Latest news with #SONAR
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Regional disparity grows as truckload capacity tightens
Chart of the Week: Regional Rejection Indexes – Southeast, Midwest, Northeast, West Coast, Southwest SONAR: Truckload tender rejection rates have diverged significantly over the past year, reflecting growing regional imbalances in the U.S. trucking market. In the Southeast, rejection rates have averaged close to 10% over the past two months, while West Coast rates have remained around 3.5%. This widening gap signals increasing network and pricing inefficiencies and suggests that the truckload market is less stable than it appears on the surface. At this time last year, the gap between the two regions was much narrower: the Southeast averaged around 6%, while the West Coast sat only slightly lower at 5.3%. They're not alone—other regions have also drifted apart. During the winter, the Midwest saw the most disruption, with rejection rates exceeding 12% for the first time in two years, while the West Coast remained under 8%. For context, rejection rates above 10% are typically problematic for shippers, often triggering rapid rate inflation. These spikes are usually associated with holiday periods like Christmas and the Fourth of July. The increasing dispersion in regional rejection rates points to a less balanced freight environment. Carrier networks constantly struggle to keep trucks moving toward areas where equipment is needed. When demand shifts—as it has over the past year—networks are slow to recalibrate. Not so oversupplied Following the pandemic, truckload capacity was so abundant that regional imbalances were largely absorbed. Trucks were readily available, often waiting on the sidelines. That's no longer the case. Since late 2022, the market has been shedding capacity. According to FMCSA data, more than 48,000 registered operators have exited the market. Net revocations have accelerated since last October, now averaging nearly 200 more per week year-over-year. Still, the increase in total rejection rates has remained modest—hovering around 6% in recent months—insufficient to spark a significant capacity crunch or a market 'flip.' Rates are also driving regional inequity One contributor to the growing disparity in rejection rates is the diverging trend in contract rates, particularly out of eastern markets. According to SONAR's invoice data, the average contract rate per mile from Los Angeles to Chicago has risen about 3% over the past two years. In contrast, the rate from Atlanta to Chicago has declined nearly 7%. While these are just two lanes among many, they illustrate a broader trend: outbound Southern California rates have shown more upward pressure than those in the East. Length of haul also plays a role. Freight originating in Atlanta averages about 500 miles, while Los Angeles loads average more than 800 miles. This difference incentivizes carriers to prioritize longer West Coast hauls. Rejection rates out of Atlanta — the Southeast's largest market — have spiked in recent months. Although this hasn't yet driven up contract rates, it has had a strong effect on the spot market. Spot rates in the Atlanta-to-Chicago lane are up 41% since mid-April. If sustained, this could eventually lead to higher contract rates. In the meantime, it highlights how fragile the spot market environment is. The Bottom Line The freight market remains relatively soft, with little upward movement in long-term contract rates. But under the surface, conditions are shifting. The fact that spot rates have surged more than 40% in a well-traveled lane — even in a down market — demonstrates just how vulnerable the truckload environment has become. About the Chart of the Week The FreightWaves Chart of the Week is a chart selection from SONAR that provides an interesting data point to describe the state of the freight markets. A chart is chosen from thousands of potential charts on SONAR to help participants visualize the freight market in real time. Each week a Market Expert will post a chart, along with commentary, live on the front page. After that, the Chart of the Week will be archived on for future reference. SONAR aggregates data from hundreds of sources, presenting the data in charts and maps and providing commentary on what freight market experts want to know about the industry in real time. The FreightWaves data science and product teams are releasing new datasets each week and enhancing the client experience. To request a SONAR demo, click here. The post Regional disparity grows as truckload capacity tightens appeared first on FreightWaves.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SONAR Unveils Redesigned Supply Chain Intelligence Platform with New Risk and Efficiency Quadrant
A completely redesigned experience for SONAR's Supply Chain Intelligence (SCI) has been launched allowing SCI to deliver faster insights, deeper market intelligence, and more actionable guidance for shippers managing their RFPs. The updated platform merges the previous Opportunity View and List View into a single, powerful page called Lane View. This consolidation allows users to drill into lane-level insights efficiently, see market performance across both Intermodal and Truckload, and access pricing benchmarks, guidance, and scoring within one streamlined interface. Embedded in the new Lane View is a quadrant-based guidance system for risk and efficiency. This feature helps prioritize RFP strategy by categorizing lanes into four zones: High Risk Zone: Lanes that are difficult to cover and where you are over market. Carrier Dependent Zone: Lanes that are difficult to cover and where you are under market. Savings Opportunity: Lanes that are easy to cover where you are over market. Efficiency Zone: Top-performing lanes where you are under market and lanes are easy to cover. These zones highlight where to focus time, renegotiate, or reallocate volume. Additionally, the update introduces enhanced Summary and Network Views for sharper high-level visibility. Users can better understand where they are overpaying or underpaying across their network with clearer visuals and aggregated scoring. New market-level maps and improved filters help spot areas of concern or opportunity and enable faster diagnostics. The new SCI helps unlock greater RFP savings and lane performance with smarter, visual prioritization, allowing users to reduce risk, boost service, and easily spot network inefficiencies. To explore the redesigned experience, log in to SONAR and navigate to the SCI module. For a personalized walkthrough, contact your account manager or cs@ To learn more about SONAR, visit and request a demo. The post SONAR Unveils Redesigned Supply Chain Intelligence Platform with New Risk and Efficiency Quadrant appeared first on FreightWaves. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
SONAR adds intermodal savings rates
Building upon SONAR intermodal and dry van contract rate data already available in the platform, as of today, intermodal savings rates are now included in SONAR, as a national average, for 63 individual lanes, and two indices. The LA to Dallas lane is competitive between truckload and intermodal with a 9% average intermodal savings rate. That's below the national average of 23%. (Chart: SONAR) The intermodal savings rate is the percent savings that a shipper can expect to realize by using domestic rail intermodal rather than truckload. It is the calculated percent difference between rates that include fuel surcharges for both modes. The inclusivity of fuel surcharges is important because the greater fuel efficiency of intermodal is a significant component of the overall savings versus truckload. The new dataset primarily targets shippers that move freight in dense corridors and/or longer haul lanes where rail intermodal could potentially be a viable option over truckload. The 63 lanes chosen for the index are those with sufficient intermodal density to make intermodal a viable option for most shippers that can tolerate 'truckload plus a day' service levels. The individual lanes were also selected on the basis of those where sufficient intermodal rate data is available. The Transcontinental Index displays the average intermodal savings of five dense intermodal lanes outbound from Los Angeles. The objective is to give importers a quick read on changes in rates to move goods to consumption centers after they are transloaded from international containers into 53' domestic containers. Meanwhile, the Local East Index displays the average savings of nine lanes in the eastern one-third of the US. That grouping of lanes is intended to represent those that are highly competitive with dry van, and therefore, more influenced by truckload market conditions. Truckload contracts are often repriced more frequently than intermodal contracts, so a tightening in market conditions could cause the savings rate to rise, at least temporarily, all else being equal. For additional detail, see the Intermodal Savings Index Knowledge Center Article. The post SONAR adds intermodal savings rates appeared first on FreightWaves. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SONAR and WeatherOptics Deepen Partnership to Deliver Hyperlocal Weather Intelligence Through Enhanced Critical Events Module
SONAR, a leading global supply chain intelligence platform, is pleased to announce an enhanced partnership with WeatherOptics, a leading weather impact and risk intelligence provider. This collaboration allows mutual customers to customize the Critical Events module within the SONAR platform by easily uploading their own specific locations and facilities, enabling them to better anticipate and track weather issues that could impact their supply chain. Through this expanded partnership, users can now upload their specific business locations to map critical weather events directly onto their supply chain network. While all SONAR users have access to a high-level overview of major weather events like hurricanes and severe storms, this enhancement provides mutual customers with deeper, more tailored insights for the locations that matter most to their business. Benefits for these customers include automated notifications for key operational locations, daily executive briefings with 72+ hour forecasts on major weather threats, and access to comprehensive risk data. This data includes real-time and predictive insights on how weather is expected to impact key operations like shipment delays, road danger, power outages, flooding, and overall risk to daily business. Users can also monitor live disruptions such as storm damage, wildfires, road incidents, and lightning strikes as they occur. This integration leverages WeatherOptics' proprietary weather impact indices. The company specializes in translating weather data into actionable business impacts by combining hyperlocal weather predictions with non-weather variables such as hydrological and geospatial data. This creates sophisticated models that provide a granular depiction of weather's effect on operations, generating insights that don't just forecast the weather, but predict the impact. 'The WeatherOptics team has the best meteorologists focused on transportation,' said JulieVan de Kamp, Chief Customer Officer at SONAR. 'At this time, with an unprecedented hurricane forecast and increasingly volatile weather throughout the year, it's important to monitor the impacts on transportation. Nobody is doing that better than WeatherOptics, and we are excited to have a partnership with them for SONAR's Critical Events application.' Scott Pecoriello, co-founder and CEO at WeatherOptics, added, 'Expanding our partnership with SONAR is key for us to deliver top-tier weather and risk intelligence to the supply chain and logistics industry. The SONAR platform is leading the charge in innovative data for this sector, and we're excited to combine forces, leverage their extensive reach, and help more businesses mitigate weather-related risks.' Activation for the enhanced features is available directly within SONAR. Current SONAR customers can add this functionality by reaching out to their account manager. To learn more about SONAR or this new customization feature, visit to request a demo. The post SONAR and WeatherOptics Deepen Partnership to Deliver Hyperlocal Weather Intelligence Through Enhanced Critical Events Module appeared first on FreightWaves.
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Seeing Ahead: Seasonally Adjusted Forecast Now in SONAR Charts
Staying ahead of the freight market just got easier. We're excited to roll out a new enhancement to our charting experience: Seasonally Adjusted Moving Average Projections. This feature forecasts a trendline six months into the future, giving you a clear, data-driven view of where the market might be heading based not only on historical patterns, but also on how this year is shaping up so far. Here's how it works: We start with a 2-year average for each calendar month, for example, July is averaged from July 2023 and July 2024, to capture the typical seasonal flow. Then, we compare the current year-to-date (YTD) average (say, January through June 2025) to the same period in the previous two years. This gives us a scaling factor that adjusts upcoming months to better reflect today's market conditions. So if the market this year is trending higher than usual, your projection line will shift upward. If it's underperforming, it adjusts down. And to avoid overreacting to short-term volatility, we've added a smoothing option that blends the adjusted values with the original 2-year baseline, giving flexibility to control how much weight we place on recent activity versus long-term trends. This feature is built for those who rely on SONAR to plan ahead: brokers, analysts, shippers, and logistics leaders who need to make forward-looking decisions with less guesswork. Whether you're preparing for a surge, evaluating lanes, or simply trying to get ahead of the curve, these projections help ground your expectations in real, seasonal and real-time data. And while we're talking chart upgrades don't miss two other recent enhancements now live in the UI: You can now search lane-level Spot and Contract rates directly on the chart Plus, toggle seasonality on/off for lane searches and now with the Seasonally Adjusted Moving Average Projections to view how current trends stack up against past years. The combination of lane-level precision, historical context, and forward projections makes SONAR's charting tools more powerful and actionable than ever. This is a UI-only feature (not available via API), so head into the charts and see it in action. We think it's going to change the way you look at what's next. Don't have access to SONAR? If you want to make forward-looking decisions with less guesswork and more confidence, request a demo to learn how SONAR can help. The post Seeing Ahead: Seasonally Adjusted Forecast Now in SONAR Charts appeared first on FreightWaves. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
