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 … Read More
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 … Read More
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 … Read More
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 … Read More
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 … Read More
How do truckers find 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. … Read More
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 … Read More
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 … Read More
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 … Read More
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 … Read More
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 … Read More
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.
How is freight priced? A dive into freight rates by mode of transit
Understanding freight cost per unit across different transportation modes is a key to determining what mode is the most cost-effective and timely to ship goods from point A to point … Read More
How the DOE National Average is created and why it doesn’t tell you everything about the cost of diesel for truckers
The DOE National Average is the weekly average cost of retail diesel, assessed by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). For many carriers, the price they actually pay for fuel is different than the the DOE National Average. Why is this?
Why spot market data provides an incomplete view of the freight market
Spot market data is often referenced as a key indicator of activity in the trucking market. But the spot market data provides an incomplete and lagging view of market activity.
How are spot rates determined?
Transportation rate analysis is a core part of any seasoned freight forecaster’s role. While the trucking contract market represents 85% of the freight volume in the for-hire truckload industry and … Read More
Good news: The freight market is about to turn up
Freight market forecasting is a tricky game these days. Historical freight market data models provide good reference points, but because of the unprecedented nature of COVID-19 (a classic example of … Read More
Why relying only on historical freight market data provides an incomplete view of forecasted freight demand and market dynamics
There are nuances in the economy that weren’t variables a decade or even a year ago. The landscape is ever-changing despite a few core fundamentals that hold everything together. This … Read More