This morning, FreightWaves released SONAR 1.1 with new equipment type and length of haul-specific tender rejection indices and employment data by transportation mode.
Over the past month, nearly 300 freight market company participants have enjoyed access and visibility to near and real-time market data analytics on the state of the freight market. This never-before-seen market data has helped companies figure out where the freight market is headed and what the real-time conditions are.
Meanwhile, the team back in Chattanooga has been digesting large volumes of feedback from users across the market and making updates. Some of them have been enhancements to the user experience and interface such as: enhanced functionality to chart, watchlist, and map widgets. Along with many improvements to site navigation and administration.
But more importantly, the data science and market analytics team has been developing new ways to slice and dice data. The first major changes are better ways to see tender rejection analytics on freight. SONAR now has outbound tender rejection indices based on length of haul and equipment type.
The length of haul indices are broken down by the following segments:
CTRI (“City”) Tender Rejection Index: CTRI: 0-100 mile length of haul
STRI (“Short-haul) Tender Rejection Index: STRI 101-250 mile length of haul
MTRI (“Mid length of haul) Tender Rejection Index: MTRI 251-450 mile length of haul
TTRI (“Tweener length of haul) Tender Rejection index: TTRI 451-850 mile length of haul
LTRI (“Long-haul length of haul) Tender Rejection Index: LTRI: 851+ mile length of haul
The FreightWaves team also broke out loads by what type of equipment was requested in the tender. These indices include:
VTRI: Van tender rejection index: any loads that required dry van trailers
RTRI: Reefer tender rejection index: any loads that required reefer trailers
FTRI: Flatbed tender rejection index: any loads that required flatbed trailers
OTRI (Outbound) and ITRI (Inbound) still exist and work the same as before.
As always, the data sets are broken up in time series indices based on city codes (for all the indices above, except ITRI, they are based on origin airport codes). For example, the percentage of rejected reefer loads outbound from Los Angeles would be: RTRI.LAX
All the data above is updated daily based on the percent of loads that were rejected in the market the previous date.
As an additional bonus, the economics team has been studying government employment data to determine employment trends in major sectors of the freight economy. This data is particularly helpful in discovering whether drivers, dispatch, maintenance technicians, warehouse workers, and other professionals tied to the freight markets are increasing or decreasing in number. These data sets include:
Truck Transportation Employment – Not Seasonally Adjusted TTEN
Truck Transportation Employment – Seasonally Adjusted TTES
Rail Transportation Employment – Not Seasonally Adjusted RTEN
Rail Transportation Employment – Seasonally Adjusted RTES
Air Transportation Employment – Not Seasonally Adjusted ATEN
Air Transportation Employment – Seasonally Adjusted ATES
Water Transportation Employment – Not Seasonally Adjusted WTEN
Water Transportation Employment – Seasonally Adjusted WTES
Pipeline Transportation Employment – Not Seasonally Adjusted PTEN
Pipeline Transportation Employment – Seasonally Adjusted PTES
Courier and Messenger Employment – Not Seasonally Adjusted CMEN
Courier and Messenger Employment – Seasonally Adjusted CMES
Warehouse Employment – Not Seasonally Adjusted WHEN
Warehouse Employment – Seasonally Adjusted WHES
All of the employment data is based on national numbers (not local) and updated monthly. To determine how many people are employed in the trucking industry (not seasonally adjusted), a SONAR user should enter: TTEN.USA and the screen would display a chart showing overall employment trends for the trucking industry. As of now, the trucking employment number includes all employees connected to the industry, not just drivers. Look for the next release to break out an estimate of heavy-duty truck drivers.
All of the above enhancements and data sets are included in the standard license and free to all users that have a SONAR account and are already live for all users.
We hope you enjoy these updates and find the additional data sets helpful. We have a lot more that are currently being developed and hope to release another set of indices and enhancements in the next few weeks.
If you haven’t tried SONAR and want to improve your understanding of freight markets, check out: www.sonar.freightwaves.com
SONAR users who want to suggest additional data sets for the platform should contact their account executive or the data team through the SONAR Slack Channel.