A load arrives. Someone checks the rate, finds a driver and works out where the truck goes next. Then the pickup changes. [1][3]
For a carrier, each decision affects the rest of the fleet. A profitable-looking load can leave a truck empty on the return journey. [3]
Maximal brings the fleet plan and the daily paperwork into the same operation.
It combines optimization algorithms with AI agents that work across a carrier’s existing systems. The platform plans assignments and handles repetitive tasks from tenders through billing. [1][3][4]
The carrier sets the operating rules. Maximal puts them to work. [1]
The right freight and the right fleet plan
Maximal Optimize compares incoming freight with available drivers, current lanes and customer commitments. It ranks loads against the carrier’s objectives and builds assignments for the fleet. [3]
Planners can examine revenue per mile and empty miles by lane or customer. That helps them see which new freight fits the network before committing capacity. [3]
When a truck breaks down or a customer cancels, Optimize replans the remaining work. Assignments return to the transportation management system, or TMS, that dispatchers already use. [1][3]
The same model supports both longer-term network choices and the decisions a dispatcher makes during a shift. [3]
From a tender to a paid invoice
Maximal Automate handles the work around the plan. It checks tenders against rates, capacity and customer rules, then responds and creates an order. [4]
For order entry, an agent reads the tender, requests missing details by email and applies the agreed pricing. It writes the completed order into the TMS. [4]
Billing agents collect paperwork, verify charges and submit invoices. Collections agents follow payment status and handle supported follow-ups. [4]
Approvals stay where the carrier wants them. Teams can start with one task and add others as the operation grows. [1][4]
A team that grew up around freight
Leeds Rising grew up in his family’s third-party logistics business. Rising later worked on distribution-center throughput at Amazon and studied computer science and operations research. [2]
Co-founder Derek Ye also worked as a technical lead at Amazon. Their backgrounds bring logistics operations and large-scale optimization to the same product. [2]
Maximal was founded in 2025 and joined Y Combinator’s Summer 2025 batch. Its initial planning product focused on full-truckload carriers. [2]
Fitting the carrier instead of replacing its operation
Summitt Trucking: flexibility around an existing network
Summitt Trucking’s technology leader Nic Marshall highlights Maximal’s ability to accommodate different companies and freight networks. The deployment could improve the operation without turning it upside down. [1]
A dispatch day that changes halfway through
Here’s how a carrier would use Optimize. A planner starts with loads, drivers, contracts and availability from existing systems. Maximal builds a plan against the chosen objectives. [3]
A truck then becomes unavailable. The planner can reassign the remaining loads around the disruption and examine the effect on the day’s plan. [3]
One model of the operation
Maximal’s broader platform includes Ask, which answers operational questions from carrier data. Planning, automated work and analysis share the carrier’s lanes, drivers, customers and orders. [1]
The company is building toward autonomous systems that plan and move freight, with existing business systems remaining part of the operation. [2]
Where Maximal ranks
Current rankings. Positions come from public evidence, and no company can pay for a place. How we rank
The bigger picture
Carriers already have systems that record their loads. They also have people who know the exceptions. [1]
Maximal puts that operating knowledge into agents and algorithms that can plan, act and update the record. [1][3][4]
Less manual work across the freight operation.
Written by SOTA2 from Maximal’s public materials. Customer experiences and product plans are reported by Maximal. Ranking analysis and comparison data are from SOTA2.