# Market capability audit: scoping (phase 1) Read on: 30 September 2026. Machine-readable version: `01-scoping.json`. This step decides which load planning products get a dedicated deep audit and lists the public documentation for each one. It does not score capabilities. ## How candidates were found 1. **Competitor-written roundups, used to find names only.** Four roundups were read: loadoptimizer.ai's "Cargo-Planner alternative" page, teuvia.com's "Cargo-Planner alternative" post, EasyCargo's four-part "Which is the best load planning application" series (11 products), and containermath.com's "best container loading software" post. Each is written by a vendor that competes with the products it lists. Nothing they say about other products is used as evidence. One example of why: the EasyCargo series (2023, updated 2026) says Goodloading has no API, but Goodloading now publishes API documentation. 2. **Our own searches**, using a US web index: "best load planning software", "container loading software", "load calculator software", "truck load planning software" (plus a 3D/axle-weight variant), "ULD build-up software air cargo load planning", and "EasyCargo / Cube-IQ / Goodloading alternative". 3. **Software directories.** We used the SourceForge load-planning category (30 products listed), Capterra product pages, AlternativeTo, and GetApp and TrustRadius results that came up in searches. G2 refused automated access (HTTP 403), and the Capterra category URL returned 404. This produced about 40 names. Transport-management systems, load boards and pallet-pattern tools that directories file under "load planning" are grouped together in the exclusions. That leaves 30 entries in the JSON. **Assessment.** For each candidate we fetched the vendor site and its documentation entry points, and extracted the documentation links. Help-centre size was counted in one of three ways: from the pages' own links, through the vendor's WordPress REST API (Goodloading), or through the public Zendesk help-centre API (MagicLogic). PDF manuals were downloaded, and their page count and version were read from the file. Every URL listed as reachable returned HTTP 200 on 30 September 2026. **Criteria:** - **(a) Presence and seriousness:** named in roundups, directory listings, recent releases or dated content, and signals of company size. - **(b) Segment overlap:** how close the product is to general-purpose 3D load optimisation for shippers and forwarders. - **(c) Auditability:** how much written documentation a buyer can reach without contacting sales. This matters most because the audit measures only documented capability. ## Deep tier (8) | Product | Vendor | Presence | Overlap | Auditability | Main public sources | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | EasyCargo | Bee Interactive (CZ) | High | High | High | Help centre (~89 articles), REST API v1 reference, release notes (newest July 2026) | | Cube-IQ (incl. Cube-IQ Web, BlackBox) | MagicLogic (US) | High | High | Medium | Zendesk help centre (~100 articles, updated to Sep 2026), Cube-IQ/BlackBox REST manual (35 topics) | | CubeMaster Online | Logen Solutions | High | High | High | API V2 guide (~100k characters, full schema incl. Rules object), Swagger UI, 40-question FAQ, features page | | Goodloading | Trans.eu Group (PL) | High | High | High | 69-page English manual (updated Sep 2026), API field reference, FAQ | | packVol | packVol.com (IT) | Medium | Medium | High | 123-page user guide for the current version (4.1.4), dated changelog, 7 text tutorials | | MaxLoad Pro | TOPS Software (US) | Medium | Medium | High | 268-page user guide v4.0 (April 2018), 25-page tutorial, release summary, about 20 tech notes | | SeaRates Load Calculator | SeaRates | High | High | Medium | Load Calculator API reference, small help category, how-to blog posts | | LoadOptimizer.ai | LoadOptimizer.ai | Medium | High | High | 24-page API docs with an OpenAPI 3.1 contract, FAQ | **Why each is in the deep tier:** - **EasyCargo** was required by the brief. It would qualify on all three criteria anyway. - **Cube-IQ** was required by the brief. It is a long-established engine at an enterprise price point. - Its help centre is large, but it sits behind a Cloudflare bot check. Its auditor should read it through the public Zendesk API or a real browser. - API JSON schemas and the downloads page are gated. - BlackBox is treated as part of this entry, not as a separate product. The public REST manual describes one "Cube-IQ / BlackBox REST API", which reads and writes the Cube-IQ database and sends jobs to the BlackBox optimiser. MagicLogic says BlackBox contains "a separate optimization engine, developed specifically for mixed palletization". It does not say publicly whether BlackBox's container-loading engine is the same as Cube-IQ's. **That is unresolved.** - **CubeMaster** is a long-running cloud optimiser with high overlap. Among the established vendors, it publishes the most schema-level documentation, which shows the engine's constraints directly. - **Goodloading** has high presence and overlap, and a large manual that is kept up to date. Its focus is European road freight, but it also covers sea and air containers and palletisation. - **packVol** is from a small vendor, but it is a general-purpose engine with an unusually complete manual for the current version. It represents desktop/integrable engines. - **MaxLoad Pro** has little roundup presence. It is included because a large manual for the current release is publicly downloadable, and it represents shipper/manufacturer-side desktop tools. - **Caveat:** the manual is from 2018, although v4.0 is still listed as the current release. Anything added since may be undocumented. - **SeaRates** is part of a large freight platform that forwarders are likely to compare. Its UI help is thin, so most evidence will come from its API reference. It is the least auditable product in the deep tier and should be dropped first if there is not enough capacity. - **LoadOptimizer.ai** has high overlap and public docs that focus on constraints. Its track record is short, and some of its visibility comes from its own content marketing (it wrote one of the discovery roundups). ## Light tier (11) | Product | Overlap | Auditability | Reason for light tier | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | CargoWiz (Softtruck) | High | Low | Named often, but the only written documentation is one features page. Instruction seems to be video only. | | ContainerMath | High | Medium | Founded in 2026 with about 2 staff (third-party data). Has a one-page guide and a 2-endpoint API. Pages are JS-rendered. | | 3DBinPacking | Medium | High | Well documented, but mainly a packing/cartonisation API rather than a forwarder load planner. | | Truck Packer | Low | High | Good docs, but built for touring/AV crews (a vertical niche). | | Load! (Daubnet) | Medium | Low | Low-cost desktop tool. Only a single product page. | | PackApp (NextCargo) | Medium | Low | Small German web tool. Its linked API article returns 404. | | Cargo Optimizer (Dreamsofts) | Medium | Low | Long-running desktop/mobile tool. No manual found. | | 3D Load Calculator (pier2pier) | Low | Low | Free web calculator on a freight portal. | | Cape Truckfill (Esko) | Medium | Low | Packaging-oriented. Its help centre is a JS-only Salesforce site, and public content could not be confirmed. | | Load Xpert | Low | Low | Specialises in axle weights, railcars and paper rolls. No manual found. | | LoadMaster (Beijing) | Medium | Low | Checked only for reachability. Documentation depth is uncertain. | ## Excluded - **Teuvia:** the vendor describes its 3D planner as being in early access, and there are no product docs. Revisit later. - **Stowplan:** launched on 25 July 2026. Too new to assess. Revisit later. - **Rutinex Cargo Planner:** only a directory listing (0 reviews). No vendor documentation found. - **LoadPlanner CAD:** only a directory listing. Vendor and docs not verified. - **Optioryx:** a warehouse optimisation tool (picking, palletisation, cartonisation), and its knowledge base is video. - **Air-cargo systems** (SkyLoad iQ/OLINTEK, Unisys Logistics Optimization, Kale, Cind ContourSpect, Boeing/Tapestry, Smart4Aviation): these serve airlines and ground handlers rather than shippers or forwarders, and their documentation is mostly sales-gated. - **Load-building modules inside enterprise TMS/WMS suites** (SAP TM, Blue Yonder, ORTEC, Oracle OTM, Descartes): not standalone planners, and there is little public documentation of the loading engine itself. - **Transport-management, dispatch and load-board products listed under "load planning" in directories:** they plan freight in the dispatch sense, not 3D placement of cargo. - **Pallet-pattern, packaging and cartonisation tools** (treeDiM Picador, Cape Pack, TOPS Pro, CubeDesigner, Palletizer, Packio, Vovsoft, Paccurate): outside general 3D load planning. - **Cargo-Planner:** excluded by design. The commissioning company is mapped last, in a separate step. ## Access notes for auditors - **MagicLogic help centre:** use `https://support.magiclogic.com/api/v2/help_center/en-us/articles.json` (public, paginated). The HTML pages return a Cloudflare challenge to automated fetchers. - **EasyCargo API reference:** the go.easycargo3d.com link redirects (301) to `s1.easycargo3d.com/Content/Documentation/Api/v1/index.htm`. - **CubeMaster:** use `cubemaster.net` without `www`. The `www` host did not resolve during scoping. - **Goodloading manual:** its pages can be listed through `/wp-json/wp/v2/manual` (552 entries across all languages, 69 in English). - **ContainerMath and parts of SeaRates** are JS-rendered and need a fetcher that runs JavaScript. ## Limitations of this scoping - **Discovery started from competitor-written roundups.** That can over-represent products those vendors chose to compare against, including the roundup authors themselves (LoadOptimizer.ai, ContainerMath, Teuvia, EasyCargo). Our own searches and directories were added to offset this, but the search tool uses a US index and does not reproduce Google rankings in any given country. - **Directory review counts turned out to be unusable.** Capterra pages fetched for EasyCargo and Cube-IQ showed 0 reviews, and G2 could not be accessed. Presence was therefore judged from roundup mentions, directory listings, activity dates and the vendors' own size claims. The size claims are unverified (e.g. CubeMaster's "13,000+ subscribers", Cube-IQ's "3,000+ users"). - **The auditability criterion shapes who gets audited.** Well-documented products are favoured, so CargoWiz (widely named, but video-first) is in the light tier. This fits an audit of documented capability, but it means the matrix will under-represent products that document themselves poorly. - **The search was mainly in English**, with some German, Czech and Polish vendors found through roundups. Regional products in China, Japan, Latin America and similar markets may be missing. LoadMaster (CN) is the only one we checked. - **Deep-tier choice between SeaRates, LoadOptimizer.ai, packVol and MaxLoad Pro was a judgement call.** Their combined scores are close, and a reasonable reviewer could swap CargoWiz or 3DBinPacking in for one of them. - **Parts of the vendor facts come from third parties and are unverified:** founding dates, headcounts, and LoadOptimizer.ai's country. The JSON marks these where they occur.