How much do freight brokers get paid? Infographic
Freight Brokerage Location According to a survey of 219 freight brokers, the most popular locations to start or open a new freight brokerage are: Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Nashville, Tennessee; and Austin, Texas. The three most expensive cities to locate a freight brokerage are: New York, Seattle and Dallas. The three least expensive […]
Fastest growing brokerage in North America is innovating – Freight Forecasting
This edition of Freight Forecasting features Jason Roberts, President of Avenger Logistics. He and FreightWaves’ Freight Forecasting host Michael Vincent discuss how Avenger uses SONAR to keep its employees up-to-date on key trends and data so that they can make tactical and strategic decisions. Watch the episode below: Avenger Logistics is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. […]
Importance of tracking Class 8 truck orders
Trucking rates are partly driven by capacity, which is very sensitive to small changes in supply and demand. If you want to understand capacity, it makes sense to follow new truck orders and new truck builds. New class 8 truck orders tend to correlate well with the trucking cycle. As the trucking industry heats up, […]
Breakdown of trucking rate variations infographic
There are many different ways that full truckload rates are priced. Freight forecasters need to understand the similarities and differences for each to accurately predict transportation rates across dry van, refrigerated, flatbed, and bulk loads. Rates for full truckload Rate per mile is typically presented without a fuel surcharge included. So, a $2.00 per mile […]
How to make more accurate trucking spot rate predictions
One of the most important tasks for freight forecasters is forecasting transportation rates, which are localized. That means that rates in Los Angeles are different from rates in Chicago or Dallas or any market large or small. The two primary types of transportation rates are contract rates and spot rates, which exist in each market. […]
Trading trucking company stocks
If you are a long-term investor in or a trader of trucking company stocks, we believe it is imperative to follow the FreightWaves SONAR outbound tender volumes index (OTVI) and outbound tender rejections index (OTRI). The reasons for this are two-fold: trucking stocks tend to trade based on a carrier’s financial performance; and future expectations […]
What is the difference between spot rates and contract rates
When shippers are looking to move freight, they can pay one of two rates to do so: long-term contractual rates or short-term spot rates. Contract rates Contract rates make up 80% of the trucking market and make sense for both carriers and shippers when freight is consistent and travels on regular lanes. Contract rates are […]
How big is the contract market?
According to Goldman Sachs and SJ Consulting, the total North American trucking market generates $780 billion annually. Of this $780 billion, $360 billion is derived from for-hire full truckload, with most of the balance ($355 billion) from private fleets and the remainder ($65 billion) from less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers. Therefore, if we attempt to size the […]
How to use SONAR to monitor freight markets
Freight volumes SONAR’s outbound tender volume index (OTVI) measures electronically tendered truckload volumes across the U.S. Overall OTVI is indexed to 10,000 (March 1, 2018) and is the aggregated volume in 135 U.S. freight markets. OTVI is the most accurate near-time view of the full truckload markets. Freight forecasters use the OTVI index to monitor […]
How do tender reject rates predict the freight economy?
Tender rejections occur when a contracted carrier rejects an electronic load request from a shipper customer. FreightWaves SONAR measures the former via the outbound tender reject index (OTRI). Carriers really only have two reasons for rejecting a contracted load. One, they do not have available capacity to service the request. Or, two, there are more […]
How Do Truckers Find Freight Loads?
Like all business owners, truckers need to sell their services and find customers. Unlike other businesses though, truckers need customers with freight in the right place, at the right time. Building a network of shippers with freight at the right place at the right time is difficult. Many truckers just do not have the time […]
What factors drive the trucking freight economy?
Freight forecasters need to understand what drives the freight economy in order to forecast volumes, capacity and rates. Much like the general economy, the variables that drive the freight economy are too numerous to count. However, we can narrow down the principal factors to a select few that really move the needle. Many of these […]
Freight Brokerage Benchmarking: Your Prescription for Success
Let’s face it, starting a brokerage does not require significant upfront capital, relative to other businesses in other industries. In fact, many of the nation’s top logistics operations started with a telephone, a prospect list and the dream of an entrepreneur. Despite the ease of entry, growing a successful brokerage business with true staying power […]
Announcing SONAR Signals: An out of the box offering for third-party developers
This morning FreightWaves launched new features and products that make the SONAR data platform even easier to use and will help transportation companies make data-driven decisions at all levels in their organizations. Lane Signal gives shippers, carriers and brokers real-time trucking spot rates, pricing power information, and volume and capacity data on any origin-destination pair […]
FreightWaves launches Mission Control
FreightWaves now offers clients their own customizable TV network. “Mission Control can be customized to your audience, can feature your data, and promotes your brand to as many companies and people that you want,” explained Craig Fuller, CEO of FreightWaves. Mission Control is powered by FreightWaves SONAR data and the award-winning FreightWavesTV video platform. Mission […]
FreightWaves SONAR adds Lane Signal app
FreightWaves SONAR now provides analytics down to the lane level. SONAR subscribers can see and use data on a freight lane at the granular level. FreightWaves launched SONAR two years ago – the first platform to provide real-time market data based on tendered transactions. Tenders are electronically transmitted load requests from shippers to carriers. For […]
Why destination matters for freight rates
While origin matters for transportation rate forecasting, the destination is often times more important. The transportation rates for a backhaul destination are naturally higher than transportation rates for a headhaul market. This holds for all freight moved by truck, rail/intermodal, ocean or air.
How to develop freight forecasts using SONAR
Forecasting trucking rates is one of the most important roles for all freight forecasters. Load volumes and truck capacity for individual markets are the primary drivers in developing freight forecasts. Each individual freight market has its own unique load demand and truck capacity cycles. These cycles are most often linked to seasonal demand patterns and the ratio of outbound to inbound freight volumes in each market.
Freight economy rebound may be underway. Carrier bankruptcies and unseated trucks will drive next spot rate surge.
Freight volumes are slowly come back to trucking market, but it will take a while before volumes in the contract freight market are significant enough to drive higher spot rates. There is a potential capacity shortage by the end of the year, caused by unseated trucks and trucking bankruptcies.
5 Tips for a Freight Broker Sales Pitch
Prospecting for new business is a key part of a freight brokerage business. There are numerous ways for a freight broker to prospect. While there will always be a debate on which is the most effective, the top freight brokers use multiple prospecting methods to land new customers and increase their gross margins by mastering […]
