Technology Costs, Transparency, and the Reality for Freight Forwarders

Over the past few months, many freight forwarders, including us in Across the Ocean Shipping have been grappling with a significant shift in how core operating software is priced and charged.

WiseTech Global’s move to a transaction based pricing model for CargoWise, marketed as “Value Packs”, represents a fundamental change. What was once a largely predictable licence and user-based cost has now become a per-job operational expense, applied regardless of shipment size, complexity, or revenue.

While the intention has been positioned as simplification and added functionality, the real-world impact for forwarders has been more complicated.

A system generated automation fee is now applied by default at job level. It cannot be disabled, and it forces every business to make a difficult commercial decision: absorb the cost or attempt to pass it on.

Neither option is simple.

Absorbing the cost puts further pressure on margins in an industry already operating on thin returns. Passing it on introduces new conversations with customers, many of whom rightly question why software fees now appear on freight invoices.

This is not just a technology issue. It is a commercial, pricing, and transparency issue for the freight forwarding sector.

Forwarders rely on clarity and predictability to price services responsibly. When cost structures change rapidly and with limited visibility, it creates uncertainty, not just for operators, but for customers across the supply chain.

To be clear, technology is essential. Automation, compliance, and integration are critical to running modern logistics operations. We support innovation. But innovation must be matched with clear communication, fair implementation, and an understanding of how forwarders actually operate day to day.

As an industry, we now need to respond pragmatically:

• By reviewing job-level profitability more closely
• By ensuring invoicing remains transparent and defensible
• By engaging openly with customers before surprises appear on invoices

At the same time, software providers must recognise that freight forwarding is not a high-margin environment. Cost recovery models that work in theory can have very real consequences when applied at scale across thousands of shipments.

Our focus remains on protecting service quality, maintaining transparency, and advocating for practical outcomes that support a sustainable supply chain, not just today, but long term.

These conversations matter. And they’re not going away.