Trip Planner: step-by-step scenarios

This article walks through the Trip Planner one real situation at a time. Each scenario is a list of clicks. Open the Trip Planner from Trips in the menu (you need the permission to see the Dispatch tab).

Two things to remember everywhere:

• Nothing in a trip window is kept until you press SAVE. SAVE shows only when something really changed. Discard throws your changes away.
• Warnings never stop you. Red, orange and yellow dots tell you what to check; you decide.

1. Set up once

Do this before your first trip.

Trucks and trailers

1. 1Your trucks come from Settings › Dispatch › Trucks.
2. 2Open Trips › Trailers & settings.
3. 3Press Add trailer. In the New trailer pop-up type the Name, Capacity, cu ft, Capacity, lb and Inside length, ft. Press Save.
4. 4Under Trucks: weight limits and lengths, give each truck its weight limit and inside length. Press Save.

Trip settings (same page)

1. 1Pick the Capacity headline — Cubic feet or Pounds.
2. 2Set Per diem, per person per day, the Billable SIT period, days (180 to start) and Routing (miles and drive times).
3. 3Pick Drivers' hours-of-service cycle — 70 hours / 8 days or 60 hours / 7 days.
4. 4Press Save.
5. 5Under Customer messages, switch on or off Driver on the way, with arrival estimate, Delivery scheduling, 24-hour delivery notice, Delay message by email or text and Shipment milestones in the client portal. Each switch saves at once.

Drivers and crew

Drivers and crew are your field staff. Add them under Settings › Users & permissions › Users with the Driver position (or Foreman / Helper). On a trip, people with the Driver position are listed first.

Carriers and agents

1. 1Open Trips › Carriers & Agents.
2. 2Press Add carrier or agent, fill in the name, contact, phones, ZIP and Roles, and press Save.

Who picks up and delivers new orders

1. 1Open Settings › Long distance › New long-distance orders.
2. 2Choose Pickup by and Delivery by — Local crew or Trip Planner — for every new long-distance order.
3. 3Open Settings › Long distance › Pickup spread and set how many days a Trip Planner pickup may take (for example 3 days: Oct 14 – Oct 16).

Money

Order totals and trip revenue show to everyone who can open the Trip Planner. Expenses, margin, settlements and the money reports need Can see trip profit and settlements (admins have it).

2. Decide who picks up and who delivers an order

Open the order, and in Move Details switch to Delivery. The first two rows are Pickup by and Delivery by.

Press SAVE in the order window. The order is then booked as usual: a Trip Planner pickup needs no truck to book.

3. Create a trip

1. 1Open Trips and press New Trip.
2. 2Type the Trip name (for example Boston → Florida run).
3. 3Pick the Departure date and Estimated return if you know them.
4. 4Press Create trip. The trip opens in its own window, in Planning.

On Overview you can also set the Starting location / terminal and Ending location / terminal (your office address when empty) and Notes. Press SAVE.

4. Put orders on the trip

A pickup the trip does (Pickup by: Trip Planner)

1. 1In the trip window press Add Orders.
2. 2Stay on the Pickups to plan tab. Find the order with the search box (order number, customer, phone, email, city, state or ZIP) or Filters.
3. 3Under the order, check Deliver on this trip. It starts ticked when the delivery spread fits the trip's dates. - Ticked: the trip picks it up and delivers it. - Unticked: the trip picks it up and unloads it at your warehouse (Warehouse in). It then waits as a carrier hold for a later trip (see scenario 9).
4. 4Press Add to Trip.

A delivery only (your local crew picked it up)

1. 1Press Add Orders, then the Deliveries to plan tab.
2. 2The line under the order says what the trip does: Picked up by your local crew: the trip loads it at your warehouse, or Your local crew loads it straight into the trip truck at the house, or In storage: loaded out of the warehouse.
3. 3Press Add to Trip.

If MoveBoard asks "Add #… anyway?"

It lists why: for example the pickup spread is outside the trip's dates, the order is far off the current route, it may not fit, it is exclusive use, or it is Not weighed yet: planned on its estimated weight. Press Add to Trip to add it anyway, or Cancel.

An order your local crew picks up is loaded by the trip at your warehouse, so it is judged by that stop, not by the customer's pickup: a local pickup done before the trip leaves is fine. It is flagged only when the local crew picks it up after the trip leaves (Your local crew picks it up …, after the trip leaves (…): it will not be in the warehouse when the trip loads there.).

Then

1. 1Close Add Orders. Each order now has its stops on Route & Stops, placed where they fit best inside the spreads.
2. 2Press SAVE.

An order already on another trip is listed in yellow at the top of Add Orders with the reason (is already on Trip #1. Take it off that trip first.) and an Open #… button. So is an order whose Delivery by is still Local crew.

5. Give the trip its truck, trailer, driver and crew

1. 1Open the Crew & Equipment tab.
2. 2In the first box pick Truck, Trailer, Driver, Co-driver or Crew. In the second, pick which one. Press Add.
3. 3A truck or trailer brings its capacity. Change the cu ft or lb for this trip only if you need to.
4. 4Press SAVE.

If the same truck, trailer or person is on another trip or a local job at the same time, Clashes (a warning, not a block) lists it — for example Truck 1 is on order #RES-88 on 2026-10-19. You can still save; move one of them if it is a real clash.

Driver & hours planning on the same tab shows each trip day's Planned driving, On duty and Breaks, and Hours over the week for each driver across all their trips. These are planning alerts only; the driver's ELD is the legal record.

6. Several pickups and deliveries on one trip

See the route

Open Route & Stops. The top line shows total miles, loaded and empty miles and driving time, and Miles by state (for IFTA). The stops are grouped by trip day. Switch between Itinerary view and Map view.

Change the order of the stops

1. 1Drag a stop by its six-dot handle, or press its up and down arrows.
2. 2A stop you move by hand is pinned (pin icon): the automatic placement leaves it there. Press the pin to let it be placed again.
3. 3Press SAVE. The miles of the changed legs are measured on save.

A pickup must come before its own delivery. A load at your warehouse (Warehouse out of an order your local crew picked up) always comes before the trip's deliveries: the automatic placement, Re-place unpinned stops and Optimize Route never send the truck back to the warehouse in the middle of the trip. Only a stop you pin by hand stays where you put it.

Let MoveBoard find a better order

1. 1Press Optimize Route (the trip needs at least four stops).
2. 2Read the pop-up: A better order moves 6 stops., the Miles and Driving before → after, and how many stops are outside a spread before → after.
3. 3Press Apply the new order, or Cancel.
4. 4Press SAVE.

Pinned stops, done stops, overnights and the terminals stay where they are. Re-place unpinned stops puts every stop nobody moved by hand back in its cheapest place.

Put a stop on a certain day, or give it a time window

• Use the stop's day list: Auto (day 2) follows the plan; pick Day 3 to fix it to day 3.
• Pick the two time boxes beside it (Window from and Window to) when the customer gave you a time window.

Add a stop of your own

Press Add stop, pick the Kind — Overnight, Fuel / rest, Scale, Warehouse in or Warehouse out — the Address, the Trip day and optionally For order, and press Add stop. Then SAVE.

The stop times

Each stop shows the miles and drive time of the leg into it and an estimated arrival (≈ 09:56). Each day starts at 8:00. The times follow the stop order, so reordering changes them. Recalculate miles measures every leg again (save first).

On the bill of lading, the crew's start and end times at each stop must also follow each other — see Stop times and customer signatures.

7. Check the plan before it leaves

To fix a red date: move the stop to another trip day on Route & Stops, change the trip's dates on Overview, or record a delay (scenario 8).

The truck is too full

• Add a second truck or trailer on Crew & Equipment, then on Orders press Split between trucks on an order, give each truck its share, and press Use this split.
• Or move an order to another trip (scenario 12).

On each order (Orders tab)

• Exclusive use — the order takes the whole truck.
• Space reserved — cubic feet held for the order whatever it measures.
• Delivery date confirmed with the customer — tick it once the customer agreed; until then Needs Attention reminds you.
• Carriers & agents — put a carrier or agent on this order (scenario 11).

8. Delivery dates, what the customer sees, and delays

The promise is on the order. On the order's Delivery side:

• Pickup spread — the days the truck may pick up. Press Change to set them.
• Delivery Days and First Available Delivery Date make the delivery spread, for example → 10/24 – 10/29/2026.
• Estimated Delivery Date — your best day inside the spread.

The customer sees the pickup and delivery spreads on the estimate, the order for service, the long-distance bill of lading and the client portal. With Shipment milestones in the client portal on, the portal shows Booked → Picked up → In transit / In storage → Out for delivery → Delivered. When the trip is on the road, MoveBoard sends the messages you switched on in scenario 1 by itself.

When a delivery will be late

1. 1Save the trip, then open Schedule.
2. 2On the order's row press Record a delay.
3. 3Pick the New delivery date, type the Reason (the customer sees it), and choose How the customer is told — Email it to the customer now, Text it to the customer now, I told them by phone or I told them in person.
4. 4Press Record and send (or Record).

The new date becomes the promise, the order's log and the trip's Activity keep the record, and the warning goes away. A delay message is never sent by itself.

The first promise is the delivery day the trip plans when the order is first saved on it (after the miles are measured). Needs Attention says the delivery date moved and no delay was recorded only when the planned delivery is now later than that promise. A plan that comes out earlier is not a delay; if it is before the delivery spread, the red before the delivery spread line says so.

9. Storage in transit

A pickup that is delivered by a later trip

1. 1Add the order with Deliver on this trip unticked (scenario 4). The trip gets a Warehouse in stop.
2. 2When the driver marks the warehouse stop done, the order goes into the warehouse as a Carrier hold (not billed) and shows on Trips › SIT.
3. 3It waits on Deliveries to plan with a purple warehouse mark and its days in storage.
4. 4Open the delivery trip, Add Orders › Deliveries to plan, and add it: the trip gets Warehouse out, then Delivery.

On Trips › SIT

• Put in SIT — record a stay by hand.
• Make billable SIT — the customer pays for the storage from its date in.
• Schedule delivery out — set the planned day and make it ready for a delivery trip (the button says Delivery out… once it is ready).
• Partial out… — send part now; Deliver the rest later.
• Bill SIT…, Early-delivery notice…, Convert to permanent storage… — see Storage in transit.

10. On the road

Before it leaves

1. 1Press Mark Scheduled when the plan is ready (optional).
2. 2Press Send Itinerary to text and email the plan to the driver and co-driver.
3. 3Print the trip sheet with the printer button.

Start the trip

Press Start Trip. The trip needs at least one order, a truck or trailer, a driver and a departure date, and no unsaved changes. The trip moves to Active trips, and Overview shows the active trip: "1 of 6 stops", Current and Next.

Follow the stops

The driver taps Arrived, Done or Skip on each stop in the Mover's Portal (Trips tab). The office can press the same buttons on Overview; Undo puts a stop back. After Arrived, the button reads Loaded at a pickup and Unloaded at a delivery.

Who opens and signs the bill of lading

When the Trip Planner carries the delivery, the long-distance bill of lading for the delivery is opened and signed by the trip's own driver and crew — from the stop's Bill of lading button in their Trips tab — and by office users who can edit the bill. The local crew that picked the order up does not sign the delivery. A Warehouse out stop has no bill of lading button: the bill was signed at the house when your local crew picked it up.

Finish

When every pickup and delivery is done or skipped, press Complete Trip.

11. Partner loads and carriers

You haul another company's load

Open Trips › Other companies' loads, record the load, then use Add to a trip (or Add Orders in the trip). See Other companies' loads.

You hand an order (or the whole trip) to a carrier or agent

1. 1On the trip's Orders tab, press Carriers & agents on the order.
2. 2Pick the Carrier or agent and the Role, type the Carrier cost, $ (goes on its folio), and press Put on the order. This saves at once.
3. 3For the whole trip, pick the Hand-off carrier for the whole trip (optional) on Overview and press SAVE.

12. Changes

Change the trip's dates

On Overview, change the Departure date or Estimated return and press SAVE. The trip days and the spread checks are worked out again; check Schedule for red dates.

Change an order's dates

Change the pickup spread or delivery dates in the order's window and save it. Open the trip again and check Schedule. A delivery date that moved without a delay record shows in Needs Attention — record the delay (scenario 8).

Take an order off a trip

1. 1Open the trip, Orders.
2. 2Press the bin button on the order.
3. 3Press SAVE. The order goes back to Pickups to plan or Deliveries to plan.

Move an order to another trip

1. 1Take it off the first trip and press SAVE (as above).
2. 2Open the other trip, press Add Orders, find it, press Add to Trip, then SAVE.

Carry part of an order now and the rest later

On Orders, save first, then press Split across trips, give each part its cu ft and lb, and press Split it. Part 1 stays; the other parts wait on Deliveries to plan for another trip. Undo the split across trips joins them again while no other part is on a trip. See Split a shipment.

The customer cancels

Take the order off the trip first (bin, SAVE), then cancel the order. MoveBoard does not take a cancelled order off a trip by itself.

If you cancel it in the order window while it is still on a trip, MoveBoard asks first: #… is on long-distance trip #…. Cancelling does not take it off the trip … — press Keep it or Cancel the order anyway. A cancelled order still on a trip shows in red on the trip's Needs Attention (the order was cancelled — take it off the trip) and its row on Orders says Cancelled — take it off until you take it off.

Switch an order back to Local crew

Take it off its trip first. Until then the order window refuses and names the trip.

Delete a trip

Only a trip in Planning with no orders: Delete this trip at the bottom of the trip details on Overview.

13. Close the trip and see the results

1. 1Expenses — add each cost with Estimated and Actual amounts and the receipt. On a Fuel line, type the gallons and the state for IFTA. Drivers' own expenses arrive from their phones.
2. 2Settlement — choose how each person is paid, then Send to payroll & settle. The trip becomes Settled. (Or press Mark Settled.)
3. 3Overview shows the Completed Trip Summary and the margin.
4. 4Reports › Long Distance — Trip Profitability, On-Time Deliveries vs Spread, SIT Aging, Truck Utilization, Deadhead Miles, IFTA Miles & Fuel by State, Driver Settlements and Carrier & Agent Statements.

A settled trip can't change. Someone with Can see trip profit and settlements can press Reopen it.

Common questions

My order is not in Add Orders. Only booked or reserved long-distance orders show. Check the tab (Pickups to plan or Deliveries to plan), clear the search and Filters, and read the yellow list at the top — it names booked orders that can't go on a trip and why (another trip, or Delivery by: Local crew).

A pickup by the trip can't be booked because of the truck. A Trip Planner pickup needs no truck. If the order still asks for one, check that Pickup by is Trip Planner and save the order.

Dispatch won't let me put a crew on the pickup. The order is Pickup by: Trip Planner — the long-distance truck picks it up. Switch it to Local crew first if your crew should.

Why is a date red on Schedule? The planned day is outside the spread the customer was promised. Move the stop's trip day, change the trip's dates, or record a delay.

Start Trip says something is missing. Add at least one order to the trip first. / Assign a truck or trailer to the trip first. / Assign a driver to the trip first. / Set the trip's departure date first. Save your changes first too.

Somebody else saved the trip. Someone else saved this trip a moment ago. Close it and open it again to see their changes.

The driver can't see the trip. They must be on the trip's Crew & Equipment as Driver, Co-driver or Crew, and the trip saved. The trip shows under Trips in their Mover's Portal; stops can be marked once the trip is started.