Freight Broker Business: 5 Tips for Improving Your Brokerage P&L Sheet
Operating a freight broker business in a competitive industry takes grit, perseverance and love of the grind to keep the lights on and the phones ringing. It also takes quite a bit of strategy to manage and grow the profit and loss sheet (P&L). It’s not all about growth at any cost for most in […]
How contract freight and spot freight analysis guides mini-bids
Spot freight rates are higher. Contract freight rates are lower. Contracted capacity is severely limited. Contracted capacity in each lane is the most competitive it’s ever been. Contracted capacity and tender rejections are at record highs. Spot rates are still climbing. Now, contract rates are climbing in tandem. And the election is putting more pressure […]
SONAR Indices & Insights: What is the Headhaul Index & What to do with Outbound Volumes at All-Time Highs
It’s another Monday and the SONAR team is ready for another “SONAR Indices & Insights”. Each Monday, you’ll learn about another index found within the freight forecasting platform from FreightWaves, SONAR. This week we’ll focus on the Head Haul Index and how when you understand this index, you can get a sense of capacity in […]
Bidding on freight services: four primary categories for bidding and negotiating rates
Freight management parties understand the value of modern practices with respect to bidding on freight services. There will be times when the existing freight service strategy falls short. As a result, shippers and other freight management parties may need to engage in new bidding to secure better rates and source available capacity. Unfortunately, the differences […]
Tips for Freight Brokers to Develop Shipper Relationships & Gain Their Business
It is often difficult for freight brokers to get in front of shippers to let them know about their services. One of the main reasons is that freight brokerage is a highly competitive industry with little clear differentiation between individual freight brokers and the freight brokerages they work for. In this article, the FreightWaves team will […]
Freight bidding: What is a mini-bid and why would one conduct a mini-bid?
Understanding the value of freight bidding remains elusive for many modern supply chain managers and leaders. Freight bidding processes are generally reserved for when negotiating contractual terms with a given carrier or logistics service provider (LSP). However, the ability to apply and leverage modern freight data and real-time insights has transformed the process. And now, […]
Carrier Relations & Data-Driven Decision-Making – Freight Forecasting (video)
Freight Forecasting host Michael Vincent is joined by Matt Pyatt, CEO of Arrive Logistics. Michael and Matt have a discussion about data-driven decision-making. They focus on carrier relations and management from a third-party logistics provider (3PL) perspective. Watch the episode below: They also discuss how various SONAR indices can generate a positive impact on broker/carrier […]
Best Practices for 3PLs Using Freight Data – Freight Forecasting (video)
Freight Forecasting host Michael Vincent is joined by Tom Curee, the Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at Kingsgate Logistics. Michael and Tom discuss data intelligence and how it helps provide Kingsgate Logistics with added value for its customers as well as other best practices for 3PLs using freight data. Watch the Full Episode […]
6 Tips in Selecting a Market Freight Rate Data Tool
The world of freight management continues to evolve, but the systems that help individual companies prioritize needs and keep freight spend under control may quickly become outdated. At the same time, the traditional belief in a spot versus contract market is starting to fall as the industry realizes that the market rate – based on […]
Pricing Tools, Predictive Rates, and The Ocean – Freight Forecasting (video)
Zach Strickland, FreightWaves’ Director of Freight Market Intelligence (and the “Sultan of SONAR”), joins Freight Forecasting host Michael Vincent on this episode. Zach and Michael discuss the new SONAR 7.0 release and its new features, which include Lane Scorecard, Ocean Shipments Report and Reefer Rates (beta). Watch the episode below: Lane Scorecard can uncomplicate a […]
4 Top Challenges for Shippers in Capturing Freight Market Rate Deviations
Understanding true freight market rates remains deceptive for shippers. Carriers realize that regardless of what contracts exist, it all comes down to carriers and drivers. Drivers in certain parts of the market, particularly driving on high-profit lanes, will choose freight based on their preferences. It’s evident by looking at the current rate of tender rejections […]
SONAR Indexes & Insights: What is the Outbound Tender Volume Index (OTVI) & Current Impact on Freight Volumes
It’s another Monday and the SONAR team is ready for another “SONAR Indexes & Insights”. Each Monday, you’ll learn about another index found within the freight forecasting platform from FreightWaves, SONAR. This week we’ll focus on freight volumes by defining “What is the Outbound Tender Volumen Index (OTVI)” and by concluding what these historic freight […]
Prioritizing your day with SONAR – Freight Forecasting (video)
Zach Strickland, FreightWaves’ Director of Freight Market Intelligence (and the “Sultan of SONAR”), joins Freight Forecasting host Michael Vincent on this episode. Zach and Michael discuss how shippers, carriers and brokers can (and many do) use FreightWaves SONAR to prioritize their days and make themselves more effective and efficient. Watch the Full Episode Below Michael […]
What is Alternative Data & How Can Freight Data be a Leading Indicator to Economic Health?
It’s easy to get trapped into a mindset of looking at the same datasets when working through analysis. They’re tried and true, they’re an industry standard, and typically easy to tie back to specific metrics. Alternative data is a bit off the beaten path; sometimes it takes a bit of creativity to connect the dots […]
Forecasting benchmark spot rates
Overview FreightWaves Benchmark Spot Rates provide a cost-based model for setting spot rates for more than 735,000 zip3 origin-destination pairs greater than 250 miles in the contiguous United States. They are based on an empirically derived conceptual model that accounts for market conditions, including tender data, toll data, several other miscellaneous variables, and aggregated carrier […]
Charting Load Volumes and Capacity Fluctuations – Freight Forecasting (video)
Anthony Smith, FreightWaves’ Lead Economist, and Zach Strickland, FreightWaves’ Director of Freight Market Intelligence, join Freight Forecasting host Michael Vincent on this episode. They talk about the state of current freight markets and how SONAR can be utilized to learn what the near-term future might hold. Watch the episode below: Michael, Zach and Anthony also […]
Spot or contract trucking rates? Neither – it’s the “market rate” you should be measuring
Trucking rates are subject to massive sways within the industry. Tariffs may arise. Storms may bring an immediate surge in demand for construction material supplies. The alternative forms of trucking – including construction – have an impact on the market. How? The answer rests with the drivers. Without drivers, the trucking rates that are stable […]
Predicting reefer rates is now possible; here’s how
There are three primary types of trailers used in trucking – dry vans, flatbeds and refrigerated trailers, known generally as “reefers.” The volume of reefer trailers continues to sway in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. FleetOwner magazine explained, “spot truckload volumes rose 12% for reefers month-over-month, while flatbed load counts added 9%. Compared to March […]
Carrier sourcing: 7 ways freight brokers look for carriers
For freight brokers there is a method to the madness of covering loads. These carrier sourcing strategies are similar to the order of operations we all learned in algebra. Knowing these steps and learning how to develop new carrier sourcing strategies at the top of the list is the key to improve the percentage of […]
What is driving the current freight market? – Freight Forecasting (video)
Freight Forecasting host Michael Vincent is joined by Anthony Smith, FreightWaves’ Lead Economist, and John Kingston, FreightWaves Editor at Large to discuss what is driving the freight market. Primarily because of the pandemic (but there are other contributing factors), the 2020 freight market to-date has been very different from any other year since the trucking […]
