A logistics CRM is sales software for companies that move freight: brokers matching shippers to capacity, asset carriers selling lane commitments, 3PLs bidding on warehousing, and freight forwarders quoting international moves. It holds every shipper conversation, lane opportunity, rate quote and renewal date on one account record, so the relationship survives a rep leaving and the next RFP is answered with history rather than guesswork.

It is not a TMS. The TMS executes and bills the shipment; the CRM wins the account that produces it. Pipeline CRM covers the sales half with a lane and account pipeline, unlimited custom fields for origin, destination, equipment and rate, rate confirmations generated from your own Word templates with Instant Docs, native QuickBooks Online sync, and an open API so your developer team can connect it to the TMS you already run. Pricing starts at $25 per user per month (billed annually) with a 14-day free trial.

It depends on whether your bottleneck is moving freight or winning it. If you need load management, dispatch, rating and carrier compliance, that is a TMS: Tai, Rose Rocket and similar platforms are built for it. If your bottleneck is that shipper relationships live in individual inboxes, quotes are hard to reconstruct, and nobody can say which contracts renew next quarter, that is a CRM problem.

Pipeline CRM is a strong fit for freight brokers, carriers and 3PLs with roughly 5 to 50 sales people who already have a TMS and need the sales layer beside it: lane and account pipelines, unlimited custom fields for lane detail, renewal-date reporting, branded rate confirmations, native QuickBooks Online integration and US-based live chat on every plan. It is deliberately not a TMS, and most customers run both.

A TMS is an operations system. It manages loads, assigns carriers or drivers, rates and tenders freight, tracks shipments, handles EDI and produces the invoice. It is the system of record for freight that is already booked.

A CRM is a sales system. It manages the relationship before there is any freight to move: which shippers you are courting, what lanes and volumes were discussed, what you quoted in March, when the contract renews, and who owns the account. The two overlap on the customer record and are usually connected through an API. Pipeline CRM does the second job and exposes an open API so your developer team can connect it to the first.

Yes, as structured custom fields on the deal rather than free text. Origin, destination, equipment type, annual volume, target rate, commodity, accessorials and contract renewal date all become real fields you can filter, report and forecast on. Conditional fields keep the record clean, so a reefer opportunity does not prompt for flatbed dimensions.

Because they are fields and not notes, you can answer questions like average contract value by equipment type, win rate on refrigerated versus dry van, or every open opportunity out of a given origin. Unlimited custom fields are available on every paid plan. Note that Pipeline CRM stores the rate you have arrived at; it does not calculate rates or connect to a rating engine, which is TMS territory. See the pricing page for plan limits.

Yes, and freight brokerage is one of the most common uses. Brokers use it to run the shipper side of the business: prospecting, lane reviews, rate quotes, RFP responses and contract renewals, all on an account record that survives rep turnover. Separate pipelines can be run for spot and contract freight so the forecast is not distorted by one-off loads.

What it does not do is the carrier-matching and load-management side. There is no load board integration, no carrier compliance monitoring and no dispatch. Brokers typically run Pipeline CRM for new business and account management alongside a brokerage TMS that handles the loads, connected through the open API where it is worth automating.

Yes. Asset carriers use Pipeline CRM to sell dedicated capacity and contract lanes: tracking which shippers are worth pursuing, what volume and equipment each opportunity needs, what was quoted, and when the incumbent contract expires. Renewal-date reporting is usually the feature carriers get the most from, because most carrier revenue is defended rather than newly won.

For the operational side of trucking, dispatch, driver assignment, ELD compliance and settlements, you will still want a TMS or fleet system. Pipeline CRM handles the commercial relationship and connects to those systems through the open API or Zapier.

Yes. Pipeline CRM integrates natively with QuickBooks Online, syncing customer records, invoices and payment status, so a won account does not have to be rekeyed into accounting and sales can see what has been paid without leaving the CRM. The QuickBooks integration is available on all plans, including the Start plan at $25 per user per month (billed annually).

Two things to be precise about: the native integration is with QuickBooks Online, not QuickBooks Desktop, and for your TMS, rating engine or freight-billing platform your developer team can build a connection through Pipeline CRM’s open API, or use Zapier for no-code workflows. A common setup maps a won contract in Pipeline CRM to a customer record in the billing system, then pushes payment status back onto the account.

There is no pre-built native TMS integration, and it would be misleading to imply otherwise. What Pipeline CRM provides is a documented open API that your developer team can use to build the connection, plus Zapier for no-code workflows where the volume is low enough.

The connections teams usually build first are simple: push a won account from the CRM into the TMS as a customer record, and pull shipment volume or revenue back onto the CRM account so sales can see what a shipper is actually worth. Start there rather than attempting a full bidirectional sync, and keep the systems’ responsibilities distinct.

Store the contract expiry date as a custom field on the account, then build a saved report for everything expiring in the next ninety days. An automation can open a task for the account owner when a contract crosses that threshold, so the renewal conversation starts before the shipper begins shopping the lane.

This matters more in freight than in most industries, because a large share of revenue is incumbent business defended at renewal rather than net-new wins. Keeping volume history, service issues and prior rate discussions on the same record is what lets an account manager defend a rate increase with evidence.

Pipeline CRM pricing is $25 per user per month for Start, $33 per user per month for Develop, and $49 per user per month for Grow. All three are billed annually, and enterprise pricing is custom. Every plan includes the QuickBooks Online integration, the mobile app with business card scanner, unlimited custom fields and US-based live chat support.

Most logistics teams start on Start or Develop for the lane pipeline and quote documents, and move to Grow when they want the native Project Management module for onboarding won accounts. TMS platforms generally price differently because they charge on load or shipment volume rather than per seat. You can try Pipeline CRM on a 14-day free trial with no credit card.

Yes. Pipeline CRM has native iOS and Android apps included on all plans, so a rep can pull up the shipper, the last quote and the full conversation history from a terminal, a dock or a customer parking lot. The built-in business card scanner turns a card collected at a freight conference into a tagged contact immediately, which matters when a single event produces fifty of them.

The mobile app covers the CRM record itself: contacts, companies, deals, notes and tasks. The native Project Management module is a desktop experience in its current version, so account onboarding is managed from the office.

Most logistics teams are live within one to three weeks. The fastest rollouts follow a simple sequence: import existing shippers and open opportunities from a CSV, set up the pipeline stages and the handful of custom fields that describe a lane in your business, connect QuickBooks Online and the team’s email, then train reps and account managers in a single one hour session.

Pipeline CRM’s standard CSV and Excel import handles most migrations in about three business days. US-based live chat support is available throughout setup at a 97.6 percent satisfaction rate. Onboarding training packages start at $750 for teams that want a specialist to run the rollout. Plan tiers and onboarding options are on the pricing page.