REDDLAWLogistics

An alternative to using a freight forwarder

Two models, both legitimate

Freight forwarders are great for white-glove freight management. But that comes at a cost most small and medium-sized businesses can't afford. That's where we come in: Reddlaw takes those processes, finds what can be automated, and loops our people in for the decisions. Your freight is moved by the same professionals forwarders contract, decisions are still made by people, and technology fills the gaps.

What a freight forwarder does

Broadly: you brief them, and they take the shipment off your hands.

A forwarder arranges the movement on your behalf. They hold carrier relationships you don’t, they book the space, they handle documentation, and in most cases they contract with the carriers themselves — which is what lets them take responsibility for the shipment as a whole. Many are also licensed to clear customs, which is a genuinely specialised job.

The commercial shape that comes with it: they bill you for the whole movement and settle with the carriers themselves, and their margin usually sits somewhere inside that number. That’s not a criticism — it’s how the model works, and it’s what pays for the service. It does mean the price you see and the price the carrier quoted are two different numbers, and that their revenue moves in the same direction as your freight bill.

What Reddlaw does instead

Same errand — get carriers found, priced and coordinated. Three differences in how.

Money

Carriers invoice you, not us

A forwarder typically bills you for the whole movement and settles with the carriers itself. Reddlaw never sits in that position. Each carrier invoices you directly at the rate they quoted, and you pay each of them directly.

Pricing

A flat fee, not a percentage

One platform fee per booking, priced per market. It's the same on a small shipment as on a large one, so nothing about our revenue improves when your freight gets more expensive.

Method

Software does the legwork

The carrier outreach, the quote gathering and the comparison run as software. A person still handles the final decision-making.

Where the money actually goes

This is the part worth being precise about.

You pay Reddlaw one flat platform fee when you submit a booking. That fee is the only charge we ever make.
Every other cost — the freight itself, carrier charges, customs, insurance — is invoiced to you by the provider that did the work, and paid by you to them directly, against the payment details we show you.
Reddlaw never collects, holds, routes or disburses third-party funds. We are not a payment service and are not a party to the transaction between you and a carrier.
Because we don’t take a cut of the freight, we have no incentive for the freight to cost more. The fee on a small shipment and a large one is identical.

When a forwarder is the better call

There are shipments this platform is the wrong tool for, and pretending otherwise would waste your time.

You want white-glove service and are willing to pay for it. A forwarder gives you one person who takes the shipment off your desk. You tell them what, where, and when, then don’t have to think about it. We give a similar level of service as far as taking work off your plate, but you monitor the shipment from your dashboard.
You need one party to own the whole movement. A forwarder can contract as the carrier and take responsibility across the legs. Reddlaw never takes custody of cargo and never contracts as the carrier; the carriers do, with you.
You need cargo insurance arranged with the booking. We don’t arrange it at this time, but it’s a feature we’re working towards. You can always add it on your own if needed, but a traditional forwarder would be able to help with that today.
You ship constantly, on high-volume lanes. At enough volume you can negotiate directly, and a forwarder’s buying power or your own contracts will beat per-shipment sourcing. That said, the flat fee means any buying power that comes with volume goes back to clients rather than into a wider margin — there’s no spread for us to keep.
Your freight is project cargo, dangerous goods or otherwise unusual. We handle limited dangerous goods within consumer limits and nothing beyond that.

What Reddlaw is not

Stated plainly because it's commonly assumed.

Reddlaw Logistics Inc. is a digital freight intermediary. We match businesses that need freight moved with the carriers that move it, and coordinate the shipment through to delivery. We are not a freight forwarder, not a carrier, not a customs broker and not a payment service, and we never take possession of cargo. Those aren’t modesty — they’re the terms the platform is actually built and contracted on, and you’ll find the same language in our terms.

Open the live demo See what it costs

If you want the industry background rather than our version of it: freight broker vs freight forwarder explains what each one actually is, and do I need a freight forwarder to move a pallet? works through the cases where the answer is yes.