How Much Do Rejected Loads REALLY Cost Shippers?

Discover how new Sonar indices are revolutionizing freight cost transparency. Shippers can now accurately track the real premiums paid for rejected loads and understand escalating contract rates. This essential data helps you optimize routing guides and budget for backup coverage, turning estimates into actionable insights.

FreightWaves’ Sonar on Thursday released three truckload dataset groups that put hard numbers on routing guide failures, giving shippers a market benchmark for what backup coverage actually costs. The indices — Routing Guide Premiums, Routing Guide Acceptance Share, and Contract Rate Change Direction — update daily on a seven-day rolling average and measure shipper-to-provider costs, not carrier operating costs or broker margins.

The Routing Guide Premiums index (RGP2.USA and RGP3.USA) shows the median percent change in all-in costs when a load is accepted on the second or third-plus tender rather than the first. The second tender is currently running at a 9.25% premium versus a 12-month average of 8.77%, while the third-plus tender sits at 19.84% — roughly double the second-tender cost. Both figures are well above last November, when second-tender premiums were near 4% as capacity was just beginning to tighten. Seasonal data shows premiums on third-plus tenders topped 35% during late December, early February, and June into early July.

This story was originally published by FreightWaves. Read the full story at FreightWaves →