Roundup

Five products and one spreadsheet

This category divides more cleanly than it looks. Some of these tools are about the vehicle, some are about the cube, and one of them is what almost everybody is actually using. Only some of them are about compliance, and none of them claim to be about all of it.

Six options
Published documentation only
Assessed August 2026

Method

How we assessed them

The interesting result in this roundup is where the table says nothing, so it is worth being precise about what that means.

Everything below is read from documentation each supplier publishes openly, as of August 2026. We did not run the products against a benchmark load, because a fair benchmark across six tools with six different scopes is not something we could construct honestly.

The final four rows cover the bridge formula across consecutive axle subsets, tire and manufacturer ratings, jurisdiction rule sets and a change history. Every commercial product comes back asnot published on those rows. That is a statement about the documentation, not a claim that the capability is absent. It is also the single most useful finding here: if those checks matter to you, none of these suppliers is currently telling you whether they do them, and that is a question to put to them directly.

Why the spreadsheet is in the table

Because leaving it out would make the comparison dishonest. Most fleets that plan axle weights at all plan them in a spreadsheet, and any assessment of this category that pretends the alternative is nothing has already lost touch with the reader. It scores partly on several rows for a specific reason: a spreadsheet can do any of these things if somebody writes it, and nobody writes the ten-subset enumeration.

A spreadsheet can do any of these things if somebody writes it. Nobody writes the ten-subset enumeration.

The six

What each one is for, and where it stops

Three of these are load planners, one is a vehicle specification tool, one is a cube optimiser, and one is a spreadsheet. Comparing them on a single axis would be useless.

01 · Axle loads for the vehicle build

TruckScience

What it is genuinely good at

TruckScience approaches axle weight from the vehicle rather than from the freight. Its calculator uses chassis specifications and the bodies and equipment mounted on them. It works out what a tipper body, crane, tank or tail lift does to axle loads before the vehicle is built. That is the right question for a dealer, bodybuilder or fleet engineer, and the chassis data would take a long time to assemble yourself.

Where it stops

It answers a specification question, not a daily loading question. A dispatcher planning tomorrow's board is asking where forty pallets should sit on a trailer that already exists, which is a different problem with a different rhythm. We could not find the Federal Bridge Gross Weight Formula applied across every consecutive axle subset published as a capability, so the comparison marks that row as not published.

02 · Load planning across truck, container and rail

Load Xpert

What it is genuinely good at

Load Xpert comes from the load planning tradition: take a list of items with weights and dimensions, work out how they fit, and produce a loading diagram somebody can work from. It covers trucks, containers and rail, which matters if your freight changes mode, and it carries axle load calculation alongside the arrangement rather than as an afterthought. The output is a plan a loader can follow, which is more than most of this category produces.

Where it stops

The centre of gravity of the product is arrangement and fit. We did not find detailed jurisdiction rules, bridge-formula checks on interior groups, or tire and manufacturer ratings in the published material. Those checks can decide a citation.

03 · Cube optimisation, with weight as a constraint

MaxLoad Pro

What it is genuinely good at

MaxLoad Pro is a cargo load optimiser, and it is a good one. Given a mixed set of cartons, pallets and items it will work out how to get the most into a trailer or a container, produce 3D loading diagrams, and respect stacking and orientation rules while doing it. For an operation whose problem is cube rather than weight — consumer goods, packaging, anything light and bulky — this is the right shape of tool.

Where it stops

Weight is a constraint in a cube-first product rather than the subject of it. If your loads reach the axle limits long before they fill the trailer, the optimisation you need is not the one this is doing. As with the rest of the category, the detailed compliance checks are not published in a form we can compare.

04 · Browser-based, and quick

Goodloading

What it is genuinely good at

Goodloading runs in a browser, needs nothing installed, and gets from a list of items to an arranged load with an axle load read-out in a few minutes. Its vehicle presets are oriented towards European semi-trailers and rigid vehicles, and plans can be shared with someone else without them buying anything. For a small operation, or for the occasional load that needs thinking about rather than every load, the low friction is the whole argument.

Where it stops

European presets are a strength in Europe and a limitation elsewhere. The United States federal limits, the bridge formula across consecutive axle subsets and state-level rule variation are not what the product is built around, and we did not find them published.

05 · The cheapest way to stop guessing

EasyCargo

What it is genuinely good at

EasyCargo is the lightest product on this list and does not pretend otherwise. It runs in a browser, it is priced to be bought by one person without a procurement process, it produces a 3D loading plan and it includes an axle load feature. For a company currently planning loads by eye, moving to this is a real improvement obtained in an afternoon, and that is worth more than a longer feature list nobody adopts.

Where it stops

It is a load planning tool with an axle feature rather than a compliance tool. It will help you avoid the obvious mistakes. It is not going to enumerate ten bridge subsets, layer three limits on each axle group, or tell you which rule bound in which state.

06 · Free, transparent, and yours

Spreadsheet templates

What it is genuinely good at

It belongs on the list because most fleets actually use one. A spreadsheet is free and every assumption is visible. The person who needs a change can make it, and a competent planner can build the trailer and tractor beams in an afternoon. Nothing here is more transparent, and transparency matters in compliance.

Where it stops

Everything that makes a spreadsheet good makes it fragile. It gets copied for a new lane and the copies diverge. A formula gets overwritten by someone typing a number into a calculated cell and nothing announces it. There is no record of who changed what, which is exactly what a dispute needs. And the enumeration nobody writes is the bridge formula across every consecutive axle subset, because writing it once by hand for ten groups is tedious and writing it generally is a programming job.

If those four checks matter to you, none of these suppliers is currently telling you whether they do them.

Capabilities published as supported, by product

of 10 rows

TruckScience2 of 10 rows
7 not published
Load Xpert4 of 10 rows
6 not published
MaxLoad Pro4 of 10 rows
6 not published
Goodloading5 of 10 rows
5 not published
EasyCargo5 of 10 rows
5 not published
Spreadsheet0 of 10 rows
6 marked partial

Counted from the grid below. The spreadsheet reads zero because six rows are marked partial, not supported. A spreadsheet can do most of this if somebody writes it. The five commercial products differ on arrangement and diagrams, then stop differing on the final four rows.

Every cell in the grid, by what the documentation said

cells

33%

10%

48%

Published as supported20 cells
Published as partial6 cells
Not supported, and not claimed5 cells
Not published29 cells

All 60 cells of the grid below. 29 of them are marked not published, which is a fact about the documentation rather than a claim about any product.

Side by side

The capability grid

Six columns, ten rows, and a block of not-published marks at the bottom that is the real story of this category.

Published capabilities of five axle weight and load planning products and a spreadsheet, assessed from public documentation in August 2026.
Capability	TruckScience	Load Xpert	MaxLoad Pro	Goodloading	EasyCargo	Spreadsheet
Axle loads calculated from where the weight sitsrather than from a gross figure	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	part
Graphical or 3D loading diagram	n/p	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Automatic arrangement and cube optimisation	n/p	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Chassis and body specification data supplied	Yes	n/p	n/p	n/p	n/p	No
Runs in a browser with nothing installed	n/p	n/p	n/p	Yes	Yes	part
Oriented at day-to-day freight loadingrather than at specifying or building a vehicle	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	part
Bridge formula on every consecutive axle subsetnot published by any product in this category	n/p	n/p	n/p	n/p	n/p	part
Tire rating and axle rating layered on the statutory limit	n/p	n/p	n/p	n/p	n/p	part
Jurisdiction rule sets held as editable data	n/p	n/p	n/p	n/p	n/p	part
Change history showing who altered what	n/p	n/p	n/p	n/p	n/p	No

supportedpart partly, or with limits not supportedn/p not published by the vendor

The verdict

Which one to pick when

Start from what your loads run out of first. Almost every wrong purchase in this category comes from answering the cube question with a weight tool or the other way round.

01
If you are specifying or building vehicles, TruckScience
Deciding what body, crane or tank goes on which chassis, and what that does to the axle loads before anything is welded, is its own discipline. The chassis data is the part you cannot easily replicate, and it is the right tool for a dealer, a bodybuilder or a fleet engineer.
02
If your trailers fill up before they weigh out, MaxLoad Pro
Light, bulky freight is a packing problem. Getting another six percent into each trailer is worth real money, and a cube optimiser is the tool that does it. Weight compliance is a constraint you check rather than the thing you are solving.
03
If freight changes mode, Load Xpert
Truck, container and rail in one product means one loading discipline rather than three, and the axle calculation travels with the arrangement rather than being done separately afterwards.
04
If you want something running this week, Goodloading or EasyCargo
Both run in a browser, both are priced to be bought without a committee, and both are an enormous improvement on planning by eye. For a small fleet or an operation where only some loads need thinking about, low friction beats depth.
05
If your loads weigh out well before they cube out, none of these are enough on their own
When an axle group binds before the trailer fills, four questions can decide a citation. They are the bridge formula across every consecutive subset, tire rating, manufacturer axle rating and current jurisdiction. Every commercial product here leaves those rows unpublished, so ask each supplier directly.
06
If you are on a spreadsheet, do not throw it away yet
Do two things first. Test it against a load that fails only on an interior four-axle bridge group and see whether it notices. Then check whether every lane's copy still has the same formulas in it. Those two checks will tell you more about your actual exposure than any product demonstration.

Dated, and honest about it

Assessed from publicly published documentation as of August 2026. Where this page says a capability is not published, that is what we found in the documentation and not a claim about the product. Ask the supplier, and ask for the answer in writing.

Put the axle-software comparison against one real load.

Bring the route, configuration or scale ticket that made the axle-software comparison matter. We will work through it in plain English and show where AxleGuard changes the decision.

Bring one lane Open AxleGuard

Five products and one spreadsheet

How we assessed them

Why the spreadsheet is in the table

What each one is for, and where it stops

TruckScience

Load Xpert

MaxLoad Pro

Goodloading

EasyCargo

Spreadsheet templates

Capabilities published as supported, by product

Every cell in the grid, by what the documentation said

The capability grid

Which one to pick when

If you are specifying or building vehicles, TruckScience

If your trailers fill up before they weigh out, MaxLoad Pro

If freight changes mode, Load Xpert

If you want something running this week, Goodloading or EasyCargo

If your loads weigh out well before they cube out, none of these are enough on their own

If you are on a spreadsheet, do not throw it away yet

Related reading

Put the axle-software comparison against one real load.