Clearfreight Stays Ahead of the Curve with Descartes

WATERLOO, Ontario, Feb. 3, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Descartes Systems Group (TSX:DSG) (Nasdaq:DSGX), a federated global logistics network, announced that Clearfreight Inc., a business specializing in U.S. customs brokerage and freight forwarding, is using Descartes' Customs Filing and Compliance solutions and forwarder management solution to help streamline its customs filing requirements and back-office processes.

A long time Descartes customer, Clearfreight has expanded its use of forwarder management and automated broker interface (ABI) technology following a series of acquisitions. Clearfreight has also recently implemented the Descartes Importer Security Filing (ISF) solution to help ensure that it is prepared for the upcoming ISF 10+2 regulation mandate.

On January 26, 2010, CBP's ISF 10+2 rule went into effect. Under this rule, importers are required to provide CBP with additional data elements 24 hours prior to lading for all ocean shipments inbound to the United States. This security measure is often referred to as 10+2 because the regulation requires the collection of 10 new data elements from importers or their agents and 2message sets from the ocean carriers. The goal is to have these data elements submitted 24 hours prior to vessel departure and the two new message sets from ocean carriers within 48 hours of vessel departure.

Descartes Customs Filing and Compliance solutions, Editrade Customs Link(TM) and ISF, help organizations comply with regulatory requirements for international shipments through both international customs agencies and security initiatives. Descartes forwarder management solution, ForwarderLogic(TM), is a comprehensive, modular, on-demand freight management platform for managing the planning and execution of import and export shipments for multiple modes of domestic and international transportation.

Each of these solutions are part of the Descartes Global Logistics Network(TM) (GLN), which enables the world's leading transportation providers to connect to their trading partners and reliably exchange information to drive delivery performance and high levels of customer satisfaction. The Descartes GLN helps companies better manage their logistics book-to-bill process, track inventory, meet regulatory requirements, optimize fleet performance, and effectively communicate with their logistics partners.

Over the years, our organization has continually strived for excellence and achieved steady growth. We attribute our success to constant emphasis on staff professionalism, coupled with innovative procedures and technology, said Max Wang, Vice President for Clearfreight. Descartes has helped us quickly and easily integrate our new acquisitions to improve our productivity and uniformity of internal policies across our operations, provide a consistency of service for our clients and help ensure we are prepared for and compliant with upcoming regulations.

Clearfreight has a very strong reputation for excellence within the freight forwarder and customs brokerage community, said Scott Sangster, Vice President of the GLN at Descartes. Easily extending their applications to new locations and getting them up and running quickly provides a reliable, accurate and efficient process to manage their customers' imports and exports and help them surpass their customers' expectations.

About Clearfreight

For more information about Clearfreight, please visit www.clearfreight.com

About Descartes

Descartes (TSX:DSG) (Nasdaq:DSGX) is making the world a better place by enabling global organizations with logistics-intensive businesses to save money by improving the productivity and performance of their operations. Underlying Descartes' offerings is the Descartes Global Logistics Network (GLN), one of the world's most extensive multi-modal business applications networks. As a federated platform, the Descartes GLN combines with component-based ‘nano' sized applications to provide messaging services between logistics trading partners, shipment management services to help manage third party carriers and private fleet management services for organizations of all sizes. Descartes' solutions and services deliver results by enabling organizations around the world to reduce administrative costs, billing cycles, fleet size, contract carrier costs, and mileage driven; improve pickup and delivery reliability; and optimize working capital through fleet visibility. Descartes' hosted, transactional and packaged solutions deliver repeatable, measurable results and fast time-to-value. Descartes customers include an estimated 1,600 ground carriers and more than 90 airlines, 30 ocean carriers, 900 freight forwarders and third-party providers of logistics services, and hundreds of manufacturers, retailers, distributors, private fleet owners and regulatory agencies. The company has more than 400 employees and is based in Waterloo, Ontario, with operations in Atlanta, Copenhagen, Heverlee, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Montreal, Miami, Minneapolis, Washington DC, Derby, London, Silver Spring, Stockholm, Suzhou, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Toronto. For more information, visit www.descartes.com.