How to Choose Construction Dispatch Software for Bulk Materials

On highway construction, drivers have long collected a paper ticket for every truckload hauled from the plant to the job [1]. On federal-aid projects, the state DOT has to collect, retain, and verify those haul tickets, because they are the source documentation it pays on [1]. Construction dispatch software for dump trucks and bulk material has to track the work the same way, by the load: which truck hauled it and which ticket came back with it.

Other systems

Other software can hold part of each load’s record. At the plant, the producer’s loadout system records each load, and some agencies connect to those records to receive e-tickets [2][3]. If the truck has an ELD, it records the truck’s position [4]. On public work that uses e-tickets, the agency receives them through a web portal it built itself or bought off the shelf [5][3]. FHWA describes the e-ticketing market as agency-built, contractor- or supplier-built, and off-the-shelf products, and calls standardized, interoperable data essential [1].

Judge the dispatch system on what it accepts from each of these without anyone re-keying a ticket number. FHWA describes paper ticketing as several hand-offs with manual entry at each one, and says lost or damaged tickets are common [1]. Give the ticket hand-off more weight than the map or the reports, because the invoice and any later tonnage dispute start from the ticket.

Where to start

• Producers: check how tickets move from your scale software into the dispatch system and out to customers and agency portals.
• Bulk haulers: test dispatching owner-operators and brokered trucks, and getting their tickets back, before anything else.
• Contractors: read the e-ticket requirements on your public bids, and check that tickets from every supplier and hauler on a job end up in one list.

Trucks you do not own

FHWA’s e-ticketing peer exchanges report that many contractors rely on third-party haulers to move material from the plant to the job, and that contractors require GPS location on third-party-operated trucks because of what trucking costs [6][7]. The board should show your own trucks, owner-operators, and brokered trucks on the same order, so the truck count for a job is in one place. Keep each hauler’s insurance certificate on its record, and have the board warn the dispatcher before a truck with an expired one is assigned. In Tread, one Assign panel sends a job to your own driver, an owner-operator, a driver another company shares with you, or a third-party hauling company whose dispatcher picks the driver [8][9].

Tickets and e-tickets

As of December 2022, FHWA counted 15 states that had made e-ticketing standard practice, 28 that were demonstrating or assessing it, and 6 that were learning about it [10]. In 2023 AASHTO published MDMS-1, a standard specification that gives haulers, agencies, contractors, and suppliers a common format for material delivery data, including e-tickets, hauler data, and loading and delivery events, with each agency choosing the data blocks it requires [11]. Minnesota DOT expanded its e-ticketing to include hauler data and split, partial, or rejected loads [3]. If you bid public work, ask which agency portals the software already sends tickets to.

FHWA noted in 2022 that in some states, such as Pennsylvania, drivers may still need paper, because they have to present a bill of lading when stopped by law enforcement [2]. The driver app has to capture a paper ticket as readily as the system accepts an electronic one. In Tread’s dump truck dispatch software, a ticket can come in as a Driver App photo, a text message with a photo, or a scale-house feed, and each one attaches to the matching load [12][13].

Cell coverage

FHWA’s peer exchanges report erratic cellular coverage in some areas and a lack of internet at some plant and quarry locations, and the Delaware and Pennsylvania DOTs use an offline mode where internet is erratic [6]. A driver app for bulk work has to save the ticket photo and each status change without signal, then send them when the truck is back in coverage.

Driver hours

A local dump truck driver can run under the short-haul exception when they operate within 150 air-miles of their normal work reporting location, return there and are released within 14 hours, and get 10 hours off between shifts [14]. The exception removes the log and the ELD, and the carrier still keeps a time record for each driver each day, showing when they reported, when they were released, and their total hours on duty, for 6 months [14]. A driver who falls outside the exception on more than 8 days in any 30-day period has to be on an ELD [15]. If drivers clock in and out on the dispatch app, ask for the daily time report, check that it shows those fields, and ask whether it counts each driver’s days outside the exception.

Location and mileage

An ELD has to record position at every duty status change and at least once an hour while the truck is moving, to 2 decimal places of latitude and longitude, which the rule puts at about 1 mile of accuracy [4]. That satisfies the log, and hourly points are too sparse to time a truck in and out of a pit. Ask whether the dispatch software reads your telematics provider’s live GPS feed or the driver’s phone, and how often each updates.

If your trucks cross state lines and you want IFTA mileage from the same GPS history, the IFTA Procedures Manual, as of January 2026, requires a reading at least every 10 minutes with the engine on, latitude and longitude to 4 decimal places, the ECM odometer, and the unit number, in a spreadsheet format; a PDF or image does not qualify [16]. Settle who sees your GPS data before you connect it. In one FHWA peer exchange, contractors resisted giving truck tracking data to the DOT because they were unsure how it would be used [2].

Running the demo

Bring your own truck list, your third-party haulers, and one real order with its tickets. As an illustration, an order supplied by 6 of your trucks and 4 third-party trucks at 5 loads each is 50 loads and 50 tickets, 20 of them from trucks you do not own. Ask the software company to run that order in front of you:

• Dispatch all 10 trucks, with the third-party hauler’s dispatcher assigning their own drivers.
• Take 1 truck off after its second load and move its last 3 loads to another truck.
• Capture a ticket from a third-party driver who does not have the app.
• Capture a ticket with the phone in airplane mode, then turn the signal back on.
• Record 1 rejected load and 1 split load.
• Show every load with its ticket attached, the invoice built from the delivered loads, and the file or sync that sends it to your accounting system.

Before signing, get the price in writing for your own trucks plus the third-party trucks you run in your busiest month. Ask who loads your trucks, drivers, customers, and rates before go-live, and how long that takes.

Sources

1. FHWA, e-Ticketing Implementation Plan (FHWA-HRT-22-045), December 2021. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/pavements/22045/22045.pdf
2. FHWA, Tech Brief: Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority e-Ticketing Peer Exchange (FHWA-HIF-24-056), June 2022. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/construction/econstruction/hif24056.pdf
3. FHWA, Tech Brief: California Department of Transportation e-Ticketing Peer Exchange (FHWA-HIF-24-067), October 2022. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/construction/econstruction/hif24067.pdf
4. eCFR, 49 CFR Part 395, Subpart B, Appendix A (ELD functional specifications), sections 4.3.1.6, 4.5.1.1, 4.5.1.2, current as of September 24, 2026. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-395/subpart-B/appendix-Appendix%20A%20to%20Subpart%20B%20of%20Part%20395
5. FHWA, Tech Brief: North Dakota Department of Transportation e-Ticketing Peer Exchange (FHWA-HIF-24-068), March 2022. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/construction/econstruction/hif24068.pdf
6. FHWA, Tech Brief: Virginia Department of Transportation e-Ticketing Peer Exchange (FHWA-HIF-24-057), November 2022. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/construction/econstruction/hif24057.pdf
7. FHWA, Tech Brief: Kentucky Transportation Cabinet e-Ticketing Peer Exchange (FHWA-HIF-24-037), May 2024. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/construction/econstruction/hif24037.pdf
8. Tread Docs, Dispatching to Drivers and Vendors. https://docs.tread.ai/concepts/dispatching-drivers-vendors
9. Tread Docs, Dispatch Overview. https://docs.tread.ai/dispatch-guide/overview
10. FHWA, Every Day Counts EDC-6 Final Report (December 2022 status), April 2023, Internet Archive copy. https://web.archive.org/web/2024id_/https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/innovation/everydaycounts/reports/edc6_finalreport.pdf
11. AASHTO Journal, New AASHTO Material Delivery Management Guide, December 1, 2023. https://aashtojournal.transportation.org/new-aashto-material-delivery-management-guide/
12. Tread Docs, Track Drivers and Collect Tickets. https://docs.tread.ai/workflows/track-drivers-collect-tickets
13. Tread Docs, Tickets and Timesheets. https://docs.tread.ai/concepts/tickets-timesheets
14. eCFR, 49 CFR 395.1(e)(1), short-haul operations, current as of September 24, 2026. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-395/section-395.1
15. eCFR, 49 CFR 395.8(a)(1)(ii)(A)(1), current as of September 24, 2026. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-395/section-395.8
16. IFTA, Inc., IFTA Procedures Manual, effective January 2026, section P540.200. https://www.iftach.org/manuals/2026/PM/Procedures%20Manual%20-%2001-05-26.pdf