software for 5 trucks: which functions are really needed
- Management software for 10 trucks: what changes compared with Excel
- How to digitalise a small road-haulage company without changing everything
Operations
Planning
Drivers
- How to organise drivers' work between working time, driving and rest
- How to communicate deliveries and collections to drivers
- How to manage changes to drivers' schedules
- How to organise drivers' holidays, rest periods and unavailability
- Driver apps: what they simplify and which privacy rules to consider
Orders and trips
Transport documents
- DDT: what it is, when it is used and what information it contains
- CMR: what it is and when it is used in international road transport
- DDT and CMR: practical differences
- Consignment note: what it is and what it is for
- Transport order and consignment note: practical differences
- POD: what proof of delivery is and how to manage it
- Which documents may accompany a freight transport