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FreightWaves Market Experts

We’ve brought together a best-in-class team to create our FreightWaves Market Experts Team. Designed to provide SONAR users with dedicated access to some of the best subject matter experts in the freight industry, our Market Experts study freight trends, impacts, movement and data, and provide market insights and strategies exclusively for SONAR and Passport users.

Each team member represents a unique set of industry expertise. Collectively, they help to craft a complete picture of what’s happening in and around the freight markets through a multi-lens approach. Combining their deep tribal knowledge and industry experience with data and insights from SONAR, they’re able to deliver valuable and near-time market insights like only FreightWaves can.

The FreightWaves Market Expert Team:

  • Publishes daily and monthly commentary, conducts webinars and speaks at key freight industry events.
  • Accessible via a SONAR subscribers-only live message (Slack) channel, email and Twitter and can handle any freight market question you can ask.
  • Provided at no extra cost to SONAR users and are here to give you a distinct advantage in the market.

Our FreightWaves Daily Watch is a daily briefing email that’s distributed exclusively to licensed SONAR users. Think of it as your SONAR playbook for the day. It’s designed to provide quick-read insights from our Market Experts into what happened in the global economy overnight, what’s happening in the freight market today, and what you need to watch over the next 24 hours. In addition to highlighting what’s happening in the freights markets for that day, our Market Experts share recommended strategies on how this information can be used to your advantage. The Daily Watch playbook email is released 5 days a week at 9:00AM ET.

Meet the Experts

Michael Baudendistel

Market Expert, Rail Intermodal; Research Analyst; Community Leader – The Stockout (CPG)

Rail/Intermodal • Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) • Rail Equipment Manufacturing and Leasing • Truck Equipment and Components

Mike Baudendistel is an analyst and Market Expert at FreightWaves focusing on the railroad, intermodal and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries. Prior to joining FreightWaves, Baudendistel served as a senior sell-side equity research analyst covering the publicly traded railroads, suppliers that manufacture and lease railroad equipment, and suppliers that manufacture trucks, trailers, engines and other components. He has 16 years of experience following the freight transportation industry with experience that also touched the truckload, Jones Act barge and domestic logistics industries. He is a CFA Charterholder.

Zach Strickland

Head of Freight Market Intelligence


Full Truckload • LTL • Market Analytics • Forecasting • Truckload Contract and Spot Rates • Capacity Utilization

Zach Strickland, the “Sultan of SONAR,” curates the weekly market update. With a degree in Finance, Strickland spent the early part of his career in banking before transitioning to transportation in various roles and segments, such as truckload and LTL. He has over 13 years of transportation experience, specializing in data, pricing, and analytics.

Tony Mulvey

Senior Analyst

Trucking Markets • Financial Analysis • Freight Brokerage • FreightTech Trends

Tony Mulvey joined the FreightWaves team as an analyst focused on producing equity-like multi-modal research for the transportation industry. Prior to FreightWaves, Tony received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Tennessee.

Michael Rudolph

Research Analyst

Freight Brokerage

Michael Rudolph is a research analyst at FreightWaves and is a former freight broker. Prior to entering the logistics industry, Michael worked in academia. He holds an MA from the University of Chicago.