An Interview with Martin Hubert, Freightgate, Inc. Founder and CEO: ‘We Deploy Technology to Find Smarter Ways to Solve Todays and Tomorrows Supply Chain Challenges’

“Freightgate strives to provide innovative logistics solutions, fostering global collaboration and productivity.”

There’s no doubt that cloud technology has transformed supply chain management and logistics operations. While the cloud has played an integral role in supply chain efficiency for the past few years, it’s unquestionably a mainstay.

One of the biggest boons for the supply chain industry made possible by cloud computing is the ability to leverage powerful analytics to make smarter decisions, speed logistics, and enhance both the efficiency and accuracy of the flow of products through the supply chain.

In light of the foregoing, we’re thrilled to present Freightgate Inc.

Freightgate develops and markets Web-based logistics and supply chain management solutions. It focuses on end-to-end transportation management, procurement processes, rate management, optimization, execution, and visibility. The company’s solutions include Cloud Logistics, a supply chain collaboration and visibility platform; TMS, a global tender bid management tool; and Least Cost Routing, a service contract and quote management platform. Additionally, it provides automated e-invoice audit and payment and what-if-scenario analysis tools.

The company was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Orange County, California.

Martin Hubert, Freightgate, Inc. Founder/CEO, spoke exclusively

to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Q. What’s the difference between having a business and having a brand?

Freightgate as a business acts in a consultative way and develops state-of-the-art solutions for customers. Brand Freightgate is well-known for finding and creating innovative solutions, products, processes, and relationships. No matter how difficult or special the requests of customers are, the employees of Freightgate will find the best way to solve this. This is why Freightgate has been recognized by the market for modules like the pioneering global visibility; multi-leg, multi-dimensional optimized dynamic rating and routing, execution level carbon-footprint modelling, and many more.

Q. Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

I saw a lot of room for improvement in the IT environment for logistics companies and shippers in my previous positions. I used my experience and started the first internet based track and trace system back in 1994. In the following years, I along with my team, expanded the offerings from tariffs into a fully functional global logistics cloud platform. In 2000, Freightgate was spun-off as a platform dedicated to Logistics IT solutions. Now the Freightgate Logistics Cloud offerings span: Global Multimodal TMS, Rates, Air and Ocean Schedules, Global Visibility, PO Management, Compliance, Analytics, Work-Flows, etc. The company has a lively ecosystem across partners, carriers, modes, customer and team members around the globe. Productivity enhancing ‘Zero Touch’ initiatives are one of the current drivers. Moreover, our team of culturally diverse, international, out-of-the-box thinkers has in-depth experience in orchestrating solutions on top of our global-by-design platform.

Q. How successful was your first project roll on? Share the experience.

We started as a centrally hosted collaboration platform to share shipment information by using the then-nascent Internet as a backbone. Getting people to share this vision early on has had its challenges, but grit and perseverance paid off. And adding functionality driven by a fusion of our vision and customer demand has been a fun ride that we hope to continue.

Q. A small business/company may or may not function as expected. It takes everything to stand out and compete in the business world, was it same for your company?

The Cloud TMS market is very volatile and needs constant innovation. Freightgate is small enough to still act fast but big enough to manage international roll-outs with thousands of users. Being one of the first solution providers for most modules definitely had its perks on the way to where we are now.

Q. What are your company’s core values and how did they help you to succeed?

One of Freightgate’s core values is the passion for innovation and never-ending improvement; paired with the desire to leverage the vast expertise all of our employees and extended team members bring to the table. Every process is under investigation and if we can do something better, we’ll discuss it and act accordingly. This is where the customers have the biggest advantage: They present their ‘is’ and sometimes ‘want’ process, Freightgate comes up with multiple ways to get there. It is this challenge that is born out of the dialog and collaboration with our customers that fuels the creative thought process and leads to mutual success.

Q. “Earning trust and respect of consumers is through consistent focus on delivering high quality in all of our actions.” How do you interpret this statement?

As the only Logistics IT Company having been ISO9001 certified since 2001, the standard became available: We actually have an independently audited certificate for our commitment to quality and continuous improvement.

Moreover, the consultative approach that is necessary for the success of our work fosters feedback across all stages of a project and the entire solution lifecycle. This way we stay in touch with the newest technologies while listening to our customers and their needs.

We can proudly state that our two initial customers are still going strong and the entire team is looking forward to continuing this long journey, by delivering excellent service and creative ideas that help them achieve their goals.

Q. Do you have any new products ready to be launched?

We continue to innovate and build out the platform driven by active dialog with our stakeholders. We just released a BPMN2.0 compliant workflow integration, new form builder, and AI projects to improve productivity.

Q.Where do you see your company a couple of years from now?

Freightgate and its team have set innovative goals and are determined to reach them. We will always continue to maintain the trust our customers have in us, while striving to share our knowledge and growing services to the needs of our future customers.

Martin Hubert: A Formidable Leader

Martin Hubert is the CEO and Founder of Freightgate, Inc. He’s the head of the creative team with over 30 years of leadership experience in IT, transportation and logistics.

“We have a powerful supply chain visibility application designed to sharpen your competitive edge by providing tracking, tracing, and event management information along the entire supply chain.”