17th International Logistics Total Expo 2026 (LTT2026) exhibitor series, Part 17
"We draw up your dispatch plan automatically." When you hear that at a stand, there is usually one thing to say back. "Who sets the ceiling on that plan?"
This time the exhibits are dispatch and fleet-management software. Read the 22 presentations side by side and the headline phrases look much alike. And the part that looks alike is not the part that sets the ceiling on the plan.
Dispatch and fleet management at LTT2026 — four dividing lines
| What the presentation leads with | What actually decides | The provision that names someone |
|---|---|---|
| ① We optimise your dispatch plan | The ceiling is set by a ministerial public notice | Transport Safety Regulations, Art. 3(4) |
| ② We arrange the haulage too | Only a licensed operator may accept carriage | Motor Truck Transportation Business Act, Art. 3 |
| ③ We make the actual carrier visible | That visibility is a statutory record, not a feature | Same Act, Art. 24-5 |
| ④ The shipper only places the order | The shipper has provisions too, and a recommendation is published | Same Act, Arts. 64 and 65 |
Counted, it comes out like this. Dispatch and delivery planning was the most common thing led with, at close to two thirds of them. Next came vehicle tracking and location data, then shared delivery and load factor, then API integration with core systems, then automatic planning by AI. After that came labour and on-duty hours management, bus and passenger booking, responses to the driver shortage, safety and roll-call, and freight rate and cost calculation.
Almost none of the presentations mentioned the tachograph itself. The record that lets you check afterwards whether the vehicle ran as planned sits on that side.
① The ceiling on a dispatch plan is set by a public notice, not by the algorithm
"Optimisation" is a matter of computation, but the range you may compute within sits in the regulations. The Safety Regulations for Motor Truck Transportation set out the operator's duties for preventing driving while overworked, and paragraph 4 reads as follows.
"A motor truck transportation business operator shall, so that time for rest or sleep and time for repose after the end of duty are sufficiently secured, in accordance with the standards established by public notice of the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, set the working hours and driving hours of drivers and have those drivers comply with them." (Safety Regulations for Motor Truck Transportation, Article 3, paragraph 4)
It is the operator who sets the hours, and the standard is a public notice. In other words, the ceiling on the plan lies outside the software. Paragraph 6 of the same article further provides that a crew member who, by reason of illness, fatigue, lack of sleep or the like, may be unable to carry out the work safely must not be assigned to it.
A separate provision attaches to the person driving. The Road Traffic Act provides that "no person shall ... drive a vehicle in a state in which they may be unable to drive normally by reason of overwork, illness, the influence of a drug or any other cause" (Article 66), and as to the user of the vehicle, that "the user ... shall not, in connection with that person's business, order a driver of an automobile to commit any of the acts listed in the following items, or condone a driver of an automobile committing them" (Article 75(1)). The listed acts include a violation of Article 66. The provision says not only "ordered" but "condoned".
② Only a licensed operator may accept carriage
When someone says "we arrange the haulage too", there is one thing to check. Arranging and accepting are two different positions.
"A person who intends to operate a general motor truck transportation business shall obtain a licence from the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism." (Motor Truck Transportation Business Act, Article 3)
That one sentence is the whole provision. Article 2 of the same Act separately defines, as "motor truck forwarding business", the form in which a party uses another operator's carriage without using vehicles of its own. So the company that moves the goods, the company that arranges the carriage, and the software that manages the operation are three different positions. When you line up quotations, the thing to look at first is which position the other party signs in.
③ "You can see down to the actual carrier" is a statutory duty, not a product feature
Visibility is lined up as a selling point, but the 2024 amendment made the record itself compulsory. A general motor truck transportation business operator acting as prime contractor who, for carriage at or above a prescribed weight, uses another operator's carriage must prepare an actual-carriage structure register and "keep it at the business office for one year from the day on which the carriage of the goods it accepted was completed" (same Act, Article 24-5(1)).
The entries include the trade name of the operator performing the actual carriage, the content and the section of the goods carried, and "the subcontracting tier (meaning the number of carriage contracts concluded after the carriage contract with the true shipper, among the carriage contracts concluded in relation to the carriage of the goods for which that operator performs the actual carriage)". In other words, how many stages the cargo passed through is now a field holding a number.
And here is the most practical sentence for a shipper. "The true shipper may at any time, during its business handling hours, make the following requests to the prime contractor to which it entrusted the carriage of the goods" (same Article, paragraph 5). The items that follow are a request to inspect or copy the document, and a request to inspect or copy a display of the electronic record. You do not have to buy the visibility screen: the shipper has a provision of its own, on the asking side.
④ The shipper has provisions too — and a recommendation is published
Dispatch and fleet management look like matters for the carrier's side. Yet the same statute carries two articles in a row that name the shipper.
"A shipper (including the persons listed below; the same applies in the following Article) shall give the necessary consideration so that a motor truck transportation business operator can carry out its business in compliance with this Act or orders based on this Act." (same Act, Article 64)
The part to watch is inside the parentheses. This "shipper" includes "a person who receives from a motor truck transportation business operator goods carried by that operator under a carriage contract, and who receives those goods for another person" (same Article, item 2). The person who hands the goods over is likewise included by item 3. Even if the goods are not your own, if you receive them for another person you are within the reach of the provision. Putting a warehouse or a logistics subsidiary in between does not take you outside it.
And the next article is the recommendation. Where the Minister issues an order or a disposition against an operator, and "the violation is found to arise principally from the act of the shipper", and it is found difficult to prevent recurrence by the disposition against the operator alone, the Minister "may also recommend to that shipper that it take appropriate measures in order to prevent recurrence of the violation" (same Act, Article 65(1)). And then paragraph 3.
"Where the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has made a recommendation under paragraph 1, the Minister shall publish that fact." (same Act, Article 65(3))
It says "shall publish". Before the recommendation there is also a procedure of hearing the opinion of the minister with jurisdiction over the business the shipper conducts (paragraph 2).
There are also places where no line is drawn — multi-tier subcontracting
The subcontracting tier became an entry in the register, but the tiers themselves were not prohibited. Article 23-4 of the same Act provides that where a prime contractor uses another operator's carriage, it "shall endeavour to take the measures necessary to restrict subcontracting over two or more stages from that other motor truck transportation business operator in respect of the carriage of those goods".
It says "shall endeavour". A duty to record and a duty to endeavour to restrict are of different strength. That the register now shows how many stages there were is a different matter from those stages being impermissible, and in comparing quotations it becomes a field you read for yourself, counting the stages.
Which provisions apply and how varies with the goods, the form of the transaction and how the contract is framed; whether any of them applies in a given case is for the competent authority to determine.
We will take your enquiries together
The exhibitors are all waiting for enquiries. But approach them one at a time and material keeps arriving from places whose conditions do not fit. Comparing dispatch and fleet management involves many items, and the more there are the less comparison is actually possible.
We have organised every one of this year's exhibits, and we hand our card to each company at the venue. Tell us what you move, where it comes from and goes to, at what frequency, in what temperature range, and whether you own vehicles or contract them out, and we will check with the places whose conditions fit and return the answers together. We do not pass your contact details to the other party without your consent.
What we hand over is information. We are not the agent of any particular software; we set out side by side the several arrangements that work for the same cargo. We are also not a transport operator. Accepting carriage is the work of a licensed operator; we are on the shipper's side, placing the order. From the position of importing and distributing pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food, we also set out how the convenience written up as a selling point sits against the provisions that attach to what you are moving.
Primary sources consulted
- e-Gov Law Search — Motor Truck Transportation Business Act (Articles 2, 3, 23-4, 24-5, 64 and 65)
- e-Gov Law Search — Safety Regulations for Motor Truck Transportation (Article 3)
- e-Gov Law Search — Road Traffic Act (Articles 66 and 75)
The description of the exhibits in this article is a summary of tendencies drawn from the exhibit information published by the organiser and from publicly available information on each official website. No individual company is named, and no ranking or evaluation is made. The published information is as of August 2026. Which provisions apply and what procedures are required differ according to the form of the transaction, the goods and how the contract is framed; whether any of them applies in a given case is for the competent authority to determine.