Forager, a Chicago-based cross-border freight brokerage, announced the official launch of its new technology, SCOUT.
The instant pricing and booking technology brings on-demand pricing and capacity to the United States-Mexico-Canada cross-border space.
“The purpose of the new technology is to make it easier for shippers to get access to cross-border pricing and capacity instantly for both Mexico and Canada,” said Matt Silver, chief executive officer and co-founder of Forager.
Silver added, “Our goal is bringing better transparency and visibility to customers and to open up the conversation with these shippers to collaborate with them and understand where we can help them with their operations and help make their daily lives easier.”
SCOUT was designed by a team of cross-border logistics experts to provide customers with a seamless experience by giving shippers the tools they need to streamline their supply chain management with instant pricing, quick and easy booking, and regular tracking updates, Silver said.
Silver added that shipping freight across borders requires a lot of time and paperwork, which SCOUT aims to reduce for shippers.
“Shippers are dealing with all the different parties involved in a single cross-border shipment,” Silver said.
Anything freight going in or out of Mexico involves the U.S. trucking company, a Mexican trucking company as the border transfer carrier, a U.S. customs broker and perhaps a matching Mexican customs broker, and a transit facility at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“All of a sudden you’re trying to put all this stuff together in one nice place. We’re building an operating system to manage that,” Silver said. “We can solve for shippers – offer technology for them to understand where their load is at all times, and understanding all the data involved in all those shipments.”
Silver, along with company president Jordan Salins, helped co-found Forager in January 2019. In September, Forager officials announced that they had closed a $3.25 million round of seed funding.
“SCOUT is as much a labor of love from our team of talented engineers as it is a labor of logistics informed by years of industry experience,” Silver said. “We understand the cross-border process.”