McLeod Software

The long standing transportation management system for North American asset carriers and brokerages

As of 31 August 2026, McLeod Software's pricing is not published; the vendor quotes on request. McLeod has run the back office of large US trucking companies since 1985 and remains the default answer for asset carriers. Softwr lists it under Logistics. McLeod Software is made by McLeod Software Corporation, available on Windows, Web, iOS, Android.

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Overview

What McLeod Software does

McLeod Software is a privately held Birmingham, Alabama company founded in 1985 by Tom McLeod. It publishes LoadMaster, a transportation management system for asset based carriers, and PowerBroker, the equivalent for freight brokerages, along with document imaging, driver pay, EDI and business intelligence modules. The systems cover order entry, dispatch, driver and equipment management, settlements, billing, safety and maintenance interfaces, and they are the operational backbone of a large share of the sizeable US truckload fleets. What distinguishes it is depth in the parts of trucking that nobody demonstrates well: driver pay schemes with per mile, percentage, hourly and accessorial components combined; settlement deductions and escrow; owner operator versus company driver accounting; and the EDI trading partner maps that large shippers require. That accumulated coverage is why carriers stay, and why replacement projects are rare and slow. The commercial consequence is leverage. Because the switching cost is real, McLeod does not need to compete on price or on user experience, and it does not. Buyers are carriers and brokerages typically above one hundred trucks or a comparable brokerage headcount, with an internal IT function. The trade off is that this is enterprise software with the operating characteristics of enterprise software: a SQL Server estate, version upgrades treated as projects, per seat licensing plus module fees, and an interface that rewards trained operators rather than casual users. Companies buy it because it will handle their settlement rules, not because their dispatchers enjoy it.

What people use it for

A truckload carrier above one hundred trucks whose driver pay rules break every simpler system it has tried
A brokerage that needs carrier payables, factoring interfaces and settlement controls rather than a load board with invoicing
A carrier required by large shippers to exchange EDI tenders, status messages and invoices in specific formats
A company running both assets and a brokerage that wants each side on the vendor system built for it

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about McLeod Software.

It is a Microsoft SQL Server application that most customers still run on their own servers, so the total cost includes hardware, database administration and a disaster recovery plan that the vendor does not provide.
Version upgrades are projects rather than background events, and carriers routinely run releases that are a year or more old because upgrading requires testing every customisation and integration.
Licensing is per seat with modules priced separately, so a carrier with part time weekend dispatchers or occasional finance users pays full seats for people who log in a few hours a week.
The interface is dense and built for trained operators, and onboarding a new dispatcher takes weeks rather than days, which is expensive in a role with high turnover.
Pricing is never published and implementations commonly run six months or more with vendor or partner services, so the first year cost is a multiple of the annual licence and difficult to estimate before a sales process.

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of McLeod Software

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

McLeod Softwarevs
Turvo
Turvo: If you want a modern hosted system and can accept less depth in settlements and driver pay
McLeod Softwarevs
Trimble
Trimble: If you are already committed to a Trimble telematics and transportation stack
McLeod Softwarevs
Samsara
Samsara: If the priority is telematics and compliance rather than the financial back office

Pricing

What McLeod Software costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

LoadMaster

On request

Asset carrier transportation management
Driver pay and settlements
Dispatch and equipment management

PowerBroker

On request

Brokerage operations
Carrier procurement and payables
Customer billing

Capabilities

Features

LoadMaster
Order to cash operations for asset based carriers including dispatch and equipment
PowerBroker
Brokerage operations with carrier procurement, coverage and payables
Driver pay and settlements
Layered pay schemes, deductions, escrow and owner operator accounting
EDI and integration
Established trading partner maps for large shipper tender and status exchange
Document Power imaging
Capture, indexing and workflow for proof of delivery and settlement paperwork
Business intelligence
Operational and financial reporting across the transactional database

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

Is McLeod available as a hosted service?

Yes, McLeod offers hosting, but a large part of the installed base still runs on premises and budgets accordingly.

Can a fifty truck carrier use it?

It will run, but the licence and implementation economics rarely make sense below roughly one hundred trucks.

Who owns McLeod Software?

It has remained privately held and independent since it was founded in 1985, which is unusual in this market.

How long is a typical implementation?

Plan for six months or more once data migration, EDI setup and settlement rule configuration are included.

Keep looking

Where to go from McLeod Software

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for McLeod Software, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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