Descartes Systems Group, the global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, announced that IDS, a leading European non-asset transport management specialist and fourth-party logistics provider (4PL), is using Descartes’ cloud-based transportation management system (TMS) to enhance the customer experience for shippers and carriers by organizing and optimizing transportation, resulting in efficiencies and cost savings through end-to-end supply chain management.

“Our mission is to simplify the organization and optimization of transport across Europe for our customers and to provide them with the freight management insights they need to improve operational and financial performance,” said Leon de Koning, Managing Director at IDS. “The Descartes solution helps us reduce costs across all modes by automatically evaluating carriers, consolidating shipments, and easily calculating the cost and time savings we can offer a customer.”

IDS also uses the Descartes solution to generate consolidated pre-bills for shipments. Prepared by contractual tariffs and agreed-upon surcharges, pre-bills serve as the foundational document for carriers to issue invoices. For all shipments—full truckload (FTL), less-than-truckload (LTL), groupage, palletized, and dangerous goods—carrier invoices are compared to the corresponding pre-bill or validated against the corresponding freight data invoice record to ensure accuracy, consistency, and streamlined workflows for all stakeholders.

Descartes’ cloud-based TMS helps companies of all sizes automate and synchronize transportation processes and reduce transportation-related costs by eliminating manual steps to communicate with multiple systems and transportation partners, logistics service providers, like IDS, and shippers and reduce the risk of inaccurate data, increase productivity and accelerate the movement of goods. To help businesses comply with European Union (EU) emissions regulations for road transport, the Descartes TMS collects and analyzes data—mode of transportation, load weight, distance traveled, fuel consumption—to provide an accurate estimate of an organization’s carbon emissions from transportation activities.

“With a dynamic relationship spanning 20+ years, we’re pleased that the ongoing innovation and collaboration with IDS continues to help them optimize the movement of goods while adapting to meet the evolving needs of their customers,” said Elmer Spruijt, VP of Global Sales at Descartes. “Descartes’ global transportation technologies help logistics-focused businesses around the world boost service level performance, unlock productivity gains, meet compliance demands, and drive bottom-line efficiency.”