SONAR’s December updates bring AI-powered insights and enhanced user experience

Coverage Guide: AI-powered freight market intelligence

The centerpiece of this update is the Coverage Guide, an AI-driven application within SONAR’s new Broker Tool Kit. This innovative feature addresses key operational challenges faced by freight brokers daily:

• Rate and Availability Comparison: Easily compare market availability against your offers.
• Intuitive Decision-Making: Streamlined interface for confident, quick decisions.
• Market Condition Tracking: Real-time insights into market trends.
• Coverage Difficulty Identification: Quickly assess which loads require more effort.

By uploading daily or weekly loads, brokers receive data-driven recommendations, helping them navigate critical questions like optimal timing for offer acceptance and maintaining rate stability while maximizing service.

For more information on the Coverage Guide, check out FreightWaves’ coverage. 

Dive deep with key Market Insights

Building on the national overview, SONAR’s new Market Insights feature offers an in-depth look at individual markets. Users can access this information by:

• Clicking on a market from the National Insights page.
• Searching for any of the 135 Key Market Areas (KMAs).

Each Market Insight provides:

• Immediate capacity condition indicators.
• TRAC Spot Market Conditions.
• Tender volumes and rejections.

This comprehensive view equips users with the sentiment from all sides of the conversation, enhancing decision-making capabilities.

Expanded data: Intermodal contract rates

SONAR now includes a new dataset for intermodal contract rates, covering 67 distinct origin-destination pairs. This addition brings valuable insights into the domestic rail/intermodal segment, focusing on 53-foot domestic container movements.

Key aspects of this new dataset:

• Rates include fuel surcharges.
• Exclude nonfuel accessorial charges.
• Cover door-to-door movements.

To facilitate quicker assessment of national pricing trends, SONAR introduces two new indices:

1. Transcontinental Headhaul Lanes Index.
2. Local East Coast Lanes Index.

These indices offer a more precise view of market conditions compared to individual lanes or national averages.

Excel add-in enhancements

SONAR’s Excel add-in receives two significant updates to improve user experience:

1. Pause Updates button: Users can now build and format spreadsheets without constant data refreshes, streamlining the workflow.

2. Streamlined Lane Score formula: Headers have been removed, allowing for easier integration into tables.

SONAR your AI-Powered Freight Market Intelligence Officer

SONAR’s December 2024 update represents a significant leap forward in freight market intelligence. By incorporating AI-driven insights, enhancing the user interface and expanding data offerings, SONAR continues to empower users with the tools they need to make informed decisions in today’s dynamic freight market.

SONAR, your AI-Powered Freight Market Intelligence Officer, uses data from over 1,000 sources to provide real-time freight market insights. It offers rate benchmarking, demand analysis and forecasting for trucking, rail, ocean and air. Sign up for a demo today at https://gosonar.com/sonar-demo-request.