Short answer: Switching TMS is less dramatic than most people think. Your customer register, price agreements, regular runs, vehicles and drivers move across to the new system; the history stays in the old one as an archive. With a phased plan and a few weeks of parallel running, operations never stop - and with a supplier that takes responsibility for onboarding, it is the system provider doing the heavy lifting, not you. The hardest part of switching is deciding to do it.
Ask a haulier why they still use a TMS they complain about, and you rarely get the answer "it is good enough". You get: "We don't have time." "Everything is in there." "We have put so much into it."
All three are understandable - and all three are traps. "We have put so much into it" is classic sunk cost: the money and hours you have spent on the current system will not come back by staying. The only relevant question is what the next few years will cost you - in lost hours, frustrated drivers and features that never arrived.
And "we don't have time"? Work out what today's hassle costs you per week. Dissatisfaction with a TMS is rarely free; it is just spread evenly across the year so it never shows up on an invoice.
There is no perfect moment, but there are good and bad ones:
Good times: your low season (for many that is January-February or the summer), right after an invoicing period has been closed, or ahead of known changes - a new major customer, new vehicles, new regulatory requirements that will force new routines anyway.
Bad times: in the middle of peak season, in the middle of an invoicing period, or the week before the holidays. Not because it is impossible, but because you want spare capacity for training in the first two weeks.
One more thing about timing: check the notice period in the contract with your current supplier first. Many contracts have three to twelve months' notice - so you want to give notice early and use the overlap for a calm transition, instead of paying twice for longer than necessary.
This is the worry that stops most people, and it is less dangerous than it feels. Separate three categories:
This moves across: the customer register with contact details and payment terms, price agreements and tariffs, regular runs and routes, vehicles, trailers and drivers. This is the foundation of your operation, and it is imported into the new system - usually from export files from the old one.
This is kept as an archive: order history, old invoices and statistics. It is rarely worth moving several years of history into a new system - instead, ask your old supplier for a complete export (you are entitled to your data) and keep it as an archive. Your accounts are safe in the accounting system anyway, which lives on regardless of the TMS switch.
This you should not bring: bad routines. A switch is a rare opportunity to tidy up - customers that no longer exist, prices nobody remembers the agreement behind, "temporary" exceptions from 2019. Bring what is true, archive the rest. Many discover that half the customer register was dust.
And ask your old supplier two questions early: "In what format do we get our data out?" and "What does the export cost?" The answers tell you a lot about how quickly you should move on.
The secret is to stop thinking of the switch as one big moving day. This is what a realistic plan looks like for a small or mid-sized transport company:
Week 1 - Setup: customers, prices, vehicles and drivers are imported. The integration with the accounting system is set up. Mostly the supplier, with clarifications from you.
Week 2 - Training: the dispatcher learns planning, the drivers get the app and run test deliveries. The supplier trains; your team practises.
Week 3 - Parallel running: new orders go into the new system, the old one is used for reference. The first invoices are run and checked. You operate, the supplier stays close.
Week 4 - Full operation: the old system is set to read-only. Fine-tuning of reports and routines. You - with support behind you.
Notice how little of this is your heavy lifting. Your most important job in a good switch is to answer questions about how you work - and to make sure the drivers get to try the app early, not on the last day. It is also wise to appoint one person internally as the "owner of the switch": not to do everything, but to make sure the clarifications never stall.
And the parallel running: two to three weeks, no more. If you run two systems for two months, you have not switched - you have doubled the work. Set a date for when the old system becomes an archive, and stick to it.
When you switch to FleetX, we own the moving job. In practice that means we set up the system with your customers, prices, vehicles and regular runs - you supply the basis, we do the import. We set up the integration with your accounting system, train your dispatchers and drivers, and stay close through the parallel running until the first invoice run has been checked and approved. And because our team knows transport, the whole process happens in plain language - including the day something is urgent.
We have moved transport companies out of both spreadsheets and other TMSs, and the experience is unambiguous: it is not the amount of data that decides how smooth a switch is, but whether the supplier takes responsibility or pushes it over to you. Feel free to ask us what a switch would look like for your company - it is a half-hour conversation, not a commitment.
For most small and mid-sized transport companies: around four weeks from start to full operation, of which two to three weeks are parallel running. Operations themselves never stop - new orders simply go into the new system from an agreed date.
No. The master data (customers, prices, runs, vehicles, drivers) moves to the new system, and the history you take out as a complete export from your old supplier and keep as an archive. The accounting history is in the accounting system regardless.
Yes. What matters most is switching right after a closed invoicing period and outside your peak season - not which quarter it is. The turn of the year is convenient for some, but not a requirement.
The most common solution: orders already in progress are completed and invoiced in the old system, while all new orders go into the new one. After two to three weeks the old system is empty of active orders by itself.
The resistance almost always disappears the same week the drivers try an app that is simpler than the old one. Let a couple of experienced drivers test it early and have their say - they become your ambassadors internally.
The calculation has three parts: any overlapping licence during the notice period, time for training - and the gain that starts from week four. Ask the supplier you are considering to set up the calculation for your company, with the onboarding itemised.
Considering a switch? Book a chat with FleetX - tell us which system you are coming from, and we will show you what the migration plan looks like for you.
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