The problem we kept seeing
Freight forwarders and 3PLs answer the same difficult question every day: how many containers or trucks does this shipment need, and how should the cargo be arranged?
- cargo dimensions and weights change from shipment to shipment
- customer and stacking rules change
- available equipment changes
- quotes depend on the number of Units required
- the warehouse needs a plan it can actually follow
Spreadsheets can hold the cargo list, but they cannot reliably solve the three-dimensional arrangement. Manual planning depends on experience, takes time, and makes it too easy to pay for empty space or book one Unit too many.
Planners need a faster way to compare equipment, inspect the result, make practical adjustments, and communicate the final arrangement.
That is the gap Cargo Marshal is built to close.
What we wanted instead
Cargo Marshal was built around a simple idea: cargo and available equipment should be enough to produce an optimized, inspectable Load Plan.
The workflow should stay obvious:
- create a Project
- add or import Cargo Lines
- select the available Equipment Types
- calculate the arrangement and Unit count
- inspect and adjust the result in 3D
- share it or export a branded Loading Report
We wanted a planner to complete that loop in minutes without hiding warnings, Unloaded cargo, or the decisions behind the result.
What Cargo Marshal gives you on day one
Cargo Marshal is a Sea and Road load planner for freight forwarders and 3PLs. It focuses on closed rectangular equipment: containers, trailers, trucks, vans, and pallets used as Units.
The product is designed around:
- Projects with one cargo list and multiple alternative Load Plans
- Excel import, pasted tables, manual entry, and reusable Library Items
- built-in and custom Sea and Road Equipment Types
- optimized placement with explicit Unloaded cargo and warnings
- locked placements followed by recalculation of everything else
- Share Links and branded Loading Reports
The surrounding platform handles organizations, roles, authentication, billing, storage, analytics, and localization so the planning workflow can remain the center of the product.
Opinionated where it matters, flexible where it counts
There are two ways load-planning tools usually disappoint people.
The first is being too thin: a volume calculator may say cargo should fit, but it cannot show a feasible arrangement or explain what remains Unloaded.
The second is being too rigid: a solver returns an arrangement, but the planner cannot move a placement, lock a practical decision, and re-run the rest.
Cargo Marshal aims for the middle:
- automatic enough to save planning time
- visual enough for a planner to verify the result
- flexible enough for manual adjustments and custom equipment
- explicit enough to show limits, warnings, and Unloaded cargo
The optimizer owns the unlocked arrangement. The planner owns the final operational decision.
Built for the teams that need momentum
We designed Cargo Marshal for a few people involved in the same shipment:
Freight forwarders and 3PL planners
They import a cargo list, compare equipment alternatives, and need a defensible answer quickly.
Warehouse and loading staff
They need a clear Unit-by-Unit arrangement they can open without learning the planning system.
Shippers with in-house logistics
They run the same core workflow and benefit from reusable cargo and equipment libraries.
What this blog will cover
We do not want this blog to become generic startup content.
The focus here is practical:
- how cargo constraints affect an arrangement
- how equipment alternatives change Unit count and utilization
- how to review and adjust optimized placements
- how to make Loading Reports useful on the warehouse floor
- how we build and validate the optimization engine
If Cargo Marshal is doing its job, planners spend less time arranging boxes in spreadsheets and more time checking a load they can trust.
That is why we built it, and that is the standard we will keep measuring it against.