Transportation management for shippers and 3PLs, with multimodal planning, rating, execution and settlement.
About Descartes 3G TMS
Descartes 3G TMS supports transportation planning, rating, carrier workflows, shipment execution, visibility and settlement for shippers and logistics providers. Product documentation describes multi-stop truckload, LTL and other shipment-planning options, with separate parcel and drayage solution pages. Connectivity, visibility sources and shipping components depend on the selected scope. Descartes announced its acquisition of 3G in March 2025 for approximately US$115 million.
Listed capabilities
Order and Shipment Management
Multimodal Planning
Constraint-aware Rating and Optimization
Carrier Management
Shipment Execution
Load Consolidation
Carrier Settlement
Customer Invoicing
Connected Shipment Visibility
Reporting and Analytics
These are catalog-listed capabilities. Confirm current availability and any plan or setup requirements directly with the provider.
Listed integrations
Oracle NetSuite — confirm TM versus shipping component
Transportation Management Systems capabilities to compare with your workflows.
Planning and multimodal execution
How 3Gtms plans and executes documented transportation work.
Planning-driven domestic shipment execution
(native):
Descartes describes the acquired 3G platform as providing planning-driven automation for domestic over-the-road shipments, including planning, rating, consolidation, and routing across the shipment lifecycle.
Condition: The acquisition announcement does not enumerate every optimization objective, constraint, planning limit, or current edition boundary.
Multimodal optimization detail
(not verified):
The reviewed current sources do not provide enough detail to verify a specific multimodal solver, consolidation strategy, or re-planning behavior; this is not a conclusion that the product lacks those capabilities.
Questions to test in a demo
Plan an order set across the modes and show cost, service, capacity, appointment, and consolidation constraints.
Change a shipment after tender and show feasibility checks, replanning, approvals, and the decision history.
Carrier, rate, and tender management
How 3Gtms connects carrier setup, rates, and tender execution.
Carrier onboarding
(native):
Descartes documents carrier connectivity and onboarding as transportation-management capabilities for adding and collaborating with transportation partners.
Condition: The current platform page does not define every onboarding approval, validation, data field, or operating rule for the 3Gtms deployment.
Tender fallback and rate governance
(not verified):
The reviewed sources do not provide enough detail to verify tender timeout, rejection, fallback, bid-round, or effective-dated-rate behavior; this is not a conclusion that the product lacks those functions.
Questions to test in a demo
Onboard a carrier and tender a shipment through acceptance, rejection, timeout, and re-tender with an audit trail.
Import contract and spot rates with accessorials and show selection, expiration, and exception handling.
Shipment visibility and exception handling
How 3Gtms receives and presents shipment progress and exceptions.
Shipment visibility through connected data sources
(partner):
Descartes documents shipment tracking through ELDs, carrier APIs, mobile driver apps, IoT services, and logistics partners.
Condition: Tracking method, coverage, event freshness, and ETA quality depend on mode, carrier capability, and connected providers.
Exception ownership and remediation
(not verified):
The reviewed sources do not provide enough detail to verify configurable exception taxonomy, escalation ownership, or automated remediation; this is not a conclusion that the product lacks them.
Questions to test in a demo
Trace a shipment using two tracking sources and show source timestamps, latency, duplicate events, ETA confidence, and signal gaps.
Create a late or missing milestone and show alert routing, ownership, escalation, and resolution history.
Freight audit and order-to-cash
How 3Gtms connects shipment costs to finance workflows.
Freight audit and settlement
(native):
Descartes describes freight audit and settlement as a TMS capability that automates invoice reconciliation.
Condition: The reviewed product materials do not specify matching dimensions, tolerances, dispute handling, payment rails, tax, or regional scope.
Customer order-to-cash
(not verified):
The reviewed sources do not provide enough detail to verify customer billing, receivables, collections, and cash application end to end; this is not a conclusion that the product lacks those capabilities.
Questions to test in a demo
Match carrier invoices to rates and shipment facts, then show exceptions, dispute, approval, settlement, and ERP posting.
Demonstrate which customer billing, receivables, collections, and cash-application steps are native versus integrated.
Configuration and connectivity
How 3Gtms exchanges transportation and business-system data.
API connectivity
(native):
Descartes publishes an API portal for transportation and related logistics services.
Condition: The public API catalog does not establish that every endpoint is included in every 3Gtms edition or define implementation and service limits.
ERP, TMS, and WMS integration methods
(partner):
Descartes documents integration with major TMS, ERP, and WMS platforms through APIs, EDI, and other standard connection methods.
Condition: Connector coverage, directionality, authentication, licensing, and implementation effort depend on the selected system and service.