DAT Solutions has launched a new online analytics service for transportation and logistics professionals to access truck and load data on the 149 market areas in North America with the highest concentrations of inbound and outbound freight, the company announced.
Through a Tableau web portal, customers can access a set of trucking freight data visualizations, according to DAT. Users also have the option of importing data into their own systems.
DAT said customers can sort the data by individual and multiple key market areas to customize charts and maps of current or historical trends to help them understand demand and capacity. Market data comes from DAT Load Boards, which host more than 120 million load and truck posts each year, and DAT RateView, which compiles more than $24 billion in actual freight bills annually, DAT said.
"For years, DAT Solutions has provided volumes of data on the 65,000 lanes we track," said Greg Sikes, VP Products for DAT Solutions. "We developed this data analytics service through close collaboration with several top 50 third party logistics companies who are now benefitting from enhanced planning, carrier prospecting and benchmarking capability."
Available data visualizations include:
Carrier development charts – Provides carrier load-search and truck-posting activity by company and market area, so users can identify potential business partners in the lanes they run.
Supply/demand heat maps – Shows the number of available freight loads vs. the number of available trucks in each key market area. This "load-to-truck ratio" is an indicator of whether truckload rates on the sport market will rise or fall, and can signal changes in contract freight rates, according to DAT.
Inbound/outbound trucks and loads map – Shows loads and trucks inbound and outbound for each key market area, to help users understand freight volume patterns between cities, DAT said.
Truck density maps – Shows the concentration of trucks by equipment type within specific geographies. These maps can help carriers understand where to position trucks, or can help shippers when deciding where to locate a plant or distribution center.
