This ongoing Broker Tip blog series is dedicated to freight brokers like you who are working behind the scenes to keep America moving. These educational blogs are designed to help you work with greater efficiency and potentially increase your commissions with timesaving, real-time technology. This newest blog in the series is a quick guide for using FreightWaves SONAR rate data in our Smart Capacity digital freight matching platform. Our integration partnership with FreightWaves SONAR allows you to see real-time rates, including average, high and low freight rates for each and every load in Smart Capacity.
Access to real-time rate data can speed up your negotiation processes with carriers, ensure you’re pricing loads fairly and help your customers reduce their costs. Real-time rate insights also can help streamline your process for bidding on potential RFPs.
Step #1 — Open Load List
To get started, open Smart Capacity and click on Load List on the main menu. Load List is the red button that is displayed at the top lefthand side of your screen when you first open Smart Capacity.
Step #2 — Choose a Load
When you click on Load List, all of the loads that you have uploaded into Smart Capacity are displayed on the lefthand side of your screen. Click on the load that you want to work on.
Step #3 — Connect FreightWaves SONAR Account to Smart Capacity
In order to view FreightWaves SONAR rates in Smart Capacity, you’ll need a FreightWaves subscription.
If you haven’t yet used FreightWaves SONAR rates in Smart Capacity, you need to connect Smart Capacity to your FreightWaves SONAR account. To do so, click on Connect FreightWaves Account and enter your FreightWaves login credentials.
If you’re not a current FreightWaves SONAR subscriber, you can sign up for a free, 14-day FreightWaves SONAR trial right from within Smart Capacity. To sign up for a trial subscription, click on Start Trial in the FreightWaves SONAR Data and Insights box.
Step #4 — View Real-time Rates
After you’ve either connected your FreightWaves SONAR account to Smart Capacity or signed up for a free 14-day trial, you’ll see three different real-time rates displayed on each and every load you view in your Load List. These rates are displayed under the FreightWaves Icon and the word TRAC.
The rates displayed include the average current rate, the average low rate and average high rate per mile for this type of load in this particular lane. Click on the blue information button next to each rate to learn more about each one.
Read the previous blog in this series, “Broker Tip: Use Carrier Matches To Book Multiple Loads with Carriers.”
