DAT Freight & Analytics has launched a new Shipper Spot Rate feature within its DAT iQ analytics platform, providing freight brokers with enhanced transparency into the average rates shippers pay for one-time truckload transactions.
This new feature offers an independent, data-driven baseline for shipper spot buy rates, addressing a previous limitation where brokers in DAT iQ only had access to broker-buy spot rates (the rate brokers pay carriers). By enabling analysis of shipper spot rates alongside broker-buy and shipper contract rates, brokers can identify short-term pricing volatility and long-term market trends more proactively.
The Shipper Spot Rate aims to improve how brokers approach pricing. Leveraging DAT iQ RateView, which DAT describes as the industry’s most comprehensive pricing dataset, brokers can identify underpriced lanes that impact margins and overpriced lanes that may lead to lost opportunities. The feature also offers pricing precision, helping brokers avoid bids that are too low and erode profit, or too high and risk losing freight.
For operational efficiency, the Shipper Spot Rate is accessible via API, allowing brokers to integrate the data directly into their own systems for streamlined analysis. Ken Adamo, DAT Chief of Analytics, stated that the feature is “ideal for brokerages that manage significant freight volumes and use industry benchmarks for rate validation,” adding that “sell-side data can help them improve pricing transparency and compare their rates to the market.”
The introduction of Shipper Spot Rate responds to customer demand, as approximately 50% of broker contributions to DAT iQ already include sell-side data. Alex Perry, Vice President of Pricing and Market Intelligence at FreightVana, a digital logistics and transportation provider, commented that the Shipper Spot Rate is “a game-changer for recognizing trends and tightening our bids without sacrificing margin,” highlighting that “this kind of intelligence makes all the difference when you’re operating at scale.”
Shipper Spot Rate is currently available as an add-on to existing DAT iQ RateView subscriptions. DAT Freight & Analytics operates the DAT One truckload freight marketplace, Convoy Platform, DAT iQ analytics service, Trucker Tools load-visibility platform, and Outgo factoring and financial services. The company’s data, informed by nearly 700,000 daily load posts and a database exceeding $1 trillion in freight market transactions, is relied upon by shippers, brokers, carriers, news organizations, and analysts for market trends. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, DAT is a business unit of Roper Technologies (Nasdaq: ROP).
