3Gtms

3Gtms (marketed as Descartes 3G TMS following its 2025 acquisition by The Descartes Systems Group) is a cloud-based transportation management system that covers the full order-to-settlement lifecycle for companies that move freight across multiple modes. The platform is built to plan, optimize, execute, and settle shipments in one system, spanning truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL), parcel, and drayage. It targets mid-market shippers managing their own inbound and outbound freight as well as third-party and fourth-party logistics providers (3PLs/4PLs) that manage transportation on behalf of others.

The core of the product is its rating and optimization engine, which compares carrier rates across modes and builds shipments that respect capacity, service rules, and cost constraints. From there the system handles carrier sourcing and onboarding, tendering, in-transit visibility with proactive alerts, and freight settlement with automated audit. A logistics marketplace and integration layer connect the TMS to ERP systems, warehouse management systems, e-commerce platforms, real-time visibility providers, and carrier networks, allowing order and shipment data to flow between operational systems.

Reviewers generally position 3Gtms as a strong fit for shippers and brokers that need genuine multimodal rate shopping, load optimization, and settlement in a single platform, with typical implementations cited in the range of roughly 8 to 16 weeks. Because its terminology and workflows are oriented toward shippers and domestic North American transportation, it is less suited to international freight forwarding use cases that require house bills of lading, customs documentation, and forwarder-specific billing.