Comparison
Freight forwarder software vs importer visibility tools
"Our forwarder already has a system" is the most reasonable objection an importer raises, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a pitch. Forwarder platforms are very good at what they are sold for. The question is whose business they were built to run.
Free while in beta, then €10 a container · No commitment · No card required
- Carriers supported
- 435
- Shipments tracked
- 249
- Built for
- Fresh produce
Two different buyers, one shipment
The large forwarder operating systems — CargoWise and Descartes are the ones you will hear named — are sold to logistics service providers. CargoWise's own site is explicit about it: the platform is designed for freight forwarders, customs brokers, warehouse operators, carriers and drayage operators. Those products handle the operations, the compliance and the billing of running a forwarding business, and they do it well.
You are on the other side of that shipment. What you need is not a system for operating freight; it is a view of cargo you have bought, across every forwarder and every carrier you happen to be using this season. Nobody selling to forwarders has a reason to build that, because it is not their customer's problem — it is their customer's customer's problem.
This is also why the portal your forwarder gives you feels thinner than it should. It is a window onto their system, showing the part of your cargo they are handling. Useful, and by construction partial.
What the gap looks like on a Tuesday
Three forwarders, two carriers, forty containers on the water. One portal calls it "discharged" and another calls it "arrived at destination terminal", and neither tells you which of the forty is now burning free time. A booking gets rolled and shows up as an absence rather than a notification — the vessel sailed, and your box is not on it, and nothing in any portal announces that.
Meanwhile the packing lists arrive by email from the suppliers, not from the forwarders, in whatever format each grower uses. That half of the job never touches a forwarder system at all.
None of that is a failure by your forwarder. It is what happens when the only software in the picture was built to run somebody else's business.
When your forwarder's system is enough
There is a real version of this where you do not need us, and it is worth naming before you spend an hour on a call.
- You use a single forwarder for effectively everything, so their portal covers your whole book.
- That forwarder sends documents promptly and flags exceptions before you ask — some are genuinely excellent at this.
- Nobody on your team is retyping packing lists, because your suppliers send structured data you can import.
- Your volumes are low enough that a spreadsheet and an inbox are honestly fine.
- You need booking, rates or customs filing — that is your forwarder's job and we do none of it.
What an importer-side tool adds
Every forwarder and carrier in one view
The containers you are moving, whoever is moving them, with one vocabulary for the same milestone instead of three.
The supplier documents, which never reach the forwarder system
Packing lists, certificates and invoices come to you from the grower. They are read out of your inbox and filed against the container automatically.
Alerts that survive a change of forwarder
Your view of your own cargo is not something you rebuild when you move volume to a different provider next season.
A record you own
When a claim needs assembling months later, the documents and timestamps are in your account rather than in a portal belonging to a company you may no longer be working with.
What it costs
Two different bills, and only one of them is yours to negotiate.
Forwarder platforms
Not published, and not yours
CargoWise and Descartes are licensed by your forwarder, not by you — the cost reaches you inside their rates rather than as a line you can compare. Neither publishes pricing.
Trackberry
Free in beta, then €10 / container
No card and no commitment while we are in beta. €10 per container once the beta ends — you pay for containers that ship, not for seats or a monthly subscription. ERP integration is a one-off from €2,000 plus maintenance from €50 a month, quoted against the system you already run. All prices exclude VAT.
Questions buyers ask
- My forwarder already gives me a tracking portal. Why would I need anything else?
- Because it covers that forwarder. Most importers use more than one, and each portal has its own login, its own vocabulary for the same milestone, and no view of the containers moving with anyone else. The work you actually do is across all of them at once.
- Are you competing with CargoWise or Descartes?
- No. Those are operating systems for freight forwarders, customs brokers and warehouse operators — CargoWise says as much on its own homepage, naming forwarders and brokers as who it is designed for. They run your forwarder's business. We are bought by the cargo owner, and the two sit on opposite sides of the same shipment.
- Should I ask my forwarder for this instead?
- Ask them — genuinely. A good forwarder will send you documents promptly and tell you when a booking rolls. What they cannot do is show you the containers you are moving with their competitor, and they have no reason to build you a view that spans them.
- Does this replace my forwarder?
- No, and it does not book freight, negotiate rates or file customs entries. Your forwarder does those things and will keep doing them. This reads what arrives about your shipments and tells you what changed.
- What if we only use one forwarder?
- Then the honest answer is that their portal covers more of your problem than it would otherwise, and the case for us rests on the documents rather than the tracking. If your team is not retyping packing lists either, you may not need us yet.
See every comparison — including the ones where somebody else is the better buy.
Sources
Every claim on this page about another company comes from what that company publishes about itself, and each is dated. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us at hello@trackberry.com and we will correct it.
Keep your forwarder. Add the view they cannot give you.
Twenty minutes with your own container numbers, across whichever forwarders you are using this season.