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Descartes acquires Portrix to improve logistics providers’ digital customer experience

Energy Transportation Group leverages company’s visibility solutions

Descartes acquires Portrix to meet increased customer integration demand. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Supply chain software provider Descartes Systems Group (NASDAQ:DSGX) announced Monday that it has acquired Portrix Logistics Software, a global rate management solution that provides logistics providers with multimodal price visibility.

Descartes will integrate its current supply chain systems with Portrix’s Global Price Management tool to allow its customers to leverage its shipment routing, pricing, rating and capacity management solutions to improve the overall end-to-end customer experience.

“Automated rate management tools are critical for [logistics services providers] (LSPs) looking to digitize the customer experience,” said Henning Voss, the co-founder of Portrix who now will assume the role of vice president of product management and rate management solutions at Descartes, in the release. “As the momentum for digitization accelerates, the demand for our solutions continues to grow. In particular, we’ve seen an increase in demand for an integrated Descartes Kontainers-Portrix solution, making the decision to combine with Descartes a logical next step for the business and our customers. We’re looking forward to taking our existing partnership with Descartes to the next level.”

This news comes a week after Energy Transportation Group announced a partnership with Descartes’ MacroPoint Solution to provide better visibility to its customers. Representatives at the company explained end-to-end visibility is becoming table stakes for customers of LSPs.


“For Energy, it’s not enough to move freight from point A to point B. Whether delivering for large food and beverage customers or distributing emergency supplies as part of FEMA, we strive to provide unparalleled service,” said David Grassi, vice president of North American operations at Energy Transportation, in the release. “Descartes MacroPoint helps elevate our performance. By replacing our legacy visibility solution with Descartes MacroPoint, we gained greater buy-in from our carrier community and better system stability, which resulted in enhanced carrier compliance and more reliable freight visibility for all of our customers.”

While Descartes’ Q1 earnings are expected to be reported at the beginning of June, in the company’s Q4 report in March, CEO Edward Ryan explained it would continue to make strategic technology acquisitions in the future.

“Our business remains focused on what matters, strengthening the business for our customers,” he said. “We want to remain innovative for what our customers need regardless of whether that innovation comes from what we’ve designed internally or from combining with a leading successful company that’s got something unique that the market wants.”

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Grace Sharkey

Grace Sharkey is a professional in the logistics and transportation industry with experience in journalism, digital content creation and decision-making roles in the third-party logistics space. Prior to joining FreightWaves, Grace led a startup brokerage to more than $80 million in revenue, holding roles of increasing responsibility, including director of sales, vice president of business development and chief strategy officer. She is currently a staff writer, podcast producer and SiriusXM radio host for FreightWaves, a leading provider of news, data and analytics for the logistics industry. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Michigan State University. You can contact her at [email protected].