The $19.95 Shipment: What CargoWise Value Packs Actually Mean for Your Business

On 1 December 2025, WiseTech Global stopped charging for seats and started charging per shipment.

They call it democratisation. Your January invoice probably told a different story.

What Changed

The old model charged by user licences. The new "CargoWise Value Pack" model charges per transaction — every FCL import, every LCL export, every customs entry. Here's the community pricing they set:

WiseTech's suggestion? Pass it to your shipper as a disbursement, like a THC or customs duty. In practice, most forwarders can't. And if your client won't pay it, you absorb it.

Why They Did It

Simple. WiseTech controls roughly 70% of the forwarding software market. When AI starts cutting headcounts by 50%, a seat-based revenue model collapses. Transaction-based revenue scales with global trade volume instead — regardless of how many humans are in the loop.

At the same time they announced this pricing model, they also announced cutting up to 2,000 of their own staff. They're doing exactly what they're telling you AI will do to your ops team.

What's Actually Happening on the Ground

Some forwarders are seeing 20–50% cost increases. Some are seeing 150%. Most got three business days' notice before it went live — nowhere near enough time to adjust 2026 budgets.

There's a Transitional Pricing Protection (TPP) buffer in place for now, but here's the catch — the more you use the system, the faster that buffer erodes. One branch manager summed it up well: "I'm scared to death every time I see a bill."

The Cracks Are Showing

DSV, the world's largest forwarder, is already quietly migrating 30% of its operations to Tango — the TMS it inherited from the DB Schenker acquisition. They're still 70% on CargoWise, but the direction of travel is clear.

Smaller competitors like Gama are moving fast, offering flat-rate pricing at $499/month. No per-transaction surprises.

But Can Anyone Actually Replace It?

This is where the conversation gets honest.

Every time a forwarder seriously evaluates an alternative TMS, they hit the same wall. GoFreight is clean and affordable — but what about bonded warehousing? Gama's pricing is attractive — but does it handle multi-leg consolidations the way CargoWise does? What about customs across multiple jurisdictions? Landed cost tracking? Full EDI integration with your carriers?

CargoWise wasn't built in a day. It's 20+ years of logistics complexity baked into one platform. That's genuinely hard to replicate.

The honest reality is that most forwarders who go looking for an exit come back. Not because they want to — because the feature gap is real. One missing module can break an entire workflow.

So the choice isn't really "stay or leave." It's how do you stay without letting the cost eat your margin?

The Real Question

WiseTech's bet is that you're too embedded to leave. Years of configuration, training, integrations — all locked inside one platform.

They might be right. But the question every logistics leader needs to answer in 2026 is this:

Are you running your software, or is your software running your business?