When you think about cross-border shipping, a few words come to mind. Complicated, expensive, time consuming, and maybe even a few expletives depending on your personal experience. It’s not surprising, given the average cross-border load involves 7+ parties, multiple languages, and a perfect storm of paperwork and red tape.
Forager was founded on the belief that cross-border shipping didn’t need to be so complicated, expensive, or time consuming. In fact, we focus on making shipping truckload freight between the US, Mexico, and Canada cheap and easy. Cheap, because we automate the expensive parts, and easy because we’re the experts and cross-border shipping is our one and only focus.
By combining an experienced, multilingual cross-border operations team with custom-built, easy-to-use technology, Forager helps shippers speed up operations, save money, and streamline their cross-border supply chains.
SCOUT by Forager: cross-border tech for shippers
SCOUT by Forager is the only comprehensive self-service shipping portal for North American cross-border freight. With SCOUT, shippers can take control of their cross-border supply chains without having 10+ years of cross-border expertise and endless industry connections.
Since SCOUT by Forager is the first of its kind, it’s almost easier to understand what SCOUT “isn’t” in addition to what it is:
How SCOUT helps you
Anyone who ships between the United States, Mexico, and Canada can use SCOUT to get rates, book lanes, track loads, and manage freight. Each of these activities takes a matter of minutes, and none of them require emails or phone calls (even though our operations team is always working behind the scenes and available if need be!)
Get a Quote
Traditional brokers can take two days to two weeks to get you a cross-border rate. With SCOUT, it takes about two minutes. You can get a spot or contracted rate on any cross-border lane without a delay and without the endless email chain of questions and negotiations.
Instant Spot Rates
SCOUT gives you fast and accurate spot rates using a few key pieces of information:
- Pickup City, Delivery City, and Crossing City
- Equipment type (Dry Van, Reefer, Flatbed)
- Service preference (transload or direct)
*Displayed rates are for demo purposes only. They do not reflect real market data.
Once you’ve entered the load details, SCOUT provides full rate transparency with a 14-day spot rate forecast. You can see how rates may vary for next-day, weekend, or weekday pick-ups and choose what works best for you and your business.
Instant Contracted Rates
Forager is the only company to offer instant contracted rates for cross-border lanes. If you’re shipping 50 or more loads annually, contracted rates are a good way to save money and improve your financial forecasting while simultaneously streamlining your operations.
To get a contracted rate, you enter the same information you did for spot rates with a few additions: volume over time, start date, and end date. You’ll instantly receive your contracted lane base rate and a fuel surcharge estimate and then be able to create a lane and start booking immediately!
Book Your Loads
You can book your load the second you get your rate. You’ll enter a few specifics about your freight (details like what you’re shipping, its value, and how it’s packed), select your preferred facility and broker (pre-loaded into the system), and that’s it. Click “Create Load” and Forager takes over sourcing a truck from our specialized carrier network.
Track Your Freight
Never ask “Where’s my truck?” again. You can check SCOUT for real-time updates on any of your active loads at any time. The Active Load home screen lays out all your in-progress loads in an easy-to-read and select manner. Each load entry includes important at-a-glance information like Pickup Date, Last Known Location, and Distance to Next Stop. It gives you a fast and streamlined snapshot of your supply chain.
If you want to see a truck’s specific location, select the load and access deeper tracking information. You can see your truck’s last known location and when it was last updated. SCOUT also makes it easy to visualize your freight’s progress with a tracking map.
Manage Your Supply Chain
Most shippers have folders upon folders of emails to keep track of active loads, contracted lane details, and shipments from prior years. SCOUT captures all this information in a much clearer manner- no need to dig through your inbox or scroll through Excel files.
You can review all your “Contracted Lanes”, “Active Loads”, and “Past Loads” from SCOUT’s main navigation. Each homepage displays the basic information for each load or lane, and you can select any entry to see additional details. To save even more time, SCOUT makes it easy to re-book prior loads. You can even “Duplicate” an Active Load or Past Load, as well as “Book” a Contracted Lane.
Purpose-built technology meets exceptional service
Forager’s team of operations experts supports every SCOUT by Forager load. Each shipper is assigned an operations member who works directly with our carriers to ensure your freight has a smooth journey. With over a decade of specialized cross-border experience, we are not only experts in operational excellence, but also skilled communicators. We haven’t used Morse code or carrier pigeons just yet, but suffice to say our team will do anything and everything to make sure you are informed about the status of your load.
SCOUT: an easy portal, an easy choice
The success of your business hinges on reliability, efficiency, and communication. SCOUT by Forager raises the standard for all three. Save yourself time, reduce your costs, and make cross-border shipping the easiest part of your day. Sign up today to take control of your supply chain.
Source: Forager
