Route Optimization.
CargoLink's route optimization engine helps shippers, fleets, and forwarders plan smarter moves across East & Central Africa, reducing empty kilometers and improving on-time performance.
Built around Dar es Salaam Port and the main transit corridors, it turns scattered trips into structured lanes, unlocking better asset utilization and more predictable transit times.
Corridor-aware planning
Route recommendations are tuned for real East African conditions: weighbridges, borders, rest points, and the mix of port, ICD, and inland destinations served from Dar es Salaam.
Instead of treating each trip as a one-off journey, CargoLink maps movements into lanes and patterns so you can design your network with data.
Who uses route optimization?
Route optimization supports everyone responsible for moving trucks and planning corridors, from shippers trying to reduce landed costs to fleet owners trying to keep wheels turning.
Shippers
Teams planning repeated moves through Dar es Salaam.
Compare corridors, transit time patterns, and capacity availability before locking in contracts.
Fleets & transporters
Owner-drivers and fleet operators.
Plan sequences of loads, backhauls, and rest periods across multiple corridors and borders.
Freight forwarders
Clearing & forwarding companies.
Coordinate multi-leg journeys, synchronize port evacuations, and optimize subcontracted fleets.
How route optimization works.
CargoLink doesn't replace local knowledge—it enhances it. The system ingests your actual shipments and routes and surfaces better ways to plan trips, reduce deadhead, and manage risk on the road.
Capture lanes, loads, and preferences.
Start by defining key corridors (e.g. Dar–Tunduma–Lusaka, Dar–Kasumulu–Malawi), typical volumes, seasonality, and constraints like maximum driving hours or preferred borders.
Model trips as lanes, not one-off jobs.
The platform groups shipments into lanes and patterns so you can see which routes are overloaded, underutilized, or ideal for new backhaul opportunities.
Recommend optimal sequences and backhauls.
CargoLink suggests load sequences and return trips that fit your fleet's location, equipment, and driver hours, reducing empty kilometers and wait time at depots or borders.
Factor in real-world constraints.
Over time, the engine can incorporate factors such as typical delays at specific borders, road conditions, and regulatory rules, helping you choose not just the shortest, but the most reliable route.
Feed improvements back into planning.
As you execute on optimized routes, performance data feeds back into the system, refining future suggestions and supporting better contracting and pricing decisions.
What's included in route optimization.
Route optimization combines planning, execution, and analytics into one loop, rather than separate tools for each piece of the journey.
Lane intelligence
See your network by corridor.
Understand how much volume moves on each lane, how reliable transit times are, and where you might open or close routes.
Backhaul discovery
Reduce empty returns.
Match return loads with outbound movements and driver locations so you can turn more trips into productive journeys.
Scenario planning
Test "what if" changes.
Explore how shifting volumes between corridors, changing partners, or adding vehicles could affect costs and service levels.
Risk-aware routing
Plan around predictable delays.
Use historical patterns and operational knowledge to avoid high-risk stretches or spread risk across multiple routes.
Data export & APIs
Connect with your systems.
Designed to plug into transport management systems, ERPs, or custom tools via secure integrations as the platform matures.
Linked to matching
From plan to execution.
Route optimization is built to work hand-in-hand with CargoLink's freight matching layer so better plans translate directly into better assignments.
Ready to rethink your routes?
Share your key corridors, lanes, and constraints with the CargoLink team and explore how route optimization could improve utilization, reliability, and margins.