PORTLAND, Ore.,— DAT Solutions has launched three new products to help truckload carriers and brokers further manage some of the uncertainty in the freight business.
The addition of Ratecast, MCI and Book Now will expand DAT’s planning and forecasting proposition, helping their customers anticipate and plan for future changes, in addition to making more informed business decisions.
● Ratecast – A forecasting tool that provides shippers, brokers and carriers with real-time rate forecasting and predictions that range from one day to one year in the future. These account for short-term market effects, seasonal impacts and long-term price trends, leveraging the industry’s largest trucking database of $68 billion in annual market transactions on tens of thousands of trucking lanes.
● Market Conditions Index (MCI) – MCI provides a dynamic indicator of future changes in van, refrigerated, and flatbed freight supply and demand, for more accurate planning. The graphic representation of geographical markets shows past, present and future market conditions, generated by actual inbound and outbound freight transactions, load-board post and search behavior, short and long term trends, and shows:
○ Markets where trucks are hardest to find in real time
○ Pricing power by day of week
○ Capacity outlook for the following week
○ Outbound volumes for each market
● Book Now – This one-touch booking feature allows carriers to lock in a rate on their mobile or desktop device instantly. Brokers now have the option to designate Book Now loads on DAT, helping streamline the negotiation and load booking process and decreasing the amount of time spent on the overall transaction.
DAT CEO and President Claude Pumilia comments: “These unprecedented and difficult times are challenging all of us in new ways and, here at DAT, we feel that helping our customers forecast and plan during this highly volatile market is how we can best support them.”
Ratecast and MCI are part of DAT’s new iQ brand, home to DAT’s truckload pricing and market analysis services.