Custom charter purchasing and freight pricing app
Appfront builds apps for freight forwarders and transport companies that buy journeys from charters: the journey put out to the carriers running that route, prices side by side per kilometre, loading metre or pallet, the allocation with the selling price alongside, and a rate file per charter that pre-fills the next journey. So the planner no longer phones, emails and calculates on a notepad.
What is a charter procurement and freight rate app?
Charter procurement means outsourcing journeys to other carriers: the freight forwarder sells the transport to the shipper and buys the journey from a charter operator running that route. A charter procurement app puts the journey out to suitable charters, gathers their prices, places them side by side in the same unit, and lets the planner allocate it with the selling price and margin in view. The agreement, price and terms of the journey are then fixed for the planner, the administration and the charter.
Without an app like this, every charter's rate card sits in its own email, the planner phones three hauliers for a run to Lyon and chooses by gut feeling, because one charges per kilometre, another per loading metre and a third quotes a fuel surcharge separately. The margin only becomes clear when the supplier invoice arrives, and a haulier without valid insurance only comes to light when there's a claim.
We build custom software because purchasing has to match how you sell trips and your charter base: which routes are fixed and which are spot, which charters you trust, which surcharges you pass on and in which TMS the trip sits. A freight exchange is a market, not a purchasing administration.
Dispatching jobs
A job from the TMS sent to the hauliers covering that route in a single action, with pickup address, delivery address, time window, loading metres and requirements such as ADR or refrigeration.
Comparing rates
Rates come back into the app and are converted to the same unit, including surcharges. For each haulier the planner sees the price, the margin and their performance on previous jobs.
Assigning and recording
The job goes to the chosen haulier at the agreed price and terms. The purchase order is ready for accounts, and the haulier confirms within the app.
How we build your app for charter procurement and freight rates
We start with the jobs from the past few months: which were outsourced, at what price, to whom, and where the margin slipped away. The procurement workflow follows from that.
Which routes you outsource, which hauliers you use, how rates currently come in, which surcharges you know of and where the margin per job is currently calculated. We look at the jobs where the purchase price came close to the selling price.
For each haulier the routes, the rate card, the surcharges, the vehicles and the documents: licence, insurance and their expiry dates. The foundation on which the app dispatches jobs.
The job goes from the TMS to the suitable hauliers, the rates come back into the app, converted and set side by side with the margin. Assignment takes a single action, followed by a confirmation to the haulier.
The purchase order goes to accounts, the job returns to the TMS, and after that comes management and the extension to contract rates and tenders.
What a charter procurement and freight rate app does in practice
The components below come up at almost every forwarder that outsources jobs. Which you need depends on your TMS and on how fixed your hauliers are.
Haulier register
For each carrier the routes, equipment, rates, surcharges and contact persons, with licence and insurance and a signal when they expire.
Dispatching jobs
A journey to several charters at once, by email, through their own app or via an interface, with a latest response time and the requirements of the journey.
Rate comparison
All rates converted to the same unit, with surcharges, against the selling price. Each haulier's performance on previous jobs shown alongside.
Rate cards
Contract rates per haulier and per route, with fuel clause and validity. A job on a fixed route gets its price automatically.
Purchase order and confirmation
The assignment becomes a purchase order with price and terms, the haulier confirms, and accounts check the supplier invoice against it.
Reporting
Purchase price per route over time, margin per customer and per haulier, the split between spot and contract, and the hauliers who most often cancel.
Who we build a charter procurement and freight rate app for
The app is intended for businesses where some of the jobs are driven by others and where procurement currently determines whether a job makes money.
Forwarders without their own fleet
Every job is bought in. Dispatching, comparing and assigning is the daily work, and the app is the procurement desk.
Transport companies with hauliers
Their own vehicles for the fixed flows, hauliers for the peaks. The choice between own fleet and haulier, with the margin alongside, is what matters.
Logistics service providers with contracts
Fixed routes for regular customers, bought at contract rates with surcharges. The rate sheets and checking the purchase invoice are at the core.
Freight forwarders with international groupage
Routes that combine several consignments, bought per loading metre. Comparing by unit and the requirements per route matter most.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
This page is about buying the journey. For the file per shipment, with documents, customs and costs, there is our page on a shipment file per consignment, and for planning and tracking the journeys themselves our page on building a TMS. You can read about how we work at custom software development.
For rate agreements and checking hauliers' invoices in the office, see our software for haulier purchasing and freight rates.
Why choose Appfront for your haulier purchasing and freight rates app?
Haulier purchasing is about the route that has to leave this afternoon and the margin that remains. We build on that: dispatch quickly, compare fairly, record once.
The price is comparable
Per kilometre, per loading metre or all-in: the app converts everything to the same unit, including surcharges. The planner compares prices, not calculation methods.
The margin is visible before allocation
The selling price sits next to every purchase price. A route that earns nothing is flagged before it is given out, not at the purchase invoice.
The haulier is verified
A route is only sent to a haulier with a valid licence and insurance. The app enforces this, not the planner's memory.
Security and privacy for a haulier purchasing and freight rates app
The app handles purchase prices, selling prices and the margin per customer, data that should never reach hauliers or competitors. Access is set per role: the planner sees the routes and the prices of their hauliers, the haulier sees only the routes offered to them and their own price, and management sees the margin. Every allocation and every price change is logged with name and time.
The app runs in a European data centre, with encrypted storage and daily backups. Integrations with the TMS, accounting and carriers' apps use their own keys, which can be revoked per integration.
Frequently asked questions about a haulier purchasing and freight rates app
Questions that forwarders and planners ask before getting started.
It dispatches a route to the hauliers who run that lane, gathers their prices and places them side by side in the same unit, including surcharges. The planner allocates with the selling price and margin in view, the haulier confirms, and the purchase order goes to administration. Rate sheets per haulier fill in fixed routes automatically.
That depends on the charter. Large carriers can connect via an integration, smaller ones receive an email with a link where they enter their price, and frequent drivers use a simple app. All responses end up in the same place, regardless of how they came in.
Yes. For a route, the app can show the cost of an own vehicle alongside the haulier prices, based on your own rate per kilometre or per hour. The planner can then see whether outsourcing or driving it yourself comes out better, and the decision is recorded with the reason.
A charter contract sets out exactly how the surcharge works: a percentage of the freight, a rate per kilometre, or an index-linked clause. The app includes the surcharge in the comparison and the purchase order, so the price you compare is the price you pay.
Yes. For each charter, the licence, insurance and expiry dates are stored in the file, with an alert before the expiry date and a block on allocation if a document has lapsed. You decide which documents you require; the app keeps track of what you record.
Yes. The trip comes from the TMS, the allocation and purchase price flow back, and the purchase order goes to accounting so the charter's purchase invoice can be checked against it. We connect to the package you use; the app does not become a second trip administration.
Ask that first. A freight exchange brings supply and demand together and is useful for a trip you cannot place anywhere else. Custom development makes sense if you have fixed charters with their own rates, if the margin per trip needs to be visible in advance, if the purchase invoice must be checked against the agreed price, and if the trip needs to come from your TMS.
Every trip with the right charter, and the margin included?
Tell us how many trips you outsource each week, which TMS you use and how many charters you buy from. We will show you what tendering, price comparison and allocation look like.