Freightera vs Traditional and Online Solutions, Freightquote, FreightCenter, Uber Freight, Flexport, Freightos

February 21, 2024

How Freightera compares to traditional carriers and brokers and online solutions, with pros and cons for each provider

If you are trying to compare Freightera with other shipping solutions, this article will make it easier for you. Here, as unbiasedly as possible, we provide a list of pros and cons for each compared to Freightera.

We will discuss how other services and companies compare to Freightera using ground freight shipping in North America as the baseline. Enjoy!

Array of Services, Features, and Ratings

Freight Carriers

Freight carriers are the backbone of our industry. It is them who actually transfer your cargo from point A to point B using their drivers and assets (trucks, warehouses, etc.).

With that said, more often than not, as a modern business with regular freight shipments going to different locations, you would not get an overall great experience working with carriers directly. Here’s why.

Freight carriers specialize in carrying freight. Their coverage depends on the number of terminal hubs they have in any given location. So if they’re only large enough to have 1-2 terminal hubs across the country, those are pretty much the areas that they’ll be serving. Possibly a bit more if they have partner carriers willing to help out.

Here’s a list of services you can expect from a standard freight carrier:

• LTL
• Large LTL
• FTL
• Intermodal Freight
• Expedited
• Temperature-Controlled Shipping
• White Glove Shipping

If you need anything other than standard B2B, dock-to-dock shipping for either LTL or FTL, you’ll likely have to look around for a specialized carrier. 

You also may or may not get competitive pricing. If you’re a small business looking for a one-off shipment, you will probably be looking at an eye-popping number on your screen. 

In terms of reviews, the results will also vary greatly depending on the carrier, their service center, the lane you’re looking to ship on, and/or their partners. We suggest you do your homework and read the reviews. 

Traditional Non-Automated Freight Brokerages

Traditional non-automated brokers still rely on phone calls, and in more cases than you’d think, pen and paper. That means that in terms of speed, they wouldn’t be able to complete with instant quotes and other advantages of automation. In terms of expertise and service quality, your mileage would vary.

It is possible to be treated by working with an experienced, responsive, and courteous broker. They would be able to find you a great price and be transparent in the process. However, they will still need to take a bit of precious time to email or call their carrier network and negotiate the price. This will take a bit of back and forth with the information being lost in the process at least some of the time.

On the other hand, a very common scenario is that you’ll work with an overworked broker with a year or two in the industry, and they’ll find you a carrier, but likely not the cheapest or most reliable one. They’ll do the job for you, but their customer service skills would vary greatly, and attentiveness could be lower due to working with carriers and drivers who are, in many cases, just as overworked as the brokers themselves. It is only human to make mistakes when under a lot of pressure.

Here’s a list of services you can expect (to varying degrees) from traditional freight brokers:

• LTL
• Large LTL
• FTL
• Air Shipping
• Ocean Shipping
• Intermodal Freight
• Expedited
• Temperature-Controlled Shipping
• White Glove Shipping

Working with a freight broker will, as we already mentioned, vary in service greatly. Not only between companies but between reps you speak with at a single firm too. You can’t expect the consistency your business processes may require.

Freightquote

Freightquote has been around since 1998. Much like Freightera, they specialize in ground freight shipping and they operate across North America. In 2015, Freightquote was acquired by C.H. Robinson, adding to CH Robinson’s global supply chain services.

They don’t mention freight brokerage services on their website so you may need to find your own customs broker before shipping across the border. Other than that, they offer the following services:

• LTL
• FTL
• Parcel Shipping
• Intermodal Freight
• Expedited Shipping
• Freight Spend & Management Analysis
• Project Solutions

They have great reviews on Trustpilot at 4.5 out of 1164 reviews. Unfortunately, no Google reviews can be found when looking them up. 

FreightCenter

FreightCenter is a USA-based 3PL company that offers a wide range of services. They boast worldwide coverage and port-to-port shipping for air and ocean freight. 

Below is a list of the services they offer:

• LTL
• FTL
• Large LTL (Partial FTL)
• Air Cargo
• Ocean Freight/Containers
• Worldwide Coverage
• Expedited
• Temperature-Controlled Shipping
• Heavy Haul
• Rail Shipping
• White Glove Shipping

As opposed to Freightera, which covers the entirety of the USA and Canada, Freightcenter claims worldwide coverage. 

Reviews

Freightcenter has a 3.3 rating on Trustpilot, with no Google reviews. Trustpilot rating must be fairly reliable as it consists of over 1400 reviews at the time of writing this article.

Freightcenter is a big fish, but if you’re one of their not-too-happy customers, we do recommend that you check Freightera out and see why we’re rated 4.7 on Trustpilot and 4.8 on Google.

Uber Freight

As a subsidiary of Uber Technologies, Uber Freight markets itself as a platform connecting shippers with carriers. And so do we. They are still relatively new to the market, although Uber does have a large brand name which ought to help it make its way into the freight industry. They work with both businesses and private shippers, making them an ideal choice for personal shipments.

So let’s see what Uber Freight is  about:

• Markets itself well to carriers having built a network of 50,000+
• Works with carriers of all sizes including individual owner-operators
• Easy way to find and manage loads for carriers, reload options, etc.
• Offers consultations for shippers

Reviews

Unfortunately, they seem to be missing from both Google and Trustpilot reviews, so we tried finding a few other platforms with a significant number of reviews to help you judge.

Glassdoor, and this is important for carriers and drivers, has the highest number of reviews that we could find on them and it has them rated at 3.8 out of over 20,000 reviews. 

Lastly, Uber Freight app for carriers is rated  4.2 on Google Play, and 4.7 on Apple Store. 

Flexport

According to Wikipedia: “Flexport Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on supply chain management and logistics, including order management, delivery, trade financing, insurance, freight forwarding, and customs brokerage.”

They have a large coverage and offer services in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. Some of these don’t offer full services such as door-to-door shipping so if you’re interested in anything specific, you’ll need to reach out and get answers. 

Here’s a general overview of their services.

• Ocean Freight
• Air Freight
• Ground Freight
• Parcel Shipping
• LTC (Less than Container) Shipping
  
• Customs Brokerage
• Supply Chain Support: Stock Replenishment Services
• Storage, Labeling, Packaging Services, etc.

Reviews

As far as reviews are concerned, they have a rating of 4.4 on Trustpilot, out of 68 reviews. Not much, but it’s something to guide you. They don’t have Google reviews, unfortunately, but they’re been rated at 4.7 on Featured Customers where they have over 2,500 reviews. 

Freightos

Freightos has a relatively simple idea of offering online freight quotes and bookings. They cover the USA, the United Kingdom, China, Germany, and Canada. They offer three main shipping modes for all of these countries.

Here’s a rundown of services and features that you can expect when working with Freightos.

• Air Freight
• Ocean Freight
• Container Shipping
• Less than Container Load Shipping 
• Ground Freight
• Real-Time Data
• Port-to-Port Coverage for Air And Ocean

Despite their broad service coverage, their relatively limited carrier count means limited price ranges for some shipments as well.

Reviews

Freightos is sitting pretty at a rating of 4.3 on Trustpilot. Unfortunately, they have no Google reviews so we had to look elsewhere for another source. The ratings varied, but not too wildly. They have a 60% rating on Webretailer, and 4.4 on Capterra.

Freightera

Freightera offers instant all-inclusive freight quotes and 24/7 online shipment bookings in the USA, Canada, or across the border between the two. 

Freightera works with 100s of reliable carriers to offer road, rail, or intermodal shipping at the best prices available.

The fact that our smart system does half the work for you (and us) means that we were able to offer you light-speed pricing, perfect our Client Care processes, and make the customer journey seamless and stress-free. Our goal is to create the best in the world company for small businesses, with our green mission, a cherry on top for all of us that care about long-term sustainability.

Here’s a list of the services we offer:

• LTL Freight (road and rail)
• FTL Freight (road and rail)
• Container Freight
• Flatbed Shipping
• Rail Shipping
• Intermodal Freight
• Hot-Shot Trucking
• Guaranteed Delivery Services (See more here)

In Conclusion

Each service provider has their pros and cons, with Freightera being unsurpassed in terms of ground freight shipping. Forgive us for our bias, and please let us know if we missed something important in our research. 

From carriers and brokers to other online freight hubs similar to Freightera’s marketplace, they all offer their own set of skills and services. It is our firm belief that our variety of carriers, services, and the quality of Client Care sets us apart from the competition in a very strong and positive way. Here are a few more reasons on why you should ship with Freightera.

For any questions not answered in this article, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected], via online chat, or call us at 1(800) 886 4870.