Rate Index is a package add-on for transportation professionals, enabling them to quickly and accurately:

- Negotiate price to complete individual transactions

- Validate and verify lane rates from carriers

- Compare individual company rates against industry averages

- Gauge the marketplace and generate quotes without leaving money on the table

- Train new dispatchers and anyone responsible for pricing decisions by providing access to timely, accurate, and historic data based on verified market conditions

Rate Index is a comprehensive truck rate database providing multi-lane rate information. Its competitive market intelligence delivers the industry average of the market rate on any given lane.

The Rate Index database is compiled based on data supplied by over 100 top truckload carriers representing all major market cities in the United States and Canada. Each rate has a minimum of 2 carriers and 5 loads that comprise the rate information however over 90% of the rates are from a minimum data set comprising 5 carriers and 10 loads.

For each lane pair requested, the following information is provided.
- Weighted Average Rate Per Mile minus any accessorial or fuel charges
- Minimum Rate Per Mile
- Maximum Rate Per Mile
- National Average Fuel Surcharge Per Mile
- Average Accessorial Charges

Rate information is available for the following three truck types:
- Van
- Refrigerated
- Flatbed

Actual rates are provided from major truckload carriers across North America and compiled monthly from current market intelligence. The database is refreshed monthly.

We collect data from a pool of more than 100 carriers. We filter and adjust customer specific rate information that might skew the overall rate index. Filters are used to screen out anomalies to produce an index that is a weighted average on a lane based upon the actual, available data by truck type. This filtering process is done to make certain that one large carrier on any particular lane is not skewing the lane rate data.

The data is compiled at 3 different geographical levels:
- Market level is comprised of 1,188 pods or areas – 3-digit postal codes in the US and Canada.
- Area level is comprised of 115 pods or areas – grouping of 3-digit market level areas in to a regional hub similar to standard metropolitan statistical areas.
- State level is comprised of the 48 continental states.

The carriers are an evenly distributed mix of large and small carriers. This is done on purpose in order NOT to skew the data towards large carriers.

With a pool of 100 carriers moving 2.1 million loads monthly, fleet sizes vary.

No. Seasonality is a measure in the change of price; what we provide is the current price. Seasonality across produce seasons is fairly constant. Pricing is an aggregate of current data. The current rate is the most recent index (up to 1 month old). Customers can apply their own measure of seasonality to current price to determine the best negotiating price, but they will first need what we provide, which is the current price.

No. Carriers negotiate rates based on the entire bid of service. When this rate is negotiated, availability of owner operator trucks is not a factor as when the bids are presented, the day of the week is not present in bid information. Company trucks carry the majority of this freight, and all rates are negotiated with the assumption that trucks are equally available for any load. If a day of the week adjustment is required by the way the customer does business, then this is up to them to adjust, as every company is different, and no specific day of the week adjustment can be made for everyone.

Canadian rates are included in Rate Index if data is available.

Accessorial and fuel surcharge information are provided but are not included in the average rate

The fuel surcharge is the national average, by truck type, of billed fuel surcharges.