Freight broker software for Canadian operations.

Build your Canadian operating checklist

Canadian freight broker software needs to fit how your team quotes, dispatches and bills. If your brokerage also handles United States lanes, include the differences between domestic and cross-border shipments in the evaluation.

Start with representative moves: a domestic shipment, a shipment crossing the border, and a shipment billed in a different currency from the carrier invoice. Use them as demonstration cases rather than assuming a Canada label guarantees the right workflow.

Keep currencies explicit

Confirm that the currency is visible on customer quotes, carrier agreements, invoices and reports. A CAD sell rate and a USD carrier rate cannot be compared as if they were the same unit. Ask where an exchange rate is recorded, which date it uses, and how later adjustments are handled.

The margin calculator on this site expects all entries in one currency. Convert consistently before entering mixed-currency amounts. In a software demo, have your finance team review a complete example from quote through reporting.

Check sales tax on invoices

Sales tax on freight services depends on where the service is supplied and who the customer is, and Canada has federal, harmonized and provincial sales taxes. Ask how the TMS decides which tax applies to an invoice, whether that can be set per customer and per province, and how tax appears on the invoice and in the export to accounting.

Treat tax setup as a finance decision, not a software default. Confirm the rules that apply to your brokerage with your accountant, then test an invoice for each case your business actually has, including a cross-border load.

Check locations and appointment times

Canadian operations can span several time zones. Test how pickup and delivery times are displayed to operators, customers and carriers, especially when the parties are in different locations. Keep appointment time zones explicit in load instructions.

Confirm address and contact fields handle your actual shippers and receivers. If your team uses both metric and imperial units, ask how dimensions, weight, and quantity are recorded and presented to the carrier.

Separate brokerage coordination from customs work

A cross-border load adds parties, references and document handoffs. A freight broker arranging transportation and a customs broker handling customs business are different roles. Name the responsible party for each required step in your operating procedure.

Use software to keep shipment references, border contacts and document status accessible. Do not assume that a TMS subscription includes customs filing or establishes release. Confirm what the product does and what your carrier, shipper or customs broker must complete.

Know who sends eManifest and customs data

Freight crossing the border needs advance information sent to customs before the truck arrives. In Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency’s eManifest program includes Advance Commercial Information for highway carriers. In the United States, U.S. Customs and Border Protection receives truck manifests through the Automated Commercial Environment, known as ACE.

For highway freight, the carrier is responsible for sending its conveyance and cargo information, directly or through a service provider. Customs brokers and importers handle the release and accounting side. A freight broker arranging the move usually does neither, but your team does need to know who is doing each part, and have the references ready when a truck is waiting at the border.

• Record each cross-border shipper’s customs broker, with contact details, on the customer or the load.
• Keep the references the carrier and customs broker need, such as a PARS or PAPS number, on the load and on the rate confirmation.
• Ask the carrier to confirm its manifest has been sent before the truck leaves, and record who confirmed it and when.
• Keep commercial invoices and other customs documents attached to the load, so they are easy to resend.

Requirements change, so check them with the official sources: CBSA eManifest and ACI requirements, CBSA licensed customs brokers, CBP ACE manifest documentation and CBP customs brokers.

Check Canadian carrier safety identifiers

Carrier vetting in Canada starts with provincial registration rather than one national number. Under the National Safety Code, each province or territory registers the commercial carriers based there and keeps their safety record. The name and format of the identifier vary by jurisdiction.

Record the identifier, the issuing jurisdiction and the date you checked it on the carrier’s record in your TMS. Check the carrier’s safety status with the issuing jurisdiction, and recheck on a schedule rather than only at onboarding. The legal name on the insurance certificate and on the carrier’s payment details should match the registered name.

Ask whether the TMS can store more than one identifier per carrier, since a carrier running cross-border freight will usually hold both a Canadian and a United States registration. The carrier onboarding checklist covers the rest of the process.

Plan for French in Quebec

If you serve shippers, receivers or carriers in Quebec, language is part of the workflow. Quebec’s Charter of the French language sets requirements for the use of French in commerce and business, including many documents a business provides to its customers, and those requirements were strengthened in recent years.

List the customer-facing documents you produce for Quebec customers, such as quotes, rate confirmations and invoices, and check whether your software can produce them in French or with bilingual labels. Ask whether a preferred language can be recorded for a customer or carrier, and whether email templates can be set per language.

Confirm your obligations with the Office québécois de la langue française or your legal adviser, rather than relying on a software setting to make you compliant.

Explore a Canadian-built platform

TruckerPro describes its platform as Canadian-built and provides a dedicated offering for freight brokers and 3PLs. Its brokerage page covers tenders, carrier coordination, margin controls, the carrier portal, and invoicing.

Take the currency, tax, time-zone, border and carrier-vetting examples above to your demonstration. Confirm current capabilities, plan availability and configuration directly with TruckerPro. Signup links lead to truckerpro.ca.