AI-powered forecasting, benchmarking among key updates in latest SONAR release

For transportation and logistics companies to stay ahead in today’s tough market, maximizing efficiency and cost savings is the name of the game — and the focus of the latest data releases from SONAR, the leader in supply chain market intelligence. Announced live from the Future of Supply Chain event in Atlanta on June 4-5, these updates provide SONAR users with new levels of insight to power decision-making. 

• TRAC KMA Forecast: The spot market can be unpredictable, but teams can have more confidence than ever in bidding spot loads thanks to TRAC Key Market Area (KMA) Forecast. This unique feature uses historical data along with current patterns and trends to create the most accurate dry van spot rate projections. Leveraging AI specifically tuned for time-series forecasting, TRAC KMA Forecast can simultaneously predict thousands of lanes’ rates on a daily basis. Users can access daily rates up to one month in advance or weekly rates up to one year in advance, helping to offset financial risk and understand how rates will likely shift during that period for optimal planning.

• MyTRAC now available (exclusively for TRAC contributors): For those contributing data to the SONAR Trusted Rate Assessment Consortium (TRAC), benchmarking just became much easier.

For context, TRAC collects data daily from a consortium of key market-driving companies while adhering to IOSCO standardized protocols. Roughly 25% of the industry’s top 100 3PLs contribute actual booking data in order to drive transparency and accuracy into one of the most volatile data points: spot rates. While other companies are delivering 14-to-90-day-old averages, TRAC users lean on data that is typically less than 24 hours old to make better decisions.

MyTRAC is a tool that allows TRAC contributors to effectively benchmark by comparing their rates to the current market. This enables them to identify lanes where they should be paying more or less and gain helpful context to plan effectively and optimize margins. 

• Market Conditions in Market Dashboard: Market Conditions provides a heat map of markets where rates are either increasing or decreasing more often. Markets in red have looser capacity (and therefore lower rates) while markets in blue have tighter capacity and will have the majority of the lanes with increasing spot rates, allowing users to get a sense of capacity conditions and rate trends at a quick glance so they can plan and budget accordingly.

• Import the SONAR data you need with the new Excel Add-in: For those who need the ability to analyze and aggregate data via spreadsheets, SONAR introduces its Excel Add-in feature, which allows customers to choose the data they need and import it into a spreadsheet — without the need to know code or get IT teams involved. Transportation analysts and pricing teams will love the ability to choose the datasets they want to view and streamline the aggregation and analysis of them for enhanced efficiency.

Coming soon

• Compliance Curve: For many companies, success is just as much about cost as it is about service. That’s why SONAR created Compliance Curve — available exclusively to SONAR Supply Chain Intelligence (SCI) customers. This feature will allow users to evaluate the value of their transportation spend based on current market rates while balancing cost and service levels. Users who require strict service compliance will pay more for maximum service while those who have more flexible schedules may be able to take advantage of lower costs. The tool will enable users to easily see their estimated rates based on the levels of service they require.

• Mexico Contract Volumes: SONAR users will soon have access to volume data for Mexico, allowing them to see the volume of loads moving out of and into Mexico from the U.S. SONAR looks to further expand its data for Mexico in the coming months, so stay tuned.

Additional enhancements in the near future

SONAR is dedicated to ongoing development and refinement of its data to better serve supply chain professionals. To learn more about SONAR, visit sonar.www.freightwaves.com or reach out to bd@www.freightwaves.com to schedule time to talk with one of our experts.