What freight management software is
Freight management software is the category name for the systems a business uses to arrange freight it does not carry itself: a charge, a booking, the label and the manifest, tracking to delivery, and the invoice afterwards. The defining feature is that it works across more than one carrier. Senditt's published carriage terms never use the word software; clause 1 defines the Platform as the Senditt online freight management platform at senditt.au.
Road freight in New South Wales is at a record. New South Wales road freight for 2024 to 2025 was estimated as the highest on record at 87.6 billion tonne kilometres (BITRE Yearbook 2025, freight chapter, re-opened 3 October 2026).
Two neighbours are often mistaken for it. A carrier's own portal does the same jobs for that carrier alone, so four carriers means four portals and four invoice formats. A warehouse system tracks stock through a building and hands off at the dock rather than buying carriage. What the category name does not settle is who owns the freight arrangement behind the screen.
Why the words for this overlap, and where they genuinely differ
Four phrases circle the same ground and are used loosely. Freight management software describes systems for buying and managing carriage: rates, bookings, labels, tracking and invoices across carriers. Transport management software and a transport management system, usually shortened to a TMS, began wider, and in that older sense also plan a business's own vehicles, drivers and runs, which is a different problem from buying carriage. A freight management system is the same idea with a different noun, and often what someone types when they want the arrangement rather than a licence.
Whichever phrase a product uses, the question that decides the shape of the work is whether the system assumes you already hold carrier accounts and rates of your own, or whether somebody supplies them. Both arrangements exist and they ask very different things of your team.
Where the work sits, and who does it
A system is one thing. The freight arrangement behind it is another, and most of the effort sits in the second. Run it yourself and someone opens an account with each carrier, negotiates the rates and renegotiates them, checks the loaded rates against what the carrier bills, reconciles the invoices and chases a pallet that goes missing. None of that work disappears because a system records it in one place.
The brake businesses report on taking on a new system is not the software. The Australian Bureau of Statistics asked what may have prevented or limited their use of information and communications technology, and the two most common answers in 2024-25 were insufficient staff skills and capabilities, at 16%, and uncertainty around the costs and benefits of ICTs, at 13% (Characteristics of Australian Business, released 25 June 2026, re-opened 3 October 2026). The same release found 7% of businesses measured what their digital activities contributed to overall performance, up from 3% in 2021-22. Those measure barriers to technology across Australian business as a whole, not freight administration. The question a shortlist has to answer is whose team the work sits with.
What a managed freight platform (4PL) does that a system on its own does not
On Senditt the carrier side is held by Senditt, and that difference is published rather than promised. The carriage terms state that Senditt is a freight management provider, that Senditt arranges carriage of goods through carriers via the platform and does not itself operate vehicles or physically carry goods unless that is expressly agreed in writing, and that Senditt is not a common carrier. Freight moves on Senditt's negotiated rates across 35+ carriers, and Senditt manages the carrier accounts, billing and support behind them.
Three clauses describe work no system does on its own. You can book on the platform, by email or by phone, and Senditt keys an email or phone booking onto the platform on your behalf. Where the carrier you chose cannot perform, Senditt may substitute another carrier or service, using reasonable efforts to tell you. And where freight is damaged or lost, Senditt will, on request and at no additional charge, lodge and manage the claim and pass on any recovery. That is help with a claim and not cover. Clause 5 leaves the goods at your risk, and clause 4 makes insurance yours to arrange. The carriers page has the network.
Transit times shown on the platform are carrier estimates and are not guaranteed. How to judge a lane on what was delivered is covered in measuring carrier performance with DIFOT. An account arrangement against a job-by-job one is set out in freight portal or freight broker.
Questions worth asking before you choose
These separate the shapes faster than a feature list does. Senditt's answer follows each one.
- Whose carrier accounts does the freight move on, and who negotiates the rates? Senditt's, on both counts.
- Who invoices you, and on what terms? Senditt does, on the seven-day terms in the carriage terms unless Senditt agrees otherwise in writing.
- Who lodges a claim when a consignment is damaged or missing, and what does that cost? Senditt does, on request and at no additional charge. The goods stay at your risk, and insurance is yours to arrange.
- Can a person enter a booking for you, or is every booking yours to key in? Either: the platform, or email or phone.
- What happens when the carrier you picked cannot run the job? Senditt may substitute another carrier or service, using reasonable efforts to tell you.
- Which of your systems can connect, who builds the integration, and how long does it take? Senditt connects 21 systems, built by its integrations team in two to four weeks.
- What is confidential, and to whom? Platform rate and service information, which an account holder must not disclose to a third party.
Where Senditt sits in the category
Senditt is a managed freight platform (4PL) for high-volume Australian business shippers: book on Senditt's negotiated rates across 35+ carriers, and track and reconcile every consignment from one dashboard. It serves Australian businesses shipping roughly 500 or more consignments a month across eCommerce, wholesale and distribution, moving both pallet and parcel freight, and not individuals or one-off sends. There are pages for each industry, and one arrangement across several sites is covered in multi-site freight management. How a quote is arranged for a business account is on the freight quotes page, and who Senditt is, on the about page.
Quoting, booking, tracking and manifests all happen in the same login, each with its own page, covering quoting and comparison, booking, tracking and manifests and labels. 21 eCommerce, ERP and WMS platforms can connect, and an open API and a flat-file option cover anything else. Senditt's integrations team scopes and sets up every connection: allow two to four weeks, depending on the platform, and setup plus monthly fees. The integrations page has the list. An account does not wait for that, because the carrier rates are already loaded.
Senditt publishes no pricing, so there is no price on this page and nothing here that works a charge out. Rates are quoted to an account.
Getting started on a managed account
A managed account begins with a freight review, a 30-minute conversation that costs nothing. The request form asks for your contact and company details, how many consignments you send in a month, what you spend on freight, the nature of your enquiry and how you heard about Senditt. Applying also includes consent for Senditt to use credit reporting and trade reference information.
Frequently asked questions
Is a freight management system the same as a TMS?
Close, and not identical. The wider sense of a TMS takes in planning a business's own vehicles, drivers and runs. A business that owns no trucks is buying carriage instead, so that half has nothing to work on, and what it needs is rates across carriers and one record of every consignment.
Is Senditt freight management software?
Not software on its own. Senditt is a managed freight platform (4PL), and its published carriage terms describe Senditt as a freight management provider that arranges carriage through carriers via the platform and is not a common carrier. Senditt is not a courier and not a marketplace either.
Do we need our own carrier accounts?
No. The carrier accounts are Senditt's and so are the rates on them, across 35+ carriers, with the billing and the support held behind them.
Can someone enter a booking for us, or is it self-service only?
Both work. Under the carriage terms you can book on the platform, by email or by phone. Senditt enters an email or phone booking onto the platform on your behalf, and the same terms apply to it.
Who lodges a claim with the carrier if freight is damaged or lost?
Senditt does, on request and at no additional charge, under that carrier's conditions of carriage, and any recovery is passed on to you. The notice periods are strict, at seven days for damage or shortage, thirty for non-delivery and fourteen business days for evidence asked for. A claim made outside them is waived. Lodging a claim is not cover. Under clause 5 the goods are at your risk, and under clause 4 insurance is yours to arrange.