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Fuel Dispatch Software: What It Has to Do
Fuel dispatch software has to plan and record loads the way fuel actually moves: several products in one truck, several pickups with a BOL each, several drops, and quantities that change between the rack and the tank.
General freight software is usually built around one shipment, one pickup and one drop. This checklist is for suppliers and carriers choosing a dispatch system: each item is a question to put to the vendor, with the reason it matters. If you are still deciding what kind of system you need at all, start with load board, TMS, or spreadsheets.
What should you ask a fuel dispatch software vendor?
| Area | Ask the vendor | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Compartments | Can a load hold several products in separate compartments, and does it record which product went into which one? | A product in the wrong compartment ends up in the wrong customer tank. |
| Terminal hours | Does it know when each rack is open and when the truck has to leave it to make the delivery window? | A load planned around a closed rack misses its window before the driver sets off. |
| Gross and net | Does every line keep both gross and net gallons, loaded and delivered, and which one does the invoice use? | Buying on one basis and billing on the other moves margin without anyone noticing. |
| BOLs per stop | Can one load carry a BOL for each pickup stop, each with one or many products? | A system with one document per load forces the second pickup into a note field. |
| Loading numbers | Is the loading number picked for the exact supplier, terminal and destination, and shown to the driver? | A wrong number is found at the rack, with a truck that cannot load. |
| Delivery tickets | Is a ticket captured at each drop and tied back to the BOLs the fuel was lifted on? | The invoice should be built from what came off the truck. |
| Split loads | Can one pickup feed several drops, with a quantity and a status for each stop? | Split loads are ordinary, and the last stop carries the variance. |
| Tank data | Which tank monitors does it read from today, and does a reading turn into an order? | Ask to see a working connection to your own monitor vendor. |
| Driver app | Can a driver photograph a BOL, enter gallons, capture the ticket and update status from a phone, with poor signal? | Paperwork that waits for the driver to get back to the yard waits for days. |
| Back office | Which records reach your accounting system, in which direction, and what happens when the two disagree? | Retyping orders and invoices is the cost the software was meant to remove. |
| Integrations | If you already run a dispatch board or have partners who do, can loads move both ways, and is there a documented API? | Your carriers and customers will not all switch to your system. |
Why do BOLs and loading numbers need to be captured per stop?
A load that picks up at two terminals produces two bills of lading, one per stop, and each BOL can list one product or several. Each pickup also needs its own loading number, because the number is usually tied to the supplier, the terminal and where the fuel is going. Software that holds one BOL and one loading number per load cannot represent that, so the dispatcher ends up keeping the second stop somewhere else.
Ask the vendor to show a two-pickup load with two products on one BOL and one on the other, and to show where the driver enters each.
Which quantity does the system bill on?
The quantity loaded at the rack and the quantity delivered to the tank differ, partly because of temperature (see gross vs net gallons). A dispatch system should keep both gross and net on every line at both ends of the trip, and it should be clear which one the invoice is built from. If it stores a single “gallons” field, ask which of the four numbers that field is meant to hold.
How should split loads and delivery tickets work?
On a split load, one pickup is divided across several customers. The system needs a planned and a delivered quantity for each stop, a status for each stop, and a delivery ticket for each drop that traces back to the BOL. Without that, the last customer’s invoice gets reconciled by hand every time.
On brokered work, also ask what the carrier can see about the other drops on the run. Not every party on a load is entitled to see every customer.
How do you test a vendor in a demo?
Bring one of your own awkward loads to every vendor demo: the one with the most products, pickups and drops you run, and a short delivery at the last stop. Then:
- Enter it from scratch, as your dispatcher would.
- Have someone complete the pickup and the drops from the driver app.
- Look at the invoice it produces, and at what reached your accounting system.
Wherever the vendor says “you would put that in the notes”, write it down. Each one is something your team will keep doing by hand.
How Energy Connect handles it
- BOLs per pickup. An order can carry several BOLs, each with its own product lines. Drivers scan each BOL in the mobile app, and the form fills in from the photo for the driver to check.
- Gross and net. The mobile app requires both on every loaded line, and delivered quantities are kept as well.
- Loading numbers. Stored per supplier, terminal and destination state, and shown to the driver on the load.
- Split loads. One order with per-line quantities across stops and a delivery status for each stop. A split load lifts from one terminal, from one or more suppliers there.
- Delivery tickets. The driver records the delivery ticket number at the drop in the mobile app, with the delivered quantities and photos.
- Back office. The QuickBooks Online integration sends orders, invoices, BOLs and delivery tickets to your books; the Business Central integration sends invoices and orders to Business Central.
- Other systems. Dispatch and accounting connections are listed on the integrations page, and a public REST API with signed webhooks is there for anything else you connect.
Request a demo and bring one of your own loads.
Sources
- 49 CFR 177.817: fuel does not move by road without a shipping paper, which the terminal BOL provides
- Texas Comptroller, Motor Fuels Audit Manual, ch. 9: net gallons are gross gallons corrected to 60°F
- NIST Handbook 44 (2026), §3.31 UR.2.2: a truck meter records each delivery and the customer gets a copy of the ticket