7 Reasons to Choose the Right Freight Rate Management System (RMS)
Managing and optimizing shipping costs can make or break profitability for freight forwarders. Too often, logistics service providers rely on spreadsheets, emails, or manual lookups—processes that are slow, error-prone, and costly. That’s where a Freight Rate Management System (RMS) comes in.
The right RMS centralizes rate data, automates tedious tasks, enables customer quoting, and provides native integrations, and equips forwarders with the intelligence needed to make smarter, faster decisions.
What to Look for in a Best-in-class RMS
When evaluating your options, it’s critical to look beyond the basics and choose a technology partner that understands the complexities of global logistics. Descartes stands out as a proven leader, helping organizations streamline operations, control costs, and scale with confidence.
Here are 7 reasons why Descartes is the market leader in freight rate management systems:
Centralized Rate Visibility
Managing freight rates across carriers, geographies, and modes is complex. A good RMS should centralize all rate data, so teams don’t waste time sorting through spreadsheets or emails.
Why Descartes?
Descartes offers a powerful platform to manage and compare global freight rates across modes, giving you real-time access to accurate and current pricing.
Smart Automations to Save Time and Reduce Errors
Manual rate lookups are slow and prone to mistakes. An RMS should automate repetitive processes and eliminate manual entry.
Why Descartes?
Descartes automates the capture, comparison, and application of carrier rates, significantly reducing human error and accelerating the quotation process.
Seamless Integration with Existing Technology
The best RMS works with your Forwarder Transportation Management System (TMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform, and other logistics tools.
Why Descartes?
With Descartes’ extensive integration capabilities, companies can incorporate rate management into their broader supply chain and trade compliance solutions—ensuring consistency across operations.
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Support for Global & Multimodal Operations
Freight doesn’t stop at borders, and neither should your RMS. Support for global and multimodal operations is critical in a best-in-class rate management system since it ensures that businesses can seamlessly manage complex shipping networks across different regions, currencies, regulatory environments, and modes of transport.
Why Descartes?
Descartes is designed for global logistics, with support for ocean and air, along with multi-currency, multi-language, and options to enable cross-border compliance.
Analytics and Business Intelligence
Beyond storing rates, a modern RMS should provide rich analytics and insight that drive smarter operational and financial decision making.
Why Descartes?
Descartes RMS delivers analytics that help optimize carrier selection, negotiate better contracts, and forecast transportation spend.
Scalability to Enable Growth
Extensible technology is essential for growth because it ensures systems can expand seamlessly as demand, customers, and regulatory requirements change. This flexibility reduces costs and inefficiencies, allowing businesses to innovate and capture new opportunities without being held back by technical limitations.
Why Descartes?
From small and medium-sized businesses to global enterprises, the Descartes RMS grows with you, handling increasing volumes and evolving as cross-border regulations and trade policies evolve.
Expert Local Support
Choosing a technology partner is about more than software—it’s about reliability and industry expertise of the support and implementation staff to help you get the most out of the solution.
Why Descartes?
With decades of logistics innovation, Descartes is a trusted partner to thousands of global companies. Our experienced support staff has deep domain expertise and real-world industry experience to help ensure you get the most out of your investment.
When choosing a Freight Rate Management System, look for visibility, automation, integration, and global scalability. Descartes delivers all of this—and more—making it the proven choice for logistics leaders worldwide.
Customer Success Story Video Series
Discover how Skypace is enhancing the speed and accuracy of rate management with Descartes. Below are three video shorts that provide an at-a-glance overview.
