Offsetting CargoWise’s Pricing Update and Reducing Work Per Shipment

The new CargoWise Value Pack pricing model turns software into a variable cost per file. That means your margins now depend on the amount of manual work you put into each shipment rather than being a fixed monthly cost.

Reform helps forwarders and brokers re-tune that cost curve back in their favor by eliminating manual data entry and re-keying, and by reducing touchpoints and human errors across the very workflows that now trigger CargoWise fees.

What CargoWise changed

CargoWise has shifted from a seat-based and module-based licensing model to a per-transaction automation fee that is applied to each shipment or job. Forwarders now see an automation fee for each job (for instance, full-container imports, customs entries, and other transactions), leading many operators to report cost increases in the 20%-50% range.

How this hits: unit economics

This new pricing model means that every quote, shipment, consolidation, and import/export declaration carries a charge. It no longer matters whether the work is automated or performed manually. Absorbing these new fees compresses margins, while simply passing them along to your clients as a technology surcharge risks pushback in the highly commoditized forwarding market.

Work per shipment: the most sustainable lever to pull

In the new per-shipment pricing world, the most defensible strategy is to reduce the total work per file so each automation fee supports more volume, more accuracy, and faster cycle times. This adjustment calls for upstream automation: fewer touches, handoffs, and keystrokes before data reaches CargoWise—not just cheaper labor to handle the same manual processes.

How Reform offsets the new costs

Reform sits upstream of CargoWise, turning what used to be messy, cross-platform logistics workflows into structured, CargoWise-ready records using machine learning and AI, with humans only stepping in when needed. 

Our customers use Reform to create quotes, shipments, and records directly from incoming emails and attached documents, so more files are opened in CargoWise without any additional manual data entry. Reform automatically creates AP invoices, AP payments, and AR receipts. This eliminates re-keying and reduces downstream finance effort per shipment while maintaining CargoWise as your system of record.

Keep CargoWise, fix your economics

CargoWise remains your system of record while Reform steps in as the technologist that improves unit economics by shrinking the manual workload attached to each billable transaction. 

If you’re a forwarder or broker reassessing your CargoWise footprint after the rollout of Value Pack pricing, get in touch to compare notes, quantify your per-shipment workload, and map out where Reform’s intelligent automation can offset these new fees and keep your overall spend manageable.

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