- What Is Freight Forwarding Software?
- Choosing the Best Freight Forwarding Software
- What Is the Difference Between Freight Broker and Freight Forwarding Software?
- What Are the Key Features of Freight Forwarding Software?
- What Are the Benefits of Freight Forwarding Software?
- How Much Does Freight Forwarding Software Cost?
- What Are the Most Popular Types of Freight Forwarding Software?
- Why Does My Company Need Freight Forwarding Software?
- All Products
We’ve evaluated the 7 best freight forwarding software based on factors like pricing, customization options, and key features like
- GoFreight: Best Overall
- Magaya: Most Customizable Option
- Linbis Logistics: Best CRM Capabilities
- Logitude World: Most User-Friendly
- Descartes Aljex: Modular Architecture
- Rose Rocket: Best for Trucking
- Transcount: Best for Small Logistics Companies
1 GoFreight - Best Overall
Why we chose it: GoFreight is our best overall pick for its adaptability. Users can modify the software to reflect their brand, incorporating individual logos, palettes, and themes. They can also personalize vital documents such as invoices, bills of lading, and packing lists to echo the brand’s aesthetic, enhancing the professional touch for clientele. Additionally, GoFreight’s feature set is comprehensive. While many freight forwarding solutions require third-party accounting software, GoFreight has built-in accounting capabilities. This means that revenue, expenses, and profitability can be tracked directly within the platform.
2 Magaya - Most Customizable Option
Why we chose it: We went with Magaya for its heavy customization options. Users can streamline operations with customizable workflows, reduce manual tasks, and enhance navigation through an intuitive interface. Additionally, Magaya offers flexible reporting and specialized data fields beyond the standard options. Its ability to integrate with accounting systems, CRM platforms, business analytics tools, 3PL partners, and shipping carriers makes it a versatile choice tailored to individual business needs.
3 Linbis Logistics - Best CRM Capabilities
Why we chose it: Linbis presents a comprehensive CRM designed specifically for freight forwarders. It tracks client interactions, enhancing customer relations and service quality. With Linbis, businesses can oversee their customers, agents, shippers, vendors, and leads. Administrators can allocate roles and manage carriers and airlines. The platform provides real-time insights into sales and marketing performance. Users can create custom reports and dashboards to track their KPIs. Finally, Linbis also offers a holistic overview of the sales journey, covering leads, opportunities, and deals.
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4 Logitude World - Most User-Friendly
Why we chose it: Logitude World is our most user-friendly option due to its fluid and intuitive design. Users can easily navigate the platform without much prior knowledge. Logitude allows users to create their own style for various documents and templates. This degree of customization ensures that users can set up the platform in a way that is most familiar and efficient for them. It’s accessible from various devices (iPad, PC, mobile phones) and locations due to its web-based architecture. This flexibility enhances user convenience. Finally, users can copy and change shipments quickly and easily, streamlining repetitive tasks.
5 Descartes Aljex - Modular Architecture
Why we chose it: Descartes Aljex is a modular, interoperable platform, allowing businesses to choose specific components that fit their needs. Its modules address transportation management, cargo optimization, and customs compliance. At its core is the Routing, Mobile, and Telematics module, boasting advanced route planning tools that consider delivery timings and driver availability, coupled with real-time monitoring. For brokers and forwarders, Descartes provides specialized tools for seamless customs clearance, declarations, and back-office operations.
6 Rose Rocket - Best for Trucking
Why we chose it: Rose Rocket is our top pick tailored tailored for trucking logistics. Its Network TMS streamlines the freight process, ensuring timely dispatch and delivery tracking. Enhanced with a driver mobile app, customer and partner portals, it boosts communication and transparency. With a sleek design, consistent updates, and integrations, Rose Rocket elevates the shipping experience, bolstered by a strong user and partner network.
7 Transcount - Best for Small Logistics Companies
Why we chose it: Transcount is our top pick for micro and small logistics businesses due to its streamlined quoting. Small logistics companies often face challenges with resource allocation, making speed and efficiency paramount. Transcount’s automated tool for quotations and commercial proposals streamlines the process. Users can prepare and send quotation requests to carriers and offer quotes to customers. This real-time response capability gives smaller companies an edge by allowing them to compete effectively in terms of speed and service.
What Is Freight Forwarding Software?
Freight forwarding software helps freight companies manage cargo receipt, storage, and delivery in real-time. It also creates necessary documents such as air waybills and bill of lading needed to move shipments via land, sea, and air. This is primarily accomplished through quotations, bookings, and pickup orders. Freight forwarding solutions help get cargo from point A to point B by organizing shipments via air freight, cartage, ocean freight, import and export goods, expedited ground, truckload brokerage, LTL, linehaul, and rail transportation methods.
This complete handling of shipments from quoting through billing can sometimes be referred to as non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC) software and is considered to be a specific type of logistics software. Freight forwarding software is used by any domestic or international freight forwarder, any freight management company, or any logistics provider that desires a fully integrated package combining operations and accounting in their global freight operations.
Choosing the Best Freight Forwarding Software
Understanding the Necessities of Your Business
Evaluate the size of your operations, the geographic areas you serve, the complexity of your shipments, and your team’s technological proficiency. Understanding these facets can provide a baseline against which to measure potential software options.
Key Features
- Booking and Order Management: Allows forwarders to manage bookings efficiently, consolidate shipments, and track order progress.
- Shipment Tracking: Real-time visibility into shipment locations and statuses, ensuring customers stay informed.
- Documentation Management: Automated generation, storage, and retrieval of essential shipping documents, including Bills of Lading, Airway Bills, and more.
- Warehouse Management: Control inventory, manage storage space, and handle pick-up and delivery schedules.
- Customs Compliance: Assists in ensuring that all shipments meet local and international customs regulations, reducing the risks of shipment delays or penalties.
- Financial Tools: These should handle invoicing, credit control, costings, and profit and loss calculations for each shipment.
Pricing Considerations
Freight forwarding businesses vary in size and complexity, and software pricing often reflects this.
- Subscription vs. One-Time Payment: Some software solutions might offer a monthly or yearly subscription, while others might have a one-time licensing fee. Depending on your business’s cash flow and long-term plans, you might find one more appealing than the other.
- Scalability: As your business grows, your software needs might change. Ensure that any solution you consider has the capacity to grow with you, either by offering advanced versions or scalable pricing models.
- Hidden Costs: Be wary of additional costs, such as installation fees, training sessions, or premium features that come at an extra charge.
Popular Integrations
Freight forwarding software should easily integrate with:
- Accounting Software: Such as QuickBooks or Xero, ensuring financial data flows seamlessly between platforms.
- eCommerce Software: Like Shopify or Magento, allowing for efficient management of online orders.
- CRM Software: Such as Salesforce, enhancing client communication and retention strategies.
- Carrier Systems: Direct integration with carriers like DHL, FedEx, or Maersk can streamline processes like booking or tracking.
What Is the Difference Between Freight Broker and Freight Forwarding Software?
Freight broker software streamlines the connection between shippers and carriers, ensuring reliable services at competitive rates. In contrast, freight forwarding software oversees comprehensive international shipping tasks, encompassing goods handling, storage, and multi-stage transportation.
All of these software solutions improve business processes by letting freight management companies manage the operations and transportation related to shipping goods via trucks, airlines, boats, trains, and more. They also include modules for maintaining vehicle maintenance, routing and mapping, warehousing, electronic data interchange and more. Alternatively, there are freight broker software options that may be better suited for your needs.
Primary functionality included in freight forwarding systems include modules to handle the operations (logistics), financials (accounting), and customer service involved in managing a transportation and shipping business. This can include managing master and house contracts, storing information on vendors such as their contact details and their shipping rates, recording details about cargo such as freight costs and weight, compliance documents, and customer sales and rate information.
What Are the Key Features of Freight Forwarding Software?
- Invoicing: Handle your shipping, land, and air freight by creating documents details what is owed to your shipping partners and others, such as agents, customs, and more. Handles primary accounting software capabilities such as multi-currency payments.
- Quotations: Generate and send quotations for any of your modes of transportation. Track the status of quotes and convert them into orders whenever necessary. Include ad-hoc quotes, one-click shipment generation, email templates, shipping rate generation, and more.
- Order Management: Capture, track, and fulfill orders across multiple sales channels. Track the status of orders, manage invoicing, manage recurring orders, integrate with shipping carriers, clone orders, detect errors, handle back orders, manage returns, and reconcile with purchase orders.
- CRM: An integrated view of your customers and prospects so you can get the most out of your marketing, sales, and customer service efforts. Includes email tools, phone call notes, and user behavior tracking in order to score leads and determine leads that are ready to buy services.
- Air/Sea/Land Shipment Management: Carry out consolidations or direct shipments towards inbound or outbound destinations. Generate all required documentation such as waybills, cargo manifests, booking confirmations, TSA letters, loading plans, and more.
- Supply Chain Planning: Anticipate customer demand and plan resources or production appropriately by coordinating data from separate units of the business. Collect historical data on order volumes and inventory turns while mixing it with continually updated forecasts from your sales personnel. Procure what is needed and remove the need to store too many raw materials or finished goods.
- Warehouse Management: Manage and coordinate inventory and actions throughout a warehouse or distribution center. Optimize picking and shipping. Ensure a higher accuracy of order fulfillment, faster delivery times, efficient labor management, increased the visibility of an order’s status, optimizes storage space, minimized inventory movement, and improves the yard and dock productivity.
What Are the Benefits of Freight Forwarding Software?
All areas of the logistics process will have access to freight forwarding software for a unified effort between procurement, inventory management, speaking with vendors, shipping with carriers, or dealing with government regulations. Some of the most unique benefits of freight forwarding software include:
Increase The Automation and Efficiency of Your Logistics Operations
Given the relationship with logistics software and transportation management software, freight forwarding software can be seen as an industry-specific ERP application for freight forwarders. These solutions are intended to provide a fully-integrated approach to managing your business operations.
Freight forwarding systems that have all internal modules connected with one another provide for a smooth transition of data (data import and export) from one piece of functionality to the next, which eliminates the need for double-entry. Personnel working in sales can convert a quote into an order, which is sent down to a shipyard to begin the fulfillment process. The accounting department can easily track paid and unpaid invoices from these orders and ensure the company is not missing any payments.
Moving all shipping information via an electronic system (such as a freight management software) will also help keep your data secure and stored safely. Manual methods of shipping include a large volume of paperwork, including original quotes, sales orders, bill of lading, warehouse documents, and any other documents needed. These can quickly pile up, and make your company slow to react to any changes made along the way.
Keep Better Tabs On Your Shipments
Incorporating all shipping methods your business uses (such as road, rail, ocean, and air) within your freight management software will allow you to better track where all of your shipments are at any given time. This may present insight into how efficiently your freight moves through the needed supply chain channels. Consolidating and optimizing shipments for time-saving purposes as well as cost-effectiveness can be the difference between repeat business from clients.
Knowing where your freight is at all times will overall help reduce errors in judgment. If a customer wants to check the status of their freight, you can provide them with an accurate timeframe and reassurance. Informing them of accurate shipping statuses will hopefully lower administrative costs involved with chasing down shipments and discovering bits of information.
Gain A Competitive Edge On Your Competition
The best freight forwarding software will be flexible and scalable, allowing you to add capabilities as your business grows. This means many solutions will let you start with your core functionality required, and add on what you need when you need it.
A scalable implementation lets your business save on initial costs, and ramp up your needs as you begin to become a more successful business. You may begin to use your freight broker software one way, but discover key areas your business can improve through built-in analytics features. For example, analytics can show key supply chain segments you may be able to improve, such as tracking the cost and service level of every shipment.
How Much Does Freight Forwarding Software Cost?
The cost of freight forwarding software ranges from $35/user/month to $2,000/user/month. This subscription-based pricing model is commonly found in web-based solutions providing cloud (SaaS) accessibility. This cost varies depending on the size of your shipping operations, the number of shipments you handle, the number of users that require concurrent access, and the level of included services such as support and hosting. It will also be dependant on the functionality included and any integrations needed with outside systems.
Locally-installed software (also known as on-premise software) can be found in the world of freight broker software options. These solutions will start as low as $4,000 to $11,000 for purchase with implementation and training. A large multinational company with detailed logistics needs could realistically spend upwards of $100,000 on a software package. Each company has varying needs, and it can be hard to pinpoint the average cost of freight forwarding software for this reason.
What Are the Most Popular Types of Freight Forwarding Software?
The most popular types of freight forwarding software are custom broker, maritime, air freight, rail freight, and road freight tools.
- Maritime Cargo Solutions: Ideal for large-scale and heavy cargo shipments, these solutions help businesses utilize sea routes, manage shipments, and ensure timely deliveries.
- Customs Broker: These specialized services are dedicated to navigating and expediting the customs clearance processes for shipments, ensuring compliance with international regulations and reducing shipment delays.
- Air Freight Solutions: Focusing on rapid global reach, aviation cargo solutions are designed for businesses that rely on airborne cargo deliveries. They offer features such as real-time tracking and scheduling.
- Rail Freight Solutions: These solutions leverage extensive rail networks to efficiently manage and track cargo transportation by train.
- Road Freight Solutions: These tools assist in optimizing trucking routes, managing fleet schedules, and ensuring safe deliveries.
Why Does My Company Need Freight Forwarding Software?
Businesses need freight forwarding software for automation, real-time tracking, documentation and compliance, risk management, and cost savings.
- Efficiency and Automation: Modern freight forwarding software automates many of the routine processes, such as booking, tracking, and billing. This reduces manual data entry, minimizes errors, and speeds up operations.
- Real-time Tracking: Customers expect to be able to track their shipments in real-time. Freight forwarding software offers tracking capabilities, providing both your team and your customers with up-to-date information on shipment locations and status.
- Documentation and Compliance: Shipping internationally involves a lot of paperwork, from invoices to customs documentation. Freight forwarding software can automate and streamline the creation, storage, and retrieval of these documents, ensuring compliance with regulations and reducing the risk of penalties or shipment delays.
- Risk Management: The software can provide alerts for potential disruptions, such as weather events or geopolitical issues, allowing your company to proactively adjust routes or schedules and minimize risks.
- Cost Savings: With features such as route optimization and carrier comparison, freight forwarding software can help you identify cost-effective shipping options.