The free TMS for small business freight desks
Warp TMS gives a small business the software big freight desks pay for: quote, book, track, audit, and report at $0, with no seat limits and no load caps. If your freight runs on a spreadsheet and a shared inbox, this page is the upgrade path.
By Troy Lester, Co-Founder & CRO
$0 software fees · No seat limits · No load caps · Live in minutes · Full export any time
Live all-inclusive rates
How much does a TMS cost for a small business?
Small business TMS subscriptions run $99 to $500 per month, with implementations commonly at $5,000 to $15,000 over one to two months (as of August 2026, per published pricing across the category). Warp TMS is the exception: $0 with no seat limits or load caps, because Warp earns freight revenue when its rate wins a lane, not software fees.
Do small businesses need a TMS?
A small business needs a TMS when spreadsheets start costing real money: past 50 shipments per week, around $500K annual freight spend, or 100 loads per month. Below those thresholds a spreadsheet is honestly fine. A free TMS like Warp TMS changes the math, because trying the system no longer costs anything.
What does a free small business TMS include?
Warp TMS includes instant LTL and FTL quotes, booking, live tracking on Warp freight, freight invoice audit against the quote, batch quoting from a pasted spreadsheet, order consolidation, six team roles, and reports with XLSX and CSV export, all at $0 for small business teams. No seat limits, no load caps, no trial clock.
Warp customers
Built for the two person freight desk
Most small business freight runs on a spreadsheet, a shared inbox, and one person who knows where everything is.
That system works right up until it doesn't: spreadsheets break down past 50 shipments per week, and the honest evaluation thresholds for a TMS are about $500K in annual freight spend or 100 loads per month.
The trap for small teams was always the price of finding out: $99 to $500 per month (as of August 2026) plus an implementation project is a lot to bet on a maybe. Warp TMS removes the bet.
Signup is self serve at warptms.com, the first quote runs in minutes, and the software stays $0 whether you ship 10 loads a month or 500.
If you're under the thresholds, the honest read is at do I need a TMS, and the spreadsheet keeps its job a while longer.
What a small team gets at $0
The six jobs below are the whole freight desk. Every one ships today in Warp TMS, works on freight from any carrier, and costs nothing at any team size.
Quote
Rates without the email thread.
LTL and FTL priced in seconds: Warp's bookable rate beside marketplace carriers and any contracted rates you already have, ranked by cheapest, fastest, or preferred.
Book
One click past the spreadsheet.
Book the winning rate on the spot. Freight you book with your own carriers lives on the same boards, so the whole operation stays in one place.
Track
Stop being the tracking desk.
Live tracking on freight booked through Warp with hourly sync. Everything else tracks by milestone on the same board, so where is it has one answer.
Audit
Catch overcharges automatically.
Every invoice compared to its quote at the charge level, duplicate PRO detection, and new accessorial flags. Small teams rarely audit by hand; now nobody has to.
Batch
Paste the whole list.
Batch quoting from a pasted spreadsheet and CSV order import. The Monday list becomes priced lanes in one step instead of one lane at a time.
Report
Know your spend by Friday.
Service and spend by carrier, lane, and mode with XLSX and CSV export. The report you used to build by hand ships with the software.
Why the price is $0 and stays there
Warp earns freight revenue when its rate wins a lane you choose to book. That's the whole model.
There's no small business tier waiting to become a mid market tier.
Warp TMS puts Warp's bookable LTL and FTL rate on the same quote grid as marketplace carriers and your own contracted rates, ranked by the routing policy you set.
When Warp's rate wins and you book it, Warp hauls the freight and gets paid for the freight. When it doesn't win, you tender to your carrier and the software still does its job.
No seat limits, no load caps, no trial clock, and full export any time: the five checks are published with sources on the pricing page.
Need to ship freight, not manage it?
This page is about the free software. If you came here to move a pallet, Warp does that too, without the TMS.
Freight for small business is the service side: instant all inclusive rates across LTL, box truck, and cargo van, no minimum volume, no account manager required, book online in minutes.
The TMS is for teams running enough freight to want a system of record. Plenty of small businesses start by booking a lane on the service side and adopt the TMS when the volume justifies it.
Both are self serve, and neither requires the other.
Frequently asked questions
Can a small business run Warp TMS without an IT team?
Yes. Signup is self serve, orders import by CSV or paste, carriers register in the app, and there is no implementation project.
Typical paid TMS implementations run $5,000 to $15,000 over one to two months (as of August 2026); Warp TMS is live the same afternoon with nobody technical involved.
What does a small business give up with a free TMS?
The honest gaps: Warp TMS has no EDI, no ERP connectors, and no parcel booking, and orders run one pickup to one dropoff.
Those are paid enterprise platform features, and most small business freight desks never touch them. If a trading partner mandates EDI, a paid platform is the right call and we say so.
How many users can a small business add to Warp TMS?
As many as you want.
Warp TMS has no seat limits and no per user pricing at any team size: invite everyone by email under six roles with a capability matrix, so who can quote, book, and approve stays controlled while the seat count stays free.
About the Warp freight network
More about the Warp freight network
Warp is a technology-driven freight network that combines cargo van, box truck, LTL, and FTL capacity under one operating system. Shippers get instant rates, real-time tracking, and access to 70+ cross-dock facilities and 14,000+ cargo vans and box trucks — with 80%+ US LTL zip-to-zip coverage and nationwide FTL, box truck, and cargo van.
The network is supported by 24,000+ vetted FTL carriers.
Unlike traditional brokers, Warp uses AI to match the right vehicle to every load based on weight, dimensions, urgency, and cost targets. Cross-dock operations reduce transit time by eliminating unnecessary terminal transfers.
Pool distribution and zone-skipping programs help enterprise shippers lower per-unit delivery costs while maintaining tight appointment windows.
Self-serve shippers can quote, compare, and book freight online in under two minutes. Enterprise accounts get dedicated capacity planning, committed rate programs, and a named operations team. Every shipment includes scan-level visibility from pickup through final delivery.
Warp operates across the contiguous United States with regional density in the Southeast, Texas, Midwest, and Northeast corridors.
Cross-dock facilities in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New York, Savannah, Orlando, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Columbus, Denver, New Orleans, and Milwaukee support faster transfers and fewer touches on recurring lanes.
Freight modes and vehicle types
| Mode | Max payload | Max cube | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cargo van | 3,500 lbs | 400 cu ft | Time-sensitive, last-mile, light pallets |
| Box truck | 10,000 lbs | 1,500 cu ft | Regional distribution, no dock required |
| LTL | Per-pallet | Shared trailer | Lower per-pallet cost via cross-dock routing |
| Dry van / FTL | 42,000+ lbs | Full 53-ft trailer | High-volume lanes, recurring programs |
Cargo vans handle loads up to 3,500 pounds and 400 cubic feet, ideal for time-sensitive deliveries, last-mile retail replenishment, and lightweight palletized freight.
Box trucks carry up to 10,000 pounds and 1,500 cubic feet, fitting most regional distribution and store delivery needs without requiring a loading dock.
Dry vans and full truckloads move 42,000+ pounds for high-volume lanes and recurring programs. LTL shipments share trailer space on optimized routes through Warp cross-docks, reducing per-pallet cost by consolidating multiple shippers on the same vehicle.
Warp does not default every shipment to a 53-foot trailer. The AI engine evaluates load weight, cube, delivery window, and cost to recommend the right vehicle. Shippers see all available mode options with live pricing in one comparison screen before booking.
Cross-dock operations
Cross-docking at Warp facilities eliminates warehouse storage. Inbound freight is sorted and transferred directly to outbound vehicles, typically within hours.
This reduces dwell time, lowers damage risk, and compresses delivery windows. Warp cross-docks support pallet-in, pallet-out operations with scan-level tracking at every handoff point.
- Atlanta — Southeast retail flow
- Chicago — Midwest manufacturing and replenishment
- Houston — Texas industrial distribution
- New York — dense Northeast delivery
Facility locations are selected for corridor density: Atlanta handles Southeast retail flow, Chicago serves Midwest manufacturing and replenishment, Houston covers Texas industrial distribution, and New York supports dense Northeast delivery. Each facility operates on appointment-based scheduling to prevent congestion and maintain throughput consistency.
Enterprise freight programs
Enterprise shippers get committed rate programs, dedicated account management, and custom SLA design. Warp builds lane-by-lane rate structures that account for volume commitments, seasonal variation, and mode flexibility. Operations teams monitor shipment execution daily and intervene proactively when exceptions occur.
Self-serve freight quoting
Shippers enter origin and destination, load details, and delivery requirements to see live rates across all available modes. Quotes include estimated transit time, vehicle type, and total cost.
Booking takes one click. After booking, shippers track every shipment with real-time GPS location, milestone updates, and proof of delivery documentation.
Industries and use cases
Retail shippers use Warp for store replenishment programs that deliver to hundreds of locations per week on tight appointment windows. Apparel brands use zone skipping to bypass regional parcel sortation and reduce per-unit delivery cost.
Food and beverage companies rely on time-definite delivery for perishable goods. Manufacturing operations use Warp for inbound vendor consolidation, combining multiple supplier shipments into fewer, fuller loads through cross-dock facilities.
Distribution companies use pool distribution to serve multiple delivery points from a single origin, splitting full truckloads at cross-docks into smaller last-mile vehicles.
Urgent freight recovery covers emergency capacity needs when primary carriers fail or demand spikes unexpectedly. Middle-mile optimization reduces cost and transit time on the longest segment of multi-leg shipments.
The software your spreadsheet was pretending to be.
Create your free account at warptms.com, paste your shipment list, and run this week's freight through a real system. If it doesn't earn the workflow, export everything and leave whole. That's the deal, and it costs nothing.
$0 software fees · No seat limits · No load caps · Live in minutes · Full export any time
Performance figures are computed from Warp network data. See our methodology.
By Troy Lester