How We Became a Digital Freight Forwarder

For 23 years, our company ran on Excel spreadsheets. Every shipment had its own row. Every customer had their own file. We had spreadsheets to track our spreadsheets. And honestly, it worked — until it didn't.

The Breaking Point

The moment I knew we needed to change came on a Tuesday afternoon in September 2021. A customer called asking about their container. Simple question. I opened our master shipment tracker — 47 tabs, 12,000 rows. I searched. I cross-referenced. I opened three other files. Twenty minutes later, I still couldn't give them a straight answer.

Meanwhile, our competitor down the street was sending their customers automated tracking updates. Their clients could log in and see everything. We were still telling people "Let me get back to you."

Why ShipThis Made Sense for Us

We looked at several platforms. Some were built for massive companies — way more than we needed. Others were too basic. ShipThis hit the sweet spot:

• It was built for freight forwarders. Not a generic business tool we'd have to customize. It already understood our workflow — quotations, bookings, documentation, tracking.
• The customer portal was white-labeled. Our clients see Freynox branding, not some third-party software. This mattered to us.
• Implementation was actually manageable. We're a 15-person company. We don't have an IT department. ShipThis's team helped us migrate data and trained our staff.

The First 90 Days

I won't pretend it was easy. The first month was rough. Our team had been doing things the same way for decades. Learning new software while handling daily operations meant longer hours.

But by month two, something clicked. Instead of hunting through files, we clicked a button. Instead of manually creating documents, the system generated them. Instead of calling carriers for updates, the tracking pulled automatically.

The Tuesday phone calls that used to take 20 minutes? Now they take 30 seconds. "Let me check your shipment — it cleared customs yesterday and is on the truck for delivery tomorrow." Done.

What I'd Tell Other Traditional Forwarders

If you're where we were — drowning in spreadsheets, losing deals to digital competitors — the jump to a platform like ShipThis is worth it. It's not about being "tech-forward" or whatever buzzword. It's about not wasting hours on work that software should handle.

Our relationships still matter. Our knowledge still matters. But now we have tools that match our expertise instead of holding us back.

Before ShipThis, I spent most of my day answering the same question: "Where's my shipment?" I'd estimate 50+ calls and emails daily. By the time I'd look up the information, respond, and move to the next request, the day was over.

I wasn't adding value. I was a human tracking page.

The Customer Portal Changed My Job

When we launched ShipThis's customer portal, we were nervous. Would our clients actually use it? Would they miss the "personal touch" of calling us?

Here's what actually happened:

• Within 3 months, 80% of our tracking inquiries disappeared. Clients checked status themselves.
• The calls we did get were better — real questions, complex issues, opportunities to actually help.
• Customers started sending us more business. Turns out, they preferred self-service. They just didn't have the option before.

What Customers Actually Say

I asked a few long-time clients what they thought about the change. David Park, who's shipped with us for 15 years, said: "I used to feel guilty calling because I knew I was adding to your workload. Now I check the portal at 10pm when I'm thinking about it, and I get answers without bothering anyone."

Maria Santos, who runs an import business, told me: "The old way felt like a guessing game. I'd ask, you'd check, you'd email back. Now I see exactly what's happening. It's not that I don't trust you — I just like seeing it myself."

What I Do Now Instead

With the routine tracking questions handled, I focus on things that actually need a human:

• Proactively reaching out when shipments have delays
• Helping new customers understand our processes
• Working with the operations team on complex shipments
• Building relationships instead of just relaying information

I used to feel like the job was just data transfer — customer asks, I look up, I respond. Now I feel like I actually help people solve problems. The software handles the data transfer part.

The Real "Personal Touch"

Some people in our industry resist digital tools because they think it removes the personal touch. I'd argue it's the opposite. When I'm not burned out from answering "where's my shipment" 50 times, I have energy to provide actual service.

The personal touch isn't being a human answering machine. It's having the time and headspace to care about your customers' businesses.

We've been fully on ShipThis for a year now. I wanted to share real numbers — not marketing claims, but what we actually measured in our business.

Quotation Speed

Before: Average 4-6 hours to respond to a quote request. We'd receive the request, look up rates from various spreadsheets, calculate margins, type up the quote, email it back.

After: Average 15 minutes. Rates are in the system. Margins are configured. The quote is generated and sent from the platform.

Impact: We're winning more quotes because we respond faster. Several new customers told us they chose us because we got back to them same-day while others took 2-3 days.

Data Entry Reduction

Before: Every shipment was manually entered multiple times — into our booking sheet, our accounting system, our documentation files, our tracking tracker.

After: Enter once. The data flows through the system — booking, docs, tracking, invoicing all pull from the same record.

Time saved: We estimate 25-30 hours per week of pure data entry time eliminated across the team.

Documentation Errors

Before: Typos happened. A wrong container number here, a misspelled consignee there. These caused customs delays, customer frustration, and sometimes penalty fees.

After: Data validation catches errors before documents are generated. We've had zero documentation-related delays in the past 6 months.

Customer Support Load

Already covered this above, but the numbers: tracking-related inquiries dropped from ~50/day to ~10/day. The 10 we do get are usually complex situations that genuinely need human attention.

What About Revenue?

Revenue is up 18% year-over-year. I can't attribute all of that to ShipThis — the market's been decent, and we made other improvements too. But I can say:

• We've taken on customers who specifically cited our digital capabilities
• We handle more volume with the same team size
• We've kept customers who were considering switching to larger, more "modern" competitors

What We'd Do Differently

If I could go back, I'd tell ourselves:

• Move faster on training. We tried to ease into it. Should have just committed two weeks to intensive training and ripped off the bandaid.
• Clean up data first. We imported messy data and then had to clean it up in the new system. Should have done that before migration.
• Communicate with customers earlier. Some clients were confused when they first got portal invites. A heads-up email explaining the change would have helped.

Was It Worth It?

Yes. Without question. The investment in ShipThis — both money and time — has paid for itself multiple times over. More importantly, we feel like a modern company now, not one that's running on duct tape and spreadsheets.

If you're a traditional forwarder wondering whether to make this jump, my advice: the longer you wait, the further behind you'll fall. The industry is going digital whether we like it or not. Better to lead than to catch up.