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How do you rundispatch handoffs without a spreadsheet?

By keeping one record each person writes into, instead of three that get copied between. Most handoff losses are not mistakes. They are a fact that existed in one place and was needed in another, and the fix is fewer copies rather than more discipline.

By LoadHunt team · Reviewed by LoadHunt ops · Published Sep 24, 2026 · Updated Sep 24, 2026 · 5 min read

Use the checklist

Written by the LoadHunt team and reviewed on 24 September 2026. It makes no claim about a product that is not Live, and it names the two that are not.

1. The answer, before the context

In short: stop moving the load between documents.

A handoff fails when dispatch, the driver and the office each hold their own copy of the same load, because the copy that is wrong is always the one somebody is reading.

2. Who this applies to

This applies to carriers running two or more dispatchers, or one dispatcher and a bookkeeper — anywhere a load passes through more than one pair of hands. What has to be true first: the load exists somewhere other than an inbox, and both people can see the same somewhere.

3. Four steps, and the test at the end of each

  1. Step 01

    Name the handoffs you actually have

    Owner:
    dispatch
    Input:
    a week of loads
    Check:
    each handoff names who passes it and who takes it

  2. Step 02

    Decide what each one has to carry

    Owner:
    dispatch and the office
    Input:
    what the next person asks for
    Check:
    nothing on the list is there just in case

  3. Step 03

    Put the fact where it will be looked for

    Owner:
    whoever creates it
    Input:
    the load record
    Check:
    the next person finds it without asking

  4. Step 04

    Delete the copy

    Owner:
    whoever made it
    Input:
    the spreadsheet or the thread
    Check:
    one place is left to update

The third step is the one that does the work — the fact goes where the person who needs it is already looking, not into a document of its own. The last step is the one that gets skipped, and the test of the sequence is simple: the second person did not have to ask the first one anything.

4. Evidence and limits

A handoff to someone outside your system — a broker’s portal, a factoring company, an accountant’s software — is still a copy, and the honest answer is to make it the last one rather than pretend it is not there. If your loads are in a spreadsheet because there are eleven of them a month, the spreadsheet is the right tool.

Sources and assumptions

Primary source
Our own product record and the status ledger
Outside studies
None cited, because nothing here rests on one
Assumption
Your loads are already in something
Last checked
Sep 24, 2026 · next review Dec 2026

5. Where the product picks this up

huntTMS is the part that holds the one record, and it is what to look at if the handoff you keep losing is dispatch to the office. The driver handoff and the payment handoff are huntDRIVE and huntPAY, both Planned — so today both are still a copy, and this page will not tell you they are not.

[01]

FAQ

Questions,answeredplainly

The load exists somewhere other than an inbox, and both people can see the same somewhere.

huntTMS does, for the handoff between dispatch and the office. The driver and payment handoffs are huntDRIVE and huntPAY, both Planned, so today those are still a copy.

Written from operating practice and last reviewed on 24 September 2026. It makes no claim about a product that is not Live, and it names the two that are not.

Our own product record for anything about what the products do, and the status ledger for whether they do it today. Nothing here cites an outside study, because nothing here rests on one.

[02]

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