This morning DAT Solutions, a leading digital load board and trucking spot rate assessment, announced that it had acquired the Freight Market Intelligence Consortium (FMIC) from Chainalytics.
The FMIC is a benchmarking and analytics service that aggregates freight transaction data from more than 200 shippers in all modes of transportation. Shippers upload their transactions to the FMIC on different timelines; about $14 billion of transactions are delivered on a two-week lag and about $50 billion is made available for audit and analysis on a semi-annual basis. The FMIC’s data team is located in India.
The deal gives DAT access to a much broader range of transportation modes and deepens its visibility into the contract trucking market. DAT was heavily dependent on freight brokerages for its contract rate data prior to the deal; by gaining access to shipper transactions, DAT will see contract rates paid to large asset-based carriers in multiple modes of transportation.
“We are excited about this transaction and congratulate the Chainalytics team for their successful transaction,” commented Craig Fuller, CEO and founder of FreightWaves. “This deal reaffirms the opportunity in the freight intelligence market and what promises to be a multi-billion dollar market. We are excited that the Chainalytics FMIC business has ended up in the hands of DAT, a competitor that we know very well.”
Industry sources told us that DAT likely paid a premium for the mature FMIC business, seeking to grow beyond a trucking rate assessment tool into a larger freight analytics platform. Earlier this year, DAT added the phrase “Freight and Analytics” to its logo. The move was intended to signal the company’s deeper penetration into the freight market analytics and freight data space, a category that FreightWaves SONAR created and DAT had largely ignored beyond spot market analytics.
DAT was founded in 1978 as Dial-A-Truck, a subsidiary of Oregon-based Jubitz Corporation, best known for its sprawling 27-acre truck stop. DAT monitored display loads and rates proliferated in truck stops across the country in the decades that followed. In 2001, Transcore Holdings bought DAT, and in 2004, Roper Technologies (NYSE: ROP) bought Transcore in a $600 million deal.
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The Signal at Chattanooga Choo Choo • Chattanooga, TN Register NowThe night before F3. FreightTech100 companies honored. FreightTech 25 and Shipper of Choice winners revealed live. Cocktail reception into dinner and live music - 300 industry leaders in one purpose-built room.
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