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The system should help you grow and not keep you in one place. — Michel ten Hove, CFO at FCE Transport.
About FCE Transport
FCE Transport is a Netherlands-based carrier specialising in groupage and general haulage across Eastern Europe. They have deep expertise in four core markets — Czechia, Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary, but have routes stretching as far as Greece.
The team handles city-centre deliveries and runs regular lanes from the Netherlands across the continent. From October to April, they also operate frost-free transport for temperature-sensitive cargo — such as paint — maintaining consistent conditions throughout transit.
A share of FCE’s work is done on behalf of other transport companies who don’t route into Eastern Europe themselves. “We can do city deliveries in the heart of Budapest,” says Michel ten Hove, CFO at FCE Transport. “Other operators come to us because we have the knowledge and the partners on the ground.”
How they found Qargo
The team was already deep into evaluating TMS options when their Co-Owner received a LinkedIn message from one of the Qargo team. By that point, FCE had nearly made a decision elsewhere.
“We almost decided to go with another company,” Michel recalls. “Then Qargo said, ‘Can we have a chance to show you what we do?’ We said — of course.”
It was a good call. “From the very first meeting, we were enthused.”
The challenge
FCE had been running on another TMS that had served them well in the early years. But as the business grew, they needed a system that would grow with them.
The previous system had no driver app and order entry was slow and manual — around three to four minutes per job. And invoicing was a weekly bottleneck: the team had to wait until trucks physically returned before they could photograph CMRs, then manually check every invoice in their accounting software, line by line.
“The system should help you grow and not keep you in one place,” says Jasper. “It was good when we started. But we needed more options — and a team that could build what we asked for.”
Integrations
FCE has connected Qargo to key tools across accounting, customer visibility and planning.
Exact (accounting): Both buying and selling invoices now flow automatically into Exact, with no manual imports or line-by-line checking. “In the old system, I had to import everything and check every invoice one by one,” Michel says. “Qargo sends it automatically to the right department and books it automatically.”
Customer API integrations: FCE is currently testing connecting their customer’s systems directly to Qargo via API, so that when a trip is created or updated, the change is visible instantly in the customer’s own platform. “When we change the unloading date, they see it straight away in their own system.” – Jasper Fix, Co-owner of FCE Transport
Onboarding
FCE’s approach to onboarding was very thorough.
Before going live, one team member was taken fully off operations for two to three months to focus solely on learning the platform. He then trained the rest of the team internally. By the time Qargo arrived on-site for three to four days, FCE already had strong working knowledge — and had tested orders and accounting flows in the sandbox environment before committing to go-live.
“One of our team members studied the programme for months — nothing else,” Jasper explains. “Then he trained everyone else before we went live. When the Qargo team came on-site, it all went very smoothly.”
The solution
Once live, the impact was felt immediately — across planning, admin and cash flow.
Order entry, previously a three-to-four-minute process per job, now takes around a minute. AI-powered PDF scanning reads incoming customer orders and auto-fills the relevant fields.
The bigger unlock came in invoicing. Before Qargo, the team waited for trucks to physically return before they could photograph CMRs and begin billing — sometimes a week or more. Now drivers upload documents from the tablet the moment a delivery is confirmed.
“If the driver has unloaded the goods, he takes a picture of the CMR and we can send the invoice,” Michel says. “So it’s also speeding up our payments.” Invoices now go out within one to two days.
With Exact connected, the accounting side runs a lot more efficiently. No manual imports, no checking every line. And with the customer portal and direct API links keeping clients informed in real time, the volume of inbound calls and emails has dropped noticeably.
Visibility has improved across the board. Bigger planning screens, cleaner dashboards and accessible historical data mean the team can see what’s happening now — and look back on what’s been done before.
“What we did last week, what we did last month for this customer — it’s all clear in the system,” says Jasper. “Data is key.”
The time saved on admin goes straight back into the business. And FCE has seen revenue grow by around €1.5 million in the last six months.
The results
Since switching to Qargo, FCE Transport has seen measurable improvements across operations, cash flow and team capacity.
✅ ~50% reduction in admin time across the business
✅ Order entry ~50% faster — from 3–4 minutes to around a minute per job, powered by AI
✅ Invoices sent in 1–2 days instead of waiting up to a week for trucks to return
✅ Automatic invoice reconciliation via Exact — no manual line-by-line checking
✅ Fewer customer calls and emails thanks to real-time visibility via portal and direct API connections
✅ Clearer financial data — dashboards give management visibility of revenue, costs and job history
What’s next?
Jasper is excited about AI’s potential in relation to planning.
FCE is also becoming an informal showcase for Qargo within their network. Two companies are already live after visiting FCE’s office and seeing the platform in action, with a third going live imminently.
“Every month, companies call us to ask how Qargo is going,” says Jasper. “Some of them come here to the office and see it for themselves. When more companies are using it, collaboration gets easier too — especially with the API connections.”
Final thoughts
Qargo is helping us with everything we don’t need to spend time on — so we can focus on the things we do now – and in the future. — Jasper Fix, COO, FCE Transport B.V.
