Routelink vs Loadit TMS

This is the fork most SA own-fleet buyers feel first. Not “who optimises better” — how the trip sheet gets onto the phone, and what happens when a Saturday bakkie or a peak-season subcontractor shows up.

Loadit TMS uses a driver mobile app. Their TMS FAQ states the app needs Android 8 or later. That is a dedicated install: every driver and extra vehicle needs a compatible phone and to keep the app updated.

Routelink does not require an app download. Each device gets a unique browser link, protected by a PIN. Drivers bookmark it or add it to the home screen. The same link can run more than one route in a day. Adding a subcontractor is creating a device and sending the link; deleting the device kills the link.

Neither model is universally better. An app can feel like a real tool if your drivers already live on one. A PIN link is faster when phones are mixed, personal, or belong to people who will not visit an app store before the 6am load.

Routelink is built around Capture → Plan → Dispatch → Notify → Deliver. Morning work can land from CSV or Excel, an ERP or CRM, Shopify, WooCommerce, geocoding, or a manual stop.

The Loadit TMS page does not emphasise store or ERP inputs. If your day starts as a Shopify export or a spreadsheet from the warehouse, ask Loadit how that file becomes a route. Do not assume parity from marketing pages.

Loadit TMS advertises automatic customer SMS notifications.

Routelink sends configurable notifications: branded email, SMS, WhatsApp via integrations (not a native WhatsApp channel), branded tracking links, webhooks, and post-delivery feedback. SMS is billed at cost from the provider.

If your customers already live on WhatsApp, treat “via integrations” as a real requirement — you will connect a tool such as Klaviyo or another integration, not tick a native WhatsApp box.

Both products are selling the same month-end pain: paper trip sheets, WhatsApp photo dumps, and arguments about whether the crate was left at the gate.

Loadit TMS claims live map tracking, photo plus PDF POD, address notes, unlimited users and drivers, and 90-day historical reporting, and positions the product as a replacement for the paper trip sheet. Loadit also claims most customers go live the same day — that is a vendor claim, not something we independently timed.

Routelink captures sign-on-glass signatures, photos, and failed-stop reasons and notes. Drivers navigate with Google Maps. You can still export a printable PDF trip sheet when a phone dies or signal drops. We do not publish a trip count or customer roster on this page.

Loadit is both a TMS and a delivery network. On the TMS page they describe an optional marketplace: connect idle trucks to the Loadit job network, or book extra Loadit capacity (they cite a roughly 60-minute claim window), only in Loadit coverage regions, with vetting and training required. Their FAQ says the TMS works whether or not you use Loadit for deliveries.

That option is useful if you genuinely want overflow bakkies in peak week, or to earn from idle trucks. It is a conflict if you are choosing software so that your own fleet stays your own fleet — and you do not want a path that puts your vehicles onto someone else’s jobs, or their vehicles onto yours.

Routelink has no job marketplace. Extra capacity means your own subcontractors, dispatched the same way as staff: a device link and a PIN. This page is not a Picup or WumDrop comparison. Those products sell other people’s delivery capacity as the product. Loadit TMS and Routelink are for teams that already have (or are hiring) the bakkie.