Step 1
Shipper offer
Receive complex transport concepts from shippers — full trainloads, wagon groups, single wagons, cross-border. Calculate routing and margin. Build competitive offers in your CRM, not in Excel.
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Rail-Flow for rail forwarders
One platform for the buy side and the sell side of rail forwarding.
Translate complex shipper transport concepts into sub-tenders. Source competitive rail capacity across Europe. Quote, plan, execute, and invoice — all on one platform built for the realities of rail forwarding.
Trusted by Europe's rail freight forwarders
"With the PTM platform, we can translate the complex transport concepts of our customers into transport requests and send them — completely or in sections — to all suitable railway undertakings. It makes our work much easier and improves the response time to our customers."
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“Rugby taught me a lot about performing under pressure — trusting the people around you, communicating constantly, and sometimes just putting yourself on the line for the team. That mentality shows up directly in moments like a new feature release — you rally, everyone knows their role, and you push through together.”
„ROM comes with what we actually need to build offers in rail freight, and we enjoy working with it."
"Rail-Flow is becoming the operating layer for our rail logistics order-to-cash process. The real value for us is that it gives us a realistic path to standardize that process step by step – with end-to-end visibility instead of isolated tools."
"Our customers really appreciate that we now have a standardized offer which has a clear structure. The system also allows us to track sales potentials more easily and with more transparancy."
"We changed the way rail works. Doing that at scale needs a system built for rail and intermodal - and only Rail-Flow is it: one platform for sales, order-to-cash, and wagon management across the whole group."
SECURITY & COMPLIANCE
Built to enterprise security standards, and hosted entirely in the EU.
Independent certifications, EU data residency, and full documentation of our security controls available on request.
The status quo
Problems
If you run rail forwarding, you'll recognise these three.
Two complex jobs, one team
You buy capacity from railway undertakings and sell solutions to shippers. Different systems, different rhythms, different KPIs. Your team is asked to be expert in both - without a tool that connects them.
Sub-tenders eat the day
Every shipper request becomes 5-10 sub-tenders to different RUs. Breaking them down, sending them out, comparing the offers, stitching the answer back together — that's the job, when it should be the easy part.
Cross-border is everyone's problem
Different countries, different RUs, different formats. The moment a leg crosses a border, your operations team starts firefighting. Customers feel it before you do, and tenders get lost on response time.
What changes with Rail-Flow
Solutions
Three things every rail forwarder gets when they switch to Rail-Flow.
Efficiency
Translate complex shipper concepts into structured sub-tenders in minutes — and send them in parallel to all suitable RUs. Stop building tenders in Excel; start running them as a system.
Visibility
Real-time status across every leg, every RU, every border. Margin visibility from offer through to invoicing. The same picture for sales, operations, and finance — at the same time.
Connection
Buy side and sell side on one platform. Shipper offers (ROM) and RU procurement (PTM) connected end to end. 315+ rail freight providers across 27 countries — one click away when your usual partners are full.
HOW IT WORKS
From shipper concept to invoice — buy side and sell side connected.
Rail-Flow guides every rail-forwarding move through five connected stages — so the offer you give the shipper and the contracts you have with RUs always tell the same story.
Order-to-cash process timeline
Step 2
Sub-tender breakdown
Translate the shipper concept into segmented sub-tenders. Send each section to all suitable railway undertakings simultaneously. Standardised formats, structured comparisons.
Step 3
Award & contract
Compare RU offers per segment side by side. Award the right partner per leg. Lock the buy-side contracts. Confirm the shipper offer with real, secured costs — not estimates.
Step 4
Execute & coordinate
Plan, dispatch, and track every leg across multiple RUs and borders. Live status. Pro-active deviation alerts. Shipper sees the same picture you see — automatically.
Step 5
Invoice & reconcile
Auto-match RU invoices to awarded contracts. Real-time margin per shipment. Send shipper invoices fast. Disputes resolved with audit trails. Working capital protected.
Products
Built for rail forwarding.
Three products you can adopt individually or as a connected suite. Most rail forwarders start with PTM where the procurement pain is sharpest — and expand to ROM and Transport Management once value is proven.
PURCHASE & TENDER MANAGEMENT
Sub-tender complex shipper concepts in minutes.
PTM is built for the unique procurement side of rail forwarding. Break shipper transport concepts into structured sub-tenders, send them in parallel to 315+ rail providers across 27 countries, compare offers per segment, and award the right partner per leg. Used today by ARS Altmann, VTG Rail Logistics, and InfraLeuna.
OFFER MANAGEMENT AND CRM
The sell-side companion to your buy-side procurement.
ROM is the sell-side platform that connects directly to your PTM procurement. Build shipper offers with real, secured RU costs — not estimates. Manage customer relationships, margin per shipment, and contracts in one CRM that understands rail forwarding's complexity.
TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT
Execute every leg, across every border, on one platform.
Transport Management handles the operational layer once the offer is signed and the sub-tenders are awarded. Plan, dispatch, track, and invoice across multiple RUs and borders. Live status, pro-active deviation alerts, and audit-ready reconciliation between buy-side and sell-side.
Ready to see it in action?
See how rail forwarders run on Rail-Flow.
Book a 30-minute demo with our rail forwarding team. We'll walk through your specific procurement, offer, and execution workflow — no slides, no pitch.
Customer Stories
How rail forwarders win with Rail-Flow.
Real rail forwarding, real results.
Railway Operator
Running Offer Management & Transport execution for European Vision Rail
Captrain runs six legal entities across European rail freight markets. Before Rail-Flow: each entity managed sales separately, scattered information, inconsistent offer templates, through put times that stretched across weeks, and management with no view of the pipeline across the group. With Rail-Flow Offer Management and CRM: one sales architecture, six brands, one shared customer database underneath. Pipeline visibility from inquiry to award across every entity, and standardised offer documents that reflect the right brand, the right contract terms, every time.
Products used: ROM, PTM
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FEATURES FOR RAIL FORWARDERS
Built-in capabilities that matter for rail forwarding.
The features rail forwarders ask about most often — all included, all production-ready.
FEATURED FOR RAIL FORWARDERS
Sub-tender breakdown across providers
Translate a complex shipper concept into structured sub-tenders. Split by leg, by border, by traction type. Send each segment to all suitable railway undertakings simultaneously. The single biggest difference between Excel-driven forwarding and a real rail forwarding platform.
Team collaboration on offers
Forward incoming requests to colleagues without giving them platform access. Collaborate on feasibility checks and offer creation with shared notes — so the right person reviews each tender before it goes out.
Provider rating and regional matching
Auto-match planned vs. executed costs per shipment. Send customer invoices straight after execution. Verify supplier invoices automatically against contracts and actual transports protect your working capital.
Rail-Flow Marketplace
Source missing intermodal slots when your usual partners are full.
When the operator you usually use can't take the load, the Marketplace gives you direct access to 315+ rail freight providers across 27 countries. Post a request, compare offers, book, without spending the day on the phone. ICB for intermodal slots, PTM for rail traction.
Questions intermodal forwarders ask
The questions we hear most often during TMS evaluation. Anything missing? Just ask during the demo.
Have a question that's not covered here? Reach out and we'll get back to you within one business day.
Does Rail-Flow work for multimodal operations, or only rail?
Rail-first, intermodal-fully-supported. The TMS handles block trains, wagon groups, single wagon, load units (trailers, containers, swap bodies), and the surrounding legs by road, barge, and ferry — all managed end-to-end through Intermodal Offer Management and Intermodal Capacity Booking.
Can Rail-Flow integrate with SAP?
Yes. Rail-Flow plugs into SAP, existing TMS, and legacy ERP systems via standard EDI and open APIs. For industrial shippers, Rail-Flow typically acts as the rail-and-intermodal extension on top of SAP.
What's the difference between the TMS and the Marketplace?
The TMS runs your operations - contracts, planning, execution, invoicing. The Marketplace connects you to Europe's rail freight network for tendering and booking. They work standalone, and even better together.
How long does implementation take?
Typical go-live is 8–12 weeks for the TMS, depending on scope and integrations. Marketplace sign-up is instant - most teams are running their first tender the same week.
Can we start with just one product?
Yes. Most customers start with one - typically Transport Management or the Marketplace - and add others as needed.
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