A freight broker TMS that lives inside the inbox.

What is a freight broker TMS?

A freight broker TMS (transportation management system) is the software a brokerage uses to run its day-to-day operations — entering loads, dispatching to carriers, tracking shipments, managing documents, and invoicing customers. The category includes legacy incumbents like McLeod LoadMaster and Aljex (Descartes), newer cloud-native platforms like Tai Software, Rose Rocket, and Alvys, and free entry-tier products like AscendTMS.

What separates 2026 from 2020 is that every credible new TMS bundles AI somewhere — usually as a paid add-on that integrates with Drumkit, Parade.ai, or a custom email-parsing service. Keelway is the only freight broker TMS where the AI inbox triage and the dispatch board are the same product, on the same login, at one flat price.

Keelway TMS features

Pricing — $799/mo flat, unlimited users

One price. Everything included. No per-user fees, no setup, no implementation invoice, no annual contract. Month-to-month, cancel any time. The first 30 days are full-product with no payment required.

Who Keelway TMS is for

Keelway TMS is built for SMB freight brokerages — typically 3-30 dispatchers covering 50-300 loads per month. If your team currently runs on Aljex, AscendTMS, Tai, or spreadsheets and is buried under carrier email noise, this is the natural next step.

• Right fit: 3-30 user brokerages, $5M-$100M annual revenue, replacing Aljex/AscendTMS/spreadsheets, or escaping per-user pricing on McLeod/Aljex.
• Not the right fit: 1-2 person shops covering under 50 loads/month (AscendTMS free tier is your move) or 100+ user enterprise operations (McLeod, Turvo, MercuryGate are sized for you).

How Keelway compares to other broker TMS platforms

Most TMS shopping comes down to four real comparisons. We have a deep-dive page for each:

• Keelway vs Aljex (Descartes) — flat $799/mo vs ~$499/user. A 10-user shop saves $4,590/month.
• Keelway vs McLeod LoadMaster — $0 setup vs $50K+ implementation; 1 day to live vs 8-16 weeks.
• Keelway vs Alvys — similar flat-rate model, Keelway includes native AI inbox triage that Alvys does not.
• Cheapest broker TMS in 2026 — full category teardown including the AscendTMS free tier.
• Best broker TMS for SMB brokerages — buyer guide framing where each tool fits.

Why an AI-native TMS matters

Freight brokers do not live in their TMS — they live in their inbox. Every carrier quote, every rate confirmation, every “still available?” message hits Gmail or Outlook first. The standard workflow is manual: read the email, find the load in the TMS, copy the rate, respond. That is 30-45 minutes of delay per load, compounded across every load you cover.

Keelway eliminates the copy-paste. Our AI reads every inbound carrier email, ranks the top five options by rate and FMCSA trust score, and surfaces one-click confirm inside the same platform where you dispatch, invoice, and track. No second login. No second invoice. Industry-average broker response time is 47 minutes; Keelway customers respond in under five.