Tracking link
Also: Location link · Text-to-track · SMS tracking
A tracking link is a web link sent to a driver, usually by text message, that opens a page where one tap shares the phone's location with the broker for a load, without installing an app; it is the lightest form of load tracking and works with any driver on any phone, subject to the carrier's consent to be texted.
The link is the answer to a specific failure: drivers do not install apps for brokers they haul for once, and do not answer calls while driving, but they do read texts at the next stop. A text with a link asks for one tap. The page it opens asks the phone for its location, once, the way any website can, and shows the driver the load, a couple of status buttons and a place for a note.
What the broker gets: a place and a time, and, from those, an ETA to the next stop compared with the appointment window. What the driver gives up: a few seconds and a single location fix. Nothing runs in the background afterwards.
What it requires from the broker: a registered business texting number (in the US, a number registered under 10DLC), the carrier’s consent to receive automated texts, recorded in the carrier agreement or rate confirmation, and honoring STOP, HELP and quiet hours. Those are compliance items, not technical ones, and they are why a brokerage cannot just start texting drivers from someone’s cell phone.
The link is also the first rung of a ladder. A driver who does not tap gets a call; a driver who does not answer the call gets a person. Most tap.
Related terms
Guides that use this term
- 10DLC for freight brokers: registering to text drivers, step by step
- How to automate driver check calls without a driver app
- Carrier identity theft: when the MC is clean and the truck is not theirs
- Detention claims that get paid: the packet, the timing, the arithmetic
- Double brokering: how to spot it, prevent it, and report it
- Load tracking options for small brokers: ELD feeds, driver apps, tracking links and calls
- Texting truck drivers legally: consent, TCPA, 10DLC, STOP and quiet hours
Updated September 11, 2026 · All terms