What a transport order is
A transport order, also called a freight order, a transport request or an order-contract, is the commercial agreement for one load. The client, a shipper or a forwarder, asks; the carrier accepts. Both sides sign or confirm it, usually by email with a PDF, before the truck is sent.
Its job is to put the practical facts in one place so that the dispatcher, the driver and the accountant all work from the same text. If a price, a date or an address is wrong on the order, it will be wrong on everything that comes after it.
How it differs from the CMR and from the framework contract
Three documents are often mixed up, because they all describe the same load at different moments.
- The framework contract sets the general relationship with a client for a period: general conditions, payment rules, liability wording. It does not name a single load.
- The transport order applies to one load: the addresses, the dates, the goods and the price for that trip. It is agreed before loading.
- The CMR is the consignment note that travels with the goods. It is made out at loading and signed by the parties at the loading and unloading points, so it records what actually happened. See the CMR guide for how it is completed.
- In short: the framework contract says how you work together, the order says what you will do now, and the CMR proves what was done.
The fields a complete order should contain
The list below is a practical checklist, not a legal text. Your own contract and the rules that apply to your transport remain the reference. A good order leaves nothing to be asked by phone afterwards.
- Parties and contacts: full company names, registration and tax numbers, addresses, and a named contact with a phone number and email for the client, the carrier and each loading and unloading point.
- Loading: full address, the date, and the time window in which the truck is expected, plus any booking or ramp number the site requires.
- Unloading: the same set of details for every drop, in the order of visiting, with the receiver's contact.
- Goods: a plain description, gross weight, volume or loading metres, number of pallets or packages, and the packaging type.
- Dangerous goods: a clear yes or no, and the details the carrier needs if the answer is yes.
- Temperature: whether the load is temperature-controlled, and the range required.
- Vehicle: the type requested, for example a tilt trailer, a refrigerated trailer or a mega trailer, and any equipment such as straps, anti-slip mats or a tail lift.
- Reference numbers: the client's order number, the loading reference and any number the receiver needs on the delivery documents.
- Price: the agreed amount, the currency, whether VAT applies, and the payment term, stated as a number of days from a defined event such as receipt of the invoice.
- Documents: which documents the carrier must hand over with the invoice, for example the signed CMR, delivery notes or pallet exchange slips.
- Special instructions: delivery appointment rules, seals, pallet exchange, access requirements and anything unusual about the sites.
- Signatures: the name, date and signature or confirmation of both parties.
Clauses to agree explicitly
Most disputes about a completed trip are not about the road but about what was never written down. The items below are worth agreeing in the order or in the framework contract it refers to. We name them only so that you do not forget them; the actual terms and amounts are for you and your client to decide, and for your own advisor to check.
- Waiting time: how much time is allowed at loading and unloading, when it starts to count and how it is recorded.
- Cancellation: what happens if the order is cancelled, and by when, before or after the truck has left.
- Penalties: whether any are agreed for delay or for a late cancellation, and who bears them.
- Changes: how a change of address, date or goods is confirmed, and who has to approve it.
- Substitution: whether the carrier may use a subcontractor or another vehicle, and whether the client must be told.
- Invoicing: which documents must accompany the invoice, and where it is sent.
The downloadable template
We prepared a spreadsheet with all the fields above, grouped by section and ready to fill in: download the template. It is a starting point; adapt it to your own contract and your clients' requirements before using it.
Using the order in practice
Send the order to the carrier as a single confirmed document, and ask for a written confirmation back. A reply that says only “ok” is weak evidence of what was agreed; a reply that repeats the addresses, the dates and the price is much stronger.
If something changes after confirmation, issue an updated order or a short written amendment, and say clearly which version replaces which. Keep the order together with the CMR and the other documents of the trip, so that the whole file can be found when the invoice is prepared or questioned.
A simple habit for dispatchers: read the order to the driver aloud, from the first line to the last, before departure. Any question you have then is one the driver would have asked at the gate.
Common mistakes
The same few gaps cause most of the phone calls. Check an order against this list before you confirm it.
- A time window missing, or given only as a date, so the driver arrives at the wrong hour.
- Several unloading points without a visiting order.
- Weight given in one place and pallets in another, with no total.
- A price without a currency or without a payment term.
- Changes agreed by phone and never written back to the order.
- No contact name at the site, so nobody can be reached when the truck stands at the gate.
From order to invoice: why you should type it once
An order usually arrives as a PDF in an email. In many offices it is then typed into a spreadsheet for the plan, typed again to brief the driver and typed a third time on the invoice. Each copy is a chance for a wrong digit, and the error is found only when the client disputes the invoice.
The safer pattern is one record per order: the data is entered or imported once, the same stops are what the driver sees, and the invoice is built from the finished trip, so the price on the invoice is the price that was agreed. That is also why a complete template matters: a field that is empty on the order cannot be filled in correctly later by anybody.
How TAFI Agent covers it
In TAFI Agent you create the order or import it from the client's PDF, and the loading and unloading points, dates, cargo and weight are extracted for you to check and save. You are then offered the trucks and drivers that are free for that period, the planned route goes to the driver's app and navigation, and the invoice is issued from the finished trip. See orders and dispatch, invoicing and the CMR guide, or read what a TMS is. For the full list, see the features, or book a demo and we will walk through it with your own orders.