To Stock Analysts, Container Size Matters
International intermodal was the main driver of the double-digit growth in Q1 intermodal volume. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves) SONAR customers run the gamut from multinational shippers to carriers, logistics companies, consultancies, government agencies, and buy- and sell-side stock analysts. Use cases for the intermodal data in SONAR are similarly varied. Shippers can use intermodal volume data […]
April State of Freight: The Ah Ha Moment
If you’re a shipper, you’ve been riding high for a while now. Large transportation companies and brokerages rode their highs during COVID. When the market leaned more in shippers’ favor, transportation organizations began to dig their heels in the sand when it came to giving back concessions and lowering their rates…until they realized there was […]
The Golden Handcuffs and the Key to Unlocking Success for Brokerages
Most floor brokers land in the industry almost by accident. It’s rare that anyone ever says, “I want to be a freight broker when I grow up”…it either happens by referral from a friend or a random job posting. But once you enter the industry, it is nearly impossible to leave. Brokers are typically paid […]
How Brokers Optimize Their Network With Market Dashboard Plus
Throughout the past two years, brokers have struggled to find external opportunities in spot bidding or RFP environments. When the market is loose as it has been since early 2023, brokers have had to secure rates at break-even or below cost levels in order to win new business, making it hard to scale or achieve […]
The Current State of the Freight Brokerage Environment
Photo by Jim Allen Long-lived, loose freight market environments are extremely challenging for freight brokerages, but if the market tightens sharply, many brokers will experience a nightmare scenario, with all of their contracts falling under water. Many brokerages’ books of business consist of a mix of transactional spot and managed transportation/contract activity. Tight markets favor […]
What Support Do You Get From Your Technology Providers?
Have you purchased some type of technology in the past year to support your business? If so, then you probably know that customer service is not always at the top of most vendors’ minds once the sale has been made. SONAR is different. We have built an incredible customer success team that is dedicated to […]
Navigating the Freight Landscape: Leveraging Key Market Areas for Supply Chain Success
In today’s complex freight industry, comprehending regional market nuances is essential for logistics professionals looking to navigate the intricacies of supply chain management. Key market areas (KMAs) serve as critical geographical segments, delineated by 3-digit ZIP code areas. With 135 such entities spread across the United States, KMAs offer microcosms of freight market behavior, influenced […]
Supply Chain Benchmarking for Beginners
You don’t have to use historical data to justify your contracts…or at least you shouldn’t. Transportation pros from the executive seat down to the entry-level analyst have better data to lean on to make their jobs easier. A common way for shippers to run RFPs, annual bids or even shorter projects is to simply rely […]
How Brokerages Can Proactively Identify Market Volatility
SONAR tickers: OTRI.CHI, OTVI.CHI, VOTLT.CHI SONAR’s brokerage customers utilize multiple data sets to determine where the greatest opportunities lie as different markets experience volatility. Tender volumes, rejections, market share and lead times help identify market conditions before a broker sees a disruption in rates. Think of tender volumes as the demand for capacity whereas tender […]
How We Use Data to Better Plan for Produce Season
Photo credit: Jim Allen Produce is a small portion of the volume of freight in the United States, but it can be one of the most disruptive forces in the industry. Brokers and produce shippers are well aware of the typical timing of these disruptions, but oftentimes a shipper can be blindsided by massive variations […]
The Right Data in the Right Place for the Right People
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about how much data we have…if you’re new to SONAR, it’s a lot. SONAR boasts more than $1.7 trillion in annual supply chain data across more than 300,000 unique data points/deliverables. That’s enough to make a head spin. It’s like walking into Willy Wonka’s factory and wondering what […]
Unlock Leading Indicators for Drayage Demand With SONAR
Photo by Jim Allen Drayage is a tricky market to dissect with a data solution. This is due to the drayage industry being highly fragmented, which makes pricing opaque. Everything from pricing to planning can be limited due to the lack of available intel. Sizeable drayage carriers have told us in recent days that […]
Who Cares About Data Integrity?
We do. Much has been made in recent weeks about supply chain data providers changing historical metrics. Users across the industry have been coming up with their own theories, scrambling to match and compare historicals with their provider, and wondering what they can consider to be “truth.” You’ll never guess where I’m going with this. […]
The Long Road to Just-in-Time
The adage goes, “It takes a long time to become an overnight success.” It’s also a long road to meet just-in-time delivery. For years prior to the pandemic, the consistency and integrity of global trade lanes meant that the industry viewed costs and lead times as assumptions rather than obstacles, especially as each generation of […]
Distilling inherent capacity conditions with Lane Scores
Whoa…what a title, right? But let’s not overcomplicate things: having the right data beats having a lot of data. (It helps that we have both, but we’ll save that for another blog). In this fast-paced, competitive world, it is critical to leverage data to make informed decisions quickly. For a broker, this means understanding when […]
Forecasting trends with aggregated flatbed data
It’s building season. Housing starts are calling for lumber kits, industrial purchasers are ordering products for their projects, and construction companies are planning their moves and strategies for the year. Shippers often manage transportation for these projects with historical data, bids from trusted carriers and a lot of guesswork. That’s getting ready to change. The […]
FreightWaves SONAR flatbed data now available in Trucker Tools app
FreightWaves SONAR is dedicated to creating a fair and transparent marketplace for all transportation players to manage their businesses effectively and efficiently. In order to build that brighter future, we need to establish clear market signals that all players can agree upon to act fairly and equitably. This builds stronger relationships and boosts service and […]
Tai Software, FreightWaves SONAR team up to shape future of logistics industry
The logistics industry is overflowing with ambitious companies pursuing innovative ideas. A much smaller number of players, however, have what it takes to shape the way the industry operates on a grand scale. FreightWaves has accomplished that through SONAR, and the company is committed to partnering with other industry standouts working toward similar goals — […]
SONAR introduces improved market-level pricing methodology
FreightWaves SONAR recently unveiled an update designed to give users new ways to analyze data — especially pricing data.
Flatbed spot rate APIs now available
At the F3: Future of Freight Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last week, FreightWaves Chief Data and Technology Officer Daniel Pickett announced the release of flatbed spot rates via API. FreightWaves publishes daily flatbed spot rates from key market area to key market area based on transactional data provided by the largest transportation and logistics providers […]
