€150/month. €1,800/year. Whether you book 100 loads or 5.
That's what Timocom charges for access to a freight board. Not for matching. Not for booking. Not for route optimization. For access — to a list of loads you then search through manually.
If you're running a 20-truck fleet with a full-time dispatcher, that cost disappears into your overhead. But if you're running 3 trucks out of Zilina and you're the owner, the dispatcher, and the driver? €1,800 is a line item you feel every January.
The subscription doesn't flex with your business. Slow month? Still €150. Holiday season with two trucks parked? Still €150. The loads come and go. The invoice doesn't.
So the question isn't whether Timocom works. It does. The question is whether paying €1,800 a year to search is still the best deal in 2026.
What is Timocom?
Timocom is a family-owned German company founded in 1997 in Dusseldorf. For over 25 years, they've operated one of Europe's largest freight exchanges — a digital marketplace where shippers post loads and carriers browse, bid, and negotiate. Over 50,000 verified companies use the platform, mostly across DACH markets.
That's a genuine achievement. Building a trusted network of that size, staying profitable without venture capital, and maintaining quality verification for a quarter century — you don't do that by accident. Timocom earned its reputation.
Their product suite includes TC Truck&Cargo (a mobile app), TC eMap (route planning), TC Transport Order (digital contracts), and TC eBid (auction-style bidding). The company employs 600+ people and generates estimated revenue north of €100 million.
What Timocom does well
Rock-solid DACH reputation. In Germany and Austria, "check the freight board" usually means Timocom. That brand recognition took 25 years to build, and it's real. When you book through Timocom in DACH, both sides know the drill.
High-quality carrier verification. Credit checks, document verification, ongoing monitoring. Timocom's vetting is thorough — you're unlikely to encounter fraudulent operators. In a market where payment defaults are a genuine risk, that matters more than most features.
Integrated transport orders. TC Transport Order creates legally binding digital contracts on the platform. Clean audit trail, reduced paperwork, legally recognized. It's a genuinely useful feature that most freight boards lack.
Stability you can count on. Family-owned, profitable, no VC board pushing for growth-at-all-costs pivots. Timocom will be here next year. And the year after. For companies that value predictability over innovation, that's worth something.
If you're evaluating multiple platforms, see our full comparison of Sennder, Trans.eu, Timocom, and Cargoqon for the complete picture.
Where the model hits limits for small carriers
Here's where the math starts to matter.
Martin runs 3 trucks between Slovakia and Germany. He doesn't have a dedicated dispatcher — he handles route planning himself between drives. Every morning, he spends 45 minutes on Timocom, searching for loads, filtering by route, calling shippers, negotiating rates. Some days he books two loads. Some days, nothing fits. His subscription costs €150/month either way. That's €600 per truck per year — just for the right to search.
Manual matching hasn't evolved. Timocom's core experience in 2026 is the same workflow it offered in 2016. Search the board. Find a load. Pick up the phone. Negotiate. The interface got cleaner, but the fundamental process — a human doing the matching — hasn't changed.
Expensive for small fleets. At €150/month, the subscription is a fixed cost regardless of volume. A 3-truck operation paying €1,800/year needs to book a significant number of loads just to justify the access fee — before anyone earns a cent.
No algorithmic matching. There's no system that looks at your truck's current route, available space, and timing to automatically suggest loads. Every match requires a dispatcher searching, evaluating, contacting, and negotiating. TC eBid adds auction-style bidding, but it's still a manual process.
No mid-route opportunities. Once your truck leaves the depot, Timocom can't help. If you have 8 free pallets between Munich and Vienna, that capacity drives empty until someone gets back to a desk and searches the board again.
Conservative innovation pace. Family ownership brings stability, but also a slower product cadence. Real-time algorithmic matching, 3D load optimization, automated detour calculation — these aren't on the roadmap. The platform evolves incrementally.
When the truck crosses the border
Timocom's DACH strength becomes a gap the moment you move east. If you're running Košice to Budapest, Katowice to Prague, or Debrecen to Brno, the board gets thinner.
CEE carriers face a double bind: they're too small to absorb a €1,800 fixed cost easily, and the platform they're paying for has its densest coverage in markets they may only transit through.
Timocom is the standard for DACH domestic freight. But for carriers whose routes start or end in Central and Eastern Europe, the load density drops off — and the subscription price doesn't.
Cargoqon launches in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary — the markets where DACH-focused platforms have the thinnest coverage. If you run cross-border lanes between CEE and Western Europe, both ends of the route are covered from day one.
What if the loads came to you?
The Timocom model assumes you have time to search. An algorithm doesn't need that assumption.
Same carrier. Same route — Zilina to Munich. Instead of searching a board, Martin sets his route and capacity once. The algorithm finds a full load match and pushes it to his phone with the rate, detour time, and net profit calculated. He accepts with one tap. Twenty minutes into the drive, another notification: 4 pallets from Trnava to Salzburg, 18 minutes detour, €140 net profit, cargo fits. One more tap. Total time spent on load matching: under 3 minutes. Annual membership: €1,190/year (or €580/year as a founding member — lifetime rate) — less than Timocom, with algorithmic matching included.
Algorithm replaces the search board. Set your routes, capacity, and rates once. Cargoqon's matching engine continuously scans for loads that fit your truck and pushes suggestions — complete with detour time, fuel cost, toll impact, and net profit. No browsing. No calling. One tap to accept.
Carriers pay an annual membership (€1,190/year, founding members €580/year — lifetime rate) — still significantly less than Timocom's ~€1,800/year subscription, and the algorithm does the matching for you. No listing fees, no per-transaction charges for carriers. Senders pay a transparent 6% fee (3% for founding members).
Mid-route matching fills empty trucks. Your truck is heading from Prague to Frankfurt with 6 pallets free. A sender near Plzen posts 3 pallets to Nuremberg. The algorithm calculates: +18 minutes detour, +€140 net profit, cargo fits. Push notification. One tap. That empty space just became revenue.
3D loading and detour math, automated. Every match includes a physical fit check — will the cargo actually fit in the remaining space? — and a full cost-benefit analysis. The number you see is the number you get.
The annual math for senders
This isn't just a carrier story. Senders feel the friction too — they just experience it differently.
On a board-based system, a sender posts a load and waits for carriers to call. The negotiation dance takes time. Rates vary wildly depending on who's available. And because the board charges carriers a subscription, those costs get quietly baked into the rates carriers quote.
On Cargoqon, a sender posts a load and the algorithm matches it to the best-fit truck in minutes. The fee is transparent: 6% on the sender side (3% for founding members). No hidden carrier subscription being passed through. No negotiation overhead.
For a deeper look at what intermediary costs actually do to sender margins, see The Hidden Cost of Freight Forwarding.
| Cost factor | Board model (Timocom) | Marketplace model (Cargoqon) |
|---|---|---|
| Sender platform fee | None (carriers pay subscription) | 6% per transaction (3% for founding members) |
| Carrier subscription | ~€1,800/year (baked into rates) | €1,190/year membership (founding: €580/year — lifetime rate) |
| Negotiation time | 30-60 min per load | None (algorithm matches) |
| Rate transparency | Opaque (negotiated) | Clear (carrier sets rate) |
| Partial load support | Limited | Core feature (LTL matching) |
The board model's costs don't disappear just because senders don't see an invoice. They show up in higher carrier rates, slower booking times, and partial loads that never get consolidated.
Side-by-side comparison
| Feature | Timocom | Cargoqon |
|---|---|---|
| Matching method | Manual (dispatcher searches board) | Automatic (algorithm pushes matches) |
| Annual cost | ~€1,800 (subscription) | Carriers: €1,190/year membership (founding: €580/year — lifetime rate); Senders: 6% per transaction |
| Dispatcher required | Yes | No |
| Mid-route matching | No | Yes, real-time |
| Detour calculation | None (carrier estimates) | Automatic (km, time, cost) |
| Physical fit check | None | 3D loading algorithm |
| Geographic strength | DACH (DE/AT/CH) | CEE (SK/CZ/PL/HU), expanding EU-wide |
| Innovation pace | Conservative, incremental | Algorithm-first, rapid iteration |
| Carrier sets price | Yes (via negotiation) | Yes (set once, algorithm matches) |
| Time to book | Hours (search + negotiate) | Minutes (one-tap accept) |
Who should stay with Timocom
If you operate exclusively in DACH markets and your business runs on Timocom's established network, switching carries real risk. The density of quality freight offers in Germany and Austria took decades to build — that network effect is hard to replicate.
If your workflows are built around TC Transport Order and the integrated digital contracts, those create genuine switching costs. Audit trails, legal recognition, and established processes are worth preserving.
If your dispatchers know the platform inside out, maintain trusted relationships with recurring partners, and your load volume easily justifies the €1,800 — the manual workflow isn't a problem. It's a preference. And preferences are valid.
Cargoqon isn't competing for pure DACH domestic freight today. We're built for carriers who don't just run DACH routes but drive across all of Europe, cross-border lanes, and need automation. Cargoqon also saves time — with a smaller fleet, a carrier doesn't need dispatchers to run their business.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cargoqon cheaper than Timocom?
For most carriers, yes. Timocom costs roughly €1,800/year as a subscription regardless of how many loads you book. Cargoqon charges senders a 6% transaction fee (3% for founding members). Carriers pay an annual membership of €1,190/year (founding members €580/year — lifetime rate) — still significantly less than Timocom's ~€1,800/year, and the algorithm does the matching for you.
Can I switch from Timocom to Cargoqon?
Yes. Cargoqon requires no long-term contracts. Sign up, set your routes and rates, and start receiving algorithmic load suggestions. Many carriers run both platforms in parallel — Timocom for DACH lanes and Cargoqon for CEE and cross-border routes.
What's the difference between Timocom and Cargoqon?
Timocom is a freight exchange — a digital bulletin board where dispatchers search for loads and negotiate manually. Cargoqon is an algorithmic marketplace that pushes load matches to your phone automatically, including mid-route opportunities. No browsing, no phone calls, one tap to accept.
Does Cargoqon work for DACH routes?
Cargoqon launches in Central and Eastern Europe and is expanding EU-wide, including DACH markets. If you run cross-border routes between CEE and Germany, Austria, or Switzerland, Cargoqon already covers those lanes.