What do you do once you’ve secured consistent shippers as your customer base? Now that you’re operating on solid ground, built on long-term partnerships and organizational efficiency, this is a good time to step out and tackle new areas of business. The stability you worked so hard to create fuels your expansion now.
Expansion can come in the form of new industries to service, new geographic areas, or new types of freight entirely. Tools like DAT iQ shine here – we take over $150B in annualized invoices and turn that into actionable market data. You’ll see the most profitable lanes, hot or cool markets, and insight into historical, current, and forecasted rates. It’s a 360-degree view of the market that makes sure that your business’ expansion and diversification are informed and built on sound rationale.
Plus, we make it easy to understand the industry. As you’re growing, your understanding of logistics’ complexity will grow, too. As your operation and understanding grow, the right tools will help. Here are a couple of our favorites.
Read our free ebook, “Finding Shippers,” and grow your business
Market Conditions Index (MCI)
MCI is a simple, definitive metric for truckload supply and demand, showing you how many trucks are in a market in comparison to available loads. With that information, you’ll identify seasonality shifts, and geographically normalized search and post behavior. Plus, it accounts for inbound and outbound volume.
We see early-stage brokers quoting prices to shippers without knowing the balance of supply and demand. Brokers with MCI in their toolboxes know how much it costs to find trucks for shippers. They see where trucks are hard to find, and price accordingly. This helps brokers negotiate with solid footing. It’ll be easy to find where you have breathing room for lower rates and where you can anticipate paying a premium.
MCI also has a forecasting element that lets you look ahead at load-to-truck ratios for the upcoming 8 days. With that, you can schedule shipments for days when the capacity conditions are working in your favor.
RateView
RateView makes pricing easy. With it, brokers can look at historical and forecasted rates for any lane or market. It’s a safeguard against misinformed quotes that leave you without a profit margin.
RateView is a synthesis of over $150B in freight transactions from over 68,000 shipping lanes. Once that data is sorted and categorized, brokers have a transparent view of how the market handles rates on any given lane. That information powers confident negotiating and gives you the upper hand.
The above is an excerpt from Finding Shippers 101, a new guide from DAT showing early-stage brokers how to get off the ground and find customers. Click here to read the full ebook.
