The transport and logistics industry is changing, fast, but many companies are still relying on on-premise tech that hasn’t changed since the first Nokia phone. Systems built 10 or even 20 years ago simply aren’t designed for the realities of modern transport planning, admin, or compliance.
Whether it’s hours wasted retyping data, invoices delayed by days, or even worse missed growth opportunities because your system simply can’t scale, legacy transport management systems (TMS) are costing you more than you might think.
Qargo is just different. It’s a modern, AI-powered platform designed to take the pressure off your team and help you work more efficiently, without overhauling everything overnight.
The true cost of sticking with a legacy TMS
Of course, legacy systems might work the basics. But that doesn’t mean they’re working for your business and its future growth. The longer you delay switching, the more those invisible costs slowly creep up:
- Innovation standstill: New features are rare, and when they do arrive, they require expensive IT visits, system downtime, and hours of manual updates
- Hours of admin: Manually rekeying information between systems and documents
- Chaotic document handling: Mountains of paper-based PODs, lost files, and manual uploads
- Inefficient planning: Outdated processes lead to empty miles and costly fuel
- Delayed invoicing: Weeks spent validating paperwork and preparing invoices
- Poor visibility: No tracking, limited reporting and missed SLAs mean little to no oversight for your planners and customers
- Compliance headaches: Manual tracking of ADR licenses – with no automated alerts when renewals are due
- Environmental reporting gaps: No automated CO₂ calculations or exportable reports to meet customer and regulatory demands such as CSRD
- Limited scalability: Fragile systems that buckle as your business grows, with security vulnerabilities that put your data at risk
“With our old TMS system, you couldn’t enter all forecasted costs, so you couldn’t have foresight on what you might be spending on future orders”
– Richard Stewart, Logistics Project Manager at Kees in ‘t Veen’s
All of this impacts your bottom line, your customer experience, and your ability to win new contracts.
Why timing matters: The industry is moving on
The reality? You’re being asked to do more with less.
Less time, less resources and even less certainty. Meanwhile, every empty mile, missed delivery window, or annoyingly delayed invoice chips away at your margins – and ultimately your reputation.
In fact, 81% of transport and logistics SMEs say rising costs are their biggest concern for 2025. With inflation, driver shortages, and supply chain volatility piling on, the old ways of working just aren’t sustainable.
Growing your business shouldn’t mean hiring more admin staff, but that’s exactly the burden legacy systems create. And those operators relying on manual processes are rapidly losing ground.
The message is clear: while others digitise and streamline, sticking with outdated processes isn’t just inefficient – it’s a direct threat to profitability and competitiveness in an already challenging market. That’s exactly why more and more transport businesses are switching to intelligent, cloud-based platforms like Qargo.
“After the Qargo team demoed their platform, we saw an opportunity to streamline and optimise our processes using its innovative technology”
–Gary McCarthy, Managing Director at FMC Haulage
What you gain by switching to Qargo
1. AI-powered order entry: from inbox to job, in seconds
Legacy approach: Someone reads the email, opens the PDF or attachment, types it all into your TMS. Over and over again.
With Qargo: Qargo Intelligence (Qi) automatically reads job request emails and attached PDFs, extracting the key data to create jobs instantly while learning your customers’ specific formats.
✅ Save up to 2 hours per planner per day. Freeing your team to focus on planning, not paperwork.
✅ 90% accuracy in job creation, with less back-and-forth
✅ Handles bulk uploads for higher volumes automatically
“Qargo’s Transport Management System allows us to scale seamlessly as we grow our business.”
– Wouter Hertogs, Process Manager at Jacobs Transport & Warehousing
2. Automated invoice processing
Legacy approach: Planners manually check PODs, signatures, and job rates before generating invoices for customers, then wait for subcontractor invoices to arrive before processing.
With Qargo: Qargo verifies PODs, rates, and signatures automatically and generates both customer invoices in bulk and creates purchase invoices for subcontractors using self-billing
✅ 65% less time spent processing invoices
✅ Faster payments for subcontractors and automated purchase invoice creation
“We are experiencing a reduction in overtime of over eight hours per day thanks to Qargo.
– Pete Holden, IT Director at Anglia Freight
3. Smarter document handling
Legacy approach: Scan documents. Name them. File them. Forget where you put it. Repeat.
With Qargo: Documents are processed automatically and organised by job.
✅ 70% faster document handling
✅ 70% of jobs going straight to processing. Teams only need to deal with the unique exceptions
4. Optimised route planning
Legacy approach: Spreadsheets, printouts, and just gut instinct.
With Qargo: Real-time AI route optimisation (see how it works)
✅ Fewer empty miles, lower fuel costs, better time slot performance.
✅ Anglia Freight saved 200,000+ miles annually after switching to Qargo.
5. Real-time visibility
Legacy approach: Limited tracking, fragmented updates, frustrated customers.
With Qargo: A single view of all jobs, vehicles and subcontractors, with portals for customers and subcontractor partners.
✅ Fewer support calls
✅ Higher customer satisfaction
“Qargo’s customer portal has increased our customer satisfaction by providing transparency and control over every shipment.”
– Pieter Engels, Founder of PE Express
6. Sustainability and compliance
Legacy approach: CRSD and ESG reporting requires manual data crunching and serious guesswork.
With Qargo: Emissions calculations using GLEC and ISO-aligned methodology.
✅ Make CSRD compliance easier
✅ Win business with sustainability-conscious customers
“Qargo offers the visibility, accuracy, flexibility, data integrity, compliance, and agility Uniserve needs.”
– Matt Dweh, Transport Solutions Domain Lead at Universe
7. Scalability and stability
Legacy approach: Systems slow down, or even crash, as your business grows or customers demand change.
With Qargo: Cloud-native platform that can be customised to your workflows and scales automatically.
✅ Be future-ready with technology that grows with you
✅ Flexible workflows tailored to your contracts and customers
8. Qargo Network for seamless job sharing
Legacy approach: Phone calls, emails, and separate systems to coordinate with partners and subcontractors.
With Qargo: Share jobs internally across Qargo customers, with automatic status updates and live tracking.
✅ Seamless work allocation to trusted partners
✅ Full visibility across your subcontractor ecosystem
9. AI-powered quality control and validation
Legacy approach: Manually check every document, hoping to catch errors before your customers do.
With Qargo: RAG (Red-Amber-Green) system grades document quality and flags mismatches automatically.
✅ You can focus only on managing the exceptions
✅ 50% faster query resolution
10. Company intelligence and data enrichment
Legacy approach: Manually research companies, with scattered notes across emails, CRMs and spreadsheets.
With Qargo: Auto-generated company profiles with financial, operational, and business insights and summaries.
✅ Faster onboarding and due diligence
✅ Smarter, data-driven decisions
11. Real partnership. Not just a software vendor
Legacy approach: Buy the product, wait for tickets to be answered, hope for some updates- eventually.
With Qargo: Weekly product updates, continuous innovation, and expert-led onboarding and support when you need it most.
✅ Dedicated support from logistics experts
✅ A long-term partner invested in your success
“Not just a software package, but a partner too”
– Geert D’hooghe, CEO at D’hooghe Lifting & Transport
Ready to leave legacy in the past?
Switching doesn’t have to be disruptive. We also know it’s daunting. That’s why our expert-led onboarding team works with you on-site, hands-on, every step of the way to ensure a smooth transition, with minimal downtime and maximum impact.
We’ll migrate your existing data, customer rates, and improve your workflows – we’re here to help.
“Qargo means we can stay in control of our destiny now and in the future.”
– Armin Geense, Project Manager at Roosenboom
Get in touch today to see how Qargo can help you gain more from your operations… and leave the legacy headaches behind.
