DALLAS. LaneHoney, a startup breaking into the truck freight transaction market, wants to bring the stock ticker to trucking with its new market data product. The platform will show actual truck-freight transaction prices in real time and make them publicly available, the company says.
The aim is to allow shippers and carriers to have a more transparent view across the entire freight market and give them more insight and accuracy into market conditions when pricing or paying for shipments.
"Given the size and fragmentation of the market, even a large carrier or shipper has their own limited view of market conditions. Having a better footprint of data is critical to staying competitive by understanding capacity, demand and market price better," says Zahir Balaporia, Schneider National's former Director of Data Science, who now serves as an investor and adviser to the company.
To help ensure the accuracy of the pricing, LaneHoney crowdsources prices that shippers have paid for freight moves on any origin to destination combination—or lane—over which freight travels. The company says it has also been collaborating with enterprise carriers and shippers to create a reliable benchmark comprised of verified transacted prices as well as real-time shipment demand and carrier supply data.
The company's enterprise carrier and shipper partners get access to aggregate data for their individual contributions, LaneHoney notes. The new service is available to carriers and shippers.
The new software is being released in stages, first what shippers pay, then what carriers earn, followed by publishing the previously undisclosed spread that brokers charge. The company plans to publish a real-time league table of brokers and their performance before the end of the year.
"We collect and use this information internally for competitive landscape analysis and recruitment but realize it is critical information for our customers," adds LaneHoney founder Roseanne Stanzione. "Truck brokers remind me of stock brokers in the 80s, who were quickly made obsolete by the advent of transparent published prices. LaneHoney is bringing that kind of data integrity to trucking."
LaneHoney is “a true neutral intermediary," notes LaneHoney COO, Ali Abrar.
"We create market data and tools that bring carriers and shippers together for direct transactions. Unlike brokers, we're not in the transaction, and we don't set rates,” he says. “We're here to move the needle on transparency, and that helps our carriers earn more and our shippers get better rates and service."
