Trajenda or Excel, WhatsApp and paper?
Most small hauliers plan with a spreadsheet, a group chat and a folder of consignment notes. It works, and it costs nothing extra. Below is an honest look at where it pinches, and when you are better off staying as you are.
What Excel, WhatsApp and paper are good at
- Everybody knows them. There is nothing to learn.
- They cost nothing extra.
- They are flexible: any column and any arrangement is possible, without a system saying no.
Point by point
The planning
A spreadsheet kept by one person. A change reaches the driver by message or phone call.
Trips with multiple stops on the planning board. The driver sees the trip on the phone, with address, time window and instructions, in their own language.
Where is the truck?
Call, or wait for a message in the group.
The map shows where every truck is, how long it has been there and which trip is late. Only during a shift, and only if the driver shares the location.
Waiting time
Remembered, or not. Afterwards it is hard to prove how long the truck stood.
Every tap records a time. Waiting time per visit is on the trip and can go on the invoice as a line.
Proof of delivery
A paper signature that reaches the office a few days later, if it is not lost.
Signed on the driver's phone and in the office at once. After that, any change shows.
Consignment note
Filled in by hand, or retyped from the spreadsheet.
Print the CMR consignment note from the trip, in fifteen languages. The paper note is still needed; Trajenda is not an eCMR.
The invoice
Collecting trips, waiting time and surcharges from emails, chats and paper.
Pick the trips; waiting time, extra work and surcharges are on it with the evidence. Also as an e-invoice (UBL, XRechnung).
Language
A driver who does not read your language gets a phone translation, or a guess.
The driver app speaks fifteen languages, the login screen too. The tracking link follows your customer's language.
Cost
Nothing extra, apart from the time it takes and the waiting time left on the table.
€39 per truck per month, excluding VAT. 14 days free, cancel monthly.
When Excel and WhatsApp are enough
- You drive yourself, or with one driver you speak to every day.
- You do not charge for waiting time and deliveries are rarely disputed.
- Your customers do not call to ask where their shipment is.
If that is you, Trajenda is mostly an extra cost. Stay as you are.
Switching without a big rebuild
- WhatsApp can stay. The difference is that a tap in Trajenda records a time you can invoice; a message in a group does not.
- Start with one trip. You do not have to move everything at once.
- Your spreadsheet can come along: customers, locations, vehicles and whole plannings from Excel or CSV. Rows that already exist are skipped, never overwritten.
- Your data stays yours: export everything at any time, as JSON and CSV.
Try it next to your spreadsheet.
Put one trip into Trajenda and leave the rest as it is for now. After 14 days you know whether it pays off.