Descartes BoxTop (formerly BoxTop)

International freight management can best be described as a combination of science and art – it entails moving goods from a factory, warehouse or distribution centre to the buyer’s premises, identifying the most appropriate transport mode, whether by airfreight, seafreight, roadfreight or railfreight – moving goods across international borders with increasingly complex rules and statutory requirements that need to be navigated quickly and efficiently with the ultimate aims of reducing transit times and providing cost-effective delivery deadlines satisfying the needs of the customer, whether they’re the manufacturer, producer, distributor, exporter or importer.

The freight forwarding industry has always been a complex business but nowadays it’s unbelievably multifaceted. Freight forwarders have to deal with a wide variety of partners, manage critical deadlines and navigate a multitude of regulations, from seemingly endless Customs and foreign government hurdles to overcoming transport and geographic difficulties all encountered when moving goods around the world. The use of a well-designed freight management software system is no longer a nice-to-have business tool, it’s absolutely essential, without one it would virtually impossible to manage the business successfully.

The Descartes BoxTop solution is a single, fully integrated, freight management system, not only is it simple to use but it’s also extremely powerful. Covering everything a busy freight forwarder needs, from issuing quotations to raising invoices, from the warehouse to fulfilment, managing document production and financial reporting. We’ve also simplified the cost and we’re completely transparent about pricing and don’t insist on lengthy contracts. We also offer unlimited free training as part of the service, to underline our commitment to helping our customers maximise their investment, elevate productivity and streamline efficiencies.

Although the Descartes BoxTop system is feature-rich with multiple modules covering pretty much every requirement a freight forwarder could wish for, we appreciate customers might prefer to use external systems for certain functions, so we write our own interfaces to many different systems. We’re also building a vast API library which allows other developers to simply integrate with Descartes BoxTop.

Yes, the globalisation of trade has made supply-chain efficiency essential. Well-designed freight management software will help manage the complex processes involved in moving goods for the customer, from the seller to the buyer.

As production moves to countries with a willing and cost-effective workforce, customers are becoming ever more demanding and appreciate that competitive logistical solutions are vital to their success in reaching new markets. Freight management software helps manage the numerous processes, by providing the necessary checks and balances to ensure that the entire supply-chain process is streamlined, issuing reliable and transparent status updates to allow forward planning in-transit and at destination.

Implementation is surprisingly quick, usually measured in days plus we provide plenty of assistance to get users up and running as quickly as possible.