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New mode, more data: FreightWaves announces SONAR updates at F3 

FreightWaves' Paul Howard, left, and Daniel Pickett speak onstage Wednesday during F3: Future of Freight Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

As more and more companies partner with FreightWaves to revolutionize the way they look at their supply chains, new and unique applications arise that create growth opportunities. The SONAR team has listened to customer input and is launching a new mode and new ways to analyze and leverage data.

Here are the new features announced this during F3: Future of Freight Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee:

Announcing flatbed spot rates

FreightWaves already boasts more than $200 billion in annual high-frequency truckload data, delivered with more accuracy than any other provider. While the SONAR team has been collecting flatbed rate data for quite some time, the volume and velocity of the data was not at thresholds that met proper standards for analysis. The SONAR data science team seeks to uphold strict IOSCO data protocols to give customers the highest level of confidence as they benchmark their current and potential freight.

Flatbed pricing — currently only available via application programming interface — is created through the Trusted Rate Assessment Consortium (TRAC), which is built by industry leaders sharing daily load data to create the most up-to-date and transparent spot rate data in the industry. Flatbed is now added to the longest list of market benchmark data in one solution — van, reefer, flatbed, rail, ocean, air, energy and equipment — providing more than 300,000 unique market defining signals across more than 1 million lanes. 

New benefits for more TRAC contributors

TRAC is the spot rate engine for SONAR. Unlike other rate providers that gather historical invoice data in batches, TRAC is built in partnership with roughly 30% — and growing — of the top 100 brokers and 3PLs that provide actual booking data on every single load booked each day. This makes TRAC data far more accurate and reliable than any other spot rate source on the market. 


The newest round of contributors includes seven of the largest companies in the space. To thank our contributors and add more value for new partners, SONAR is now offering TRAC Benchmarking, a tool that specifically gives these companies a unique way to see how their business stacks up against the industry.

FreightWaves has also added the TRAC data into Supply Chain Intelligence (SCI) to give shippers a stronger understanding of transactional market pricing while benchmarking their entire supply chain in one strategic tool. 

But wait, there’s more …

SONAR also has a new methodology to allow customers to analyze pricing by key market area to key market area (KMA to KMA). KMA to KMA rates allow for better trend analysis since they minimize volatility by incorporating more data into each rate. It also limits the distance out from a location that a system may look on a given lane, often creating more accuracy over time. This provides users with a new way to view rates using legacy systems they may already have in place and paves the way for new, highly impactful customization that will give users additional speed and flexibility. 

The future is limitless

SONAR is partnering with companies to create dynamic pricing methodologies, optimize transportation strategies and continue to build a single source of truth for the supply chain world. These features and new data points are the foundation for significant growth and development.


Connect with FreightWaves at sales@freightwaves.com.