The Client
Utah-based Freight Tec, a leading logistics company with a premier agent program, relies on the cloud-based, user-friendly Descartes Aljex™ transportation management system (TMS) to manage its large community of broker agents. The company also uses Descartes MacroPoint™, integrated seamlessly with Descartes Aljex, for real-time freight tracking, as well as the Descartes MyCarrierPortal service to combat fraud. This multi-pronged platform enables Freight Tec to take control of the end-to-end supply chain across brokers, carriers and shipments, and ultimately deliver a world-class customer experience.
The Challenge: Tripling Growth and Outgrowing Legacy TMS
Rapidly expanding its brokerage operations and aggressively recruiting new agents thanks to its premier agent program, Freight Tec’s legacy TMS could no longer keep pace with growth. “In the last six years, our business has tripled in size, taxing the limitations of our previous TMS,” said Jordan Williams, Director of Operations at Freight Tec. The company’s extensive and diverse agent base offers a broad range of shipping options—from reefer to heavy haul to air freight—yet all agents need to work in harmony with Freight Tec to meet demanding customer needs. Facing these challenges, the company needed to modernize its transportation technology to support growth, as well as a range of modes and types of transport.
“Descartes Aljex is a great system with comprehensive capabilities. It has definitely helped us manage our growth, especially because of its ease of use.”
Freight Tec is a leading logistics company offering reliable freight management solutions. Ranked in the top 100 of all Brokers in the U.S. by TIA and Inc. Magazine, the company’s services include freight brokerage, warehousing, supply chain management, and customs clearance.
The Solution: End-to-End Transportation Management Visibility and Control
Freight Tec’s impressive success is due, in part, to leveraging a huge network of agents with a strong track record of experience using Descartes Aljex. In this way, it helps Freight Tec recruit new agents to grow brokerage operations. Using the solution, Freight Tec can track agent performance and manage commissions; communicate and collaborate securely with agents and carriers; digitally process rate confirmations with e-sign; and increase the efficiency and speed of order processing.
With 100+ users on Descartes Aljex, simplicity and efficiency are critical. “Ease of use has been a big contributor to progress. Our brokers can easily build a load because it’s all on a single screen and so user friendly,” said Williams. Advanced analytics and reporting deliver all shipment details and history by customer and carrier, unlocking valuable data to support decision-making. Weekly and monthly reports track agent volumes, revenue and profit, helping the broker to drive agent performance.
Freight Tec also uses Descartes MacroPoint for real-time visibility, citing its ease of use and seamless integration with Descartes Aljex as key advantages. The broker also leverages it to improve capacity sourcing and carrier management—providing rates, routes and performance metrics across a network of 375,000 carriers—so agents can find the right carrier and close deals quickly.
In addition, Descartes MyCarrierPortal streamlines carrier onboarding and mitigates the risk of fraud. It verifies carrier credentials, capabilities, safety records and compliance history, screening for suitability to deliver shipments.
“Fraud is a major industry problem and we’re using all means possible to fight it. My team really likes the ‘freight validate’ feature, which helps to accurately assess carrier compliance and integrity, empowering us to proactively combat fraud and securely deliver freight.”
Tech support and customer service are also key to the user experience and Descartes’ commitment to customer success is an added advantage. “The Descartes support team is great—always available to help us find solutions,” Williams noted.
The Results
- Increased Productivity: Descartes Aljex makes Freight Tec more effective by automating transportation management processes and consolidating agent and carrier data in one easily accessible solution—for data-driven decision-making.
- Accelerated Growth: The solution empowers Freight Tec to recruit, manage and support a broad community of agents from a single powerful platform, allowing the company to scale rapidly while maintaining operational efficiency and containing costs.
- Improved Customer Experience: Descartes MacroPoint delivers real-time visibility into shipments across full truckload, LTL, rail, ocean and parcel to minimize delays and help Freight Tec and its agents offer complete shipment transparency to customers.
- Stronger Supply Chain Security: Integrated with Descartes MacroPoint, Descartes MyCarrierPortal fortifies Freight Tec’s frontline defense against fraud by verifying carrier identities, capabilities and history, helping the broker minimize risk and secure customer shipments.
