FreightWaves’ team of data scientists has devised a way to measure the average amount of time spent waiting at a dock either picking up or delivering freight by market, otherwise known as detention. Detention is very costly to carriers, as it is time spent idling and not driving. Because most carriers are paid by the mile, this is a mostly non-revenue generating activity. Even when carriers do charge for detention, it is difficult to measure and collect. It is also a point of contention for drivers who are also mostly compensated by miles driven.
Detention time not only has a direct impact to the bottom line for carriers, but also indirectly impacts their operational efficiency by throwing the drivers off schedule. When drivers spend more time than expected at a dock making a delivery, the chance for them to miss their next load increases. This means the carrier must find another driver, which can be less optimal.
Over the past year, many shippers were hit with large increases due to tightening capacity. One of the biggest ways shippers can help mitigate increases in tightening markets is to manage the amount of time it takes to load trailers. Carriers and drivers alike notice the shippers who are better at managing this.
SONAR now has average monthly detention time in minutes that can be viewed in a chart over time or in a heat map with the higher values indicated by darker shades of blue. The ticker for detention time is WAIT. For example, if a user wanted to view the amount of detention for the Atlanta market they would type WAIT.ATL.
Home Purchase Sentiment Index
In addition to the detention data, FreightWaves has also added the Home Purchase Sentiment Index developed by Fannie Mae. The HPSI reflects consumers’ current views and forward-looking expectations of housing market conditions and complements existing data sources to inform housing-related analysis and decision making. The HPSI is a monthly figure that can be used as a macro-economic indicator as well as measuring the housing market, which has a big impact on the U.S. freight market. HPSI is only reported in a national granularity, HPSI.USA.