Soft pricing. Unpredictable costs. Threats of fraud and cybercrime. Freight shippers, brokers and carriers are shifting tactics and accelerating the use of market data and AI-driven analytics as they grapple with a shifting business landscape, according to the 2024 Freight Focus Report from DAT Freight & Analytics.

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DAT 2024 Freight Focus (Graphic: DAT Freight & Analytics)

With insight from DAT iQ’s analytics team, the report outlines key themes for 2024:

• Shippers are using a more dynamic approach to procurement by mixing contract, dedicated and spot-market capacity.
• The expanding role that freight brokers are playing in shippers’ strategic planning.
• The unconsidered risk of poor data quality and insufficient data-science support on transportation operations.
• How business conditions in the coming year will test carriers’ ability to forecast demand and negotiate rates.
• Why the expanding scope of AI and machine learning will reduce risk in the supply chain, whether it’s for assessing partners or pricing truckload services.

“There will be more freight-related data than ever in 2024,” said DAT President and CEO Satish Maripuri. “Advanced analytics can crack the code on what those millions of data points will mean for your business in the year ahead. Shippers, brokers and carriers should prepare for an AI revolution and learn what separates breakthrough value from just marketing slogans.”

“We saw unstable markets through the pandemic, materializing into an extremely soft market post-pandemic. DAT’s data and analytics help us balance out and understand what the market bears today versus what the long-term future could look like,” said Jessica Jones, Director of Truckload Pricing, Forward Air. “We’re using everything from RateView to Ratecast to DAT’s RFP tool to coach our people around trends and changes inside the marketplace.”

DAT’s 2024 Freight Focus report outlines top freight lanes and more keys to success for transportation decision-makers in the coming year. It’s free and available to download at dat.com/2024-DAT-Freight-Focus.

About DAT Freight & Analytics

DAT Freight & Analytics operates the largest truckload freight marketplace in North America. Shippers, transportation brokers, carriers, news organizations and industry analysts rely on DAT for market trends and data insights based on more than 400 million freight matches and a database of $150 billion in annual market transactions.

Founded in 1978, DAT is a business unit of Roper Technologies (Nasdaq: ROP), a constituent of the S&P 500 and Fortune 1000 indices.

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