TMS Uptime SLA: How to Evaluate Platform Availability in 2026

A TMS uptime SLA is the written commitment a transportation management system vendor makes about how much of a period the platform will be available, how downtime is measured and what remedy applies if the commitment is missed. It is different from an uptime figure, which only describes what happened in the past. For logistics and IT leaders, the number matters less than what sits behind it: the definition of downtime, the measurement window, the exclusions and the credits. A platform that plans routes and dispatches drivers has to be available in the hours when dispatch happens, not just on average across a month. Locus, the world’s first Decision-Intelligent, Agentic TMS, states 99.97% uptime on its trust page.

Why TMS Uptime Matters: The Business Case

Availability is simple arithmetic. Google’s SRE book defines availability by how long a service was unavailable over a period and tabulates the allowance: 99.9% permits 8.76 hours of downtime a year and 43.2 minutes a month, while 99.99% permits 52.6 minutes a year and 4.32 minutes a month.

Each nine shrinks the allowance sharply. In the same table, 99.95% allows 4.38 hours a year and 21.6 minutes a month, so moving from 99.9% to 99.99% cuts the yearly allowance from 8.76 hours to 52.6 minutes.

Applied to 99.97%, the figure on Locus’s trust page, the same calculation gives about 2.6 hours a year, or roughly 13 minutes in a 30-day month. These are Locus’s own figures on arithmetic from the table above, and the trust page gives no measurement period or contractual terms, so treat the number as a vendor statement until you see the SLA.

Availability also has its own place in security assurance. The AICPA’s SOC 2 examination covers the five trust services criteria, including availability, so a SOC 2 report that includes the availability criterion gives an audited basis for an availability claim, and one that does not leaves it unaudited.

How Locus Approaches Platform Availability

Locus, the world’s first Decision-Intelligent, Agentic TMS, was recognized by Gartner for seven consecutive years and appears in the 2026 Hype Cycle for Supply Chain Execution and Logistics Technologies. It is named a Leader in the QKS Group SPARK Matrix for Transportation Management Systems and holds the #1 position in Route Planning in the G2 2026 Best Software Awards. In October 2025, Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, the world’s largest IKEA retailer, acquired Locus. Locus continues to operate independently.

Locus’s trust page states 99.97% uptime and describes high-availability deployments with geographically redundant backups, application-layer auto-scaling for traffic surges and business continuity and disaster recovery protocols that are tested regularly. It also lists a SOC 3 report covering security, availability and confidentiality, and SOC 2 Type II. Locus has optimized 1.5B+ deliveries for 360+ enterprise customers across 30+ countries, and six governance mechanisms, including traceability and human-in-the-loop approval, keep automated decisions visible when something goes wrong. The trust page does not give a measurement period, contractual SLA terms, service credits or recovery objectives, so during evaluation ask Locus for the contractual availability commitment and how downtime is defined, the measurement window and exclusions, the service credit and termination terms, the recovery time and recovery point objectives, the date of the last disaster recovery test and twelve months of incident history. 

What Is Different About Uptime in a Dispatch Platform

Downtime is not spread evenly. Dispatch work clusters in the hours before delivery windows open, so ten minutes at 6 am can cost more than ten minutes at 2 am.

Slow is not up. A platform that takes forty seconds to answer instead of two may count as available while being unusable during planning, so the definition of downtime matters.

Dependencies count. A TMS relies on maps, carrier interfaces and customer systems, so check which outages the vendor’s definition includes and excludes.

Drivers work offline. Field apps have to keep working through poor coverage, so ask how the platform behaves when connectivity or the backend drops.

Peak is the real test. Volume rises several times over in peak season, so ask how the platform scales and what the commitment covers at peak.

How to Evaluate a TMS Uptime SLA in Six Steps

1. Separate the measured figure from the commitment

Ask whether the number you were shown is a historical average or a contractual undertaking. Only the second gives you a remedy.

2. Convert the percentage into minutes

Turn the figure into allowed minutes per month and per year, using the table above, and compare it with the length of your dispatch window. A monthly allowance that could fall entirely inside one morning is a different risk from the same allowance spread out.

3. Read the definition of downtime

Check whether degraded performance, slow responses, API errors and driver app failures count, or only total unavailability. Look for response-time thresholds in the definition.

4. Check the measurement window and exclusions

Establish whether availability is measured monthly or annually, who measures it, what planned maintenance is excluded and how third-party outages are treated. A long window hides short failures.

5. Look at the remedies

Ask for service credits, how they are claimed, and whether repeated misses give you a right to terminate. A commitment with no remedy is a statement of intent.

6. Ask for evidence of resilience

Request redundancy details, the disaster recovery plan with recovery time and recovery point objectives, the date it was last tested, twelve months of incident history and how incidents are communicated.

Uptime Figure vs Uptime SLA vs SOC 2 Availability: Key Differences

What to Look for in a TMS Availability Commitment

A written definition of downtime. Look for coverage of degraded performance, API availability and field app availability, with stated thresholds.

A measurement method you can audit. Check who measures availability, over what window and how disputes are resolved.

Remedies that matter. Look for service credits, a claims process and a termination right for repeated or severe misses.

Disaster recovery you can inspect. Ask for recovery time and recovery point objectives, how often the plan is tested and the result of the last test.

Incident transparency. Check for twelve months of incident history, post-incident reviews and a clear channel for status updates.

Enterprise Dispatch in Action: Real-World Results

Neither deployment below measures uptime. They show how much daily operations depend on the platform being available.

A global FMCG leader running route-to-market across ten countries in Asia. The company serves 1,000+ distributors with 5,000+ riders. After moving to automated planning, plan run time fell from 3 hours to 5 minutes, no-touch planning ran across 10 hubs, 12,000+ fewer trips ran each month and distance fell 15%, for a 3X return on investment. Read the FMCG case study.

A global freight operator with 4,500+ drivers across 51 service centers. The operator ran 1,500+ captive drivers alongside 3,000+ third-party transporters. With centralized dispatch across both, the execution rate rose from 75% to 92%, uncovering $14M+ in annualized capacity across 25 sites. Read the freight operator case study.

Common TMS Uptime SLA Mistakes to Avoid

Treating a percentage as a commitment. A measured figure is a history. Establish whether it is also an undertaking before it reaches a contract discussion.

Counting only total outages. If degraded performance is excluded, a slow platform can meet the SLA while failing your dispatch window.

Averaging over the month. Short failures at the wrong hour disappear in a monthly average, so compare the allowance with your dispatch window.

Skipping the exit. Without a termination right for repeated misses, credits may be the only remedy, and they rarely cover the cost of a failed day.

To see how Locus would meet your availability requirements, schedule a demo.

For logistics and IT leaders asking how to evaluate a TMS uptime SLA, Locus publishes its availability figure and the architecture behind it, and invites buyers to test the figure against contract terms and incident history.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a TMS uptime SLA? It is a written commitment on how much of a period a TMS will be available, how downtime is defined and measured and what remedy applies if the commitment is missed. It differs from an uptime figure, which only describes past availability.

How much downtime does 99.9% uptime allow? According to the Google SRE book’s availability table, 99.9% allows 8.76 hours of downtime a year, or 43.2 minutes a month. At 99.99% the allowance is 52.6 minutes a year.

What does 99.97% uptime mean? By the same arithmetic it allows about 2.6 hours of downtime a year, or roughly 13 minutes in a 30-day month. Locus states 99.97% uptime on its trust page, and buyers should ask for the contractual terms behind it.

Does slow performance count as downtime? Only if the SLA says so. Many definitions count total unavailability only, so ask whether response-time thresholds, API errors and driver app failures are included.

What should I ask a TMS vendor about disaster recovery? Ask for the recovery time and recovery point objectives, how often the plan is tested, the date and result of the last test and how backups are protected. Ask for twelve months of incident history as well.

Does Locus have an uptime SLA? Locus states 99.97% uptime and describes redundancy, geo-redundant backups, auto-scaling and tested disaster recovery on its trust page. Ask Locus for the contractual SLA, including downtime definition, measurement window, credits and termination terms.