Adonis Kerluke's review of Descartes Transportation Management
Two weeks ago we had a last-minute reroute during a snowstorm and Descartes took nearly an hour to push the carrier swap - long enough to rack up detention fees and a very unhappy consignee. Their carrier connectivity and dock scheduling actually smoothed similar headaches later that week, but that quick turnaround only showed up after we added premium modules and discovered a tangle of per-carrier fees. The subscription sticker shock was one thing; what killed the ROI for us was the incremental API and onboarding costs - those line items doubled our first-year spend compared to the initial quote. I run a 75-truck operation in the Pacific Northwest with eight years in the business, and I can see the value in real-time visibility, yet the money saved on fewer phone calls didn't offset the steep billing structure. So I'm torn: it's a capable platform when everything clicks, but unless you're prepared to absorb the extra fees it feels like paying top dollar for a middling return.
