Reduce transportation costs with freight benchmarking

How shippers use freight market intelligence to reduce transportation costs

Independent Nucleus Research found that enterprise shippers using DAT consistently improve procurement decisions, reduce transportation spend, and strengthen budgeting accuracy through market-based freight benchmarking. Organizations across manufacturing, consumer goods, retail, grocery, and building materials industries achieved 5–15% sourcing savings by replacing internal assumptions with independently verified freight market data. This page summarizes the research findings—and how leading enterprise shippers apply freight market intelligence across procurement, budgeting, and network strategy decisions.

Freight market intelligence for enterprise shippers

Transportation costs are one of the largest controllable expenses in a supply chain. For enterprise shippers, the difference between average and high-performing transportation programs often comes down to one thing: access to independent, lane-level market data.

Transportation teams are operating in a market defined by volatility, tighter budgets, and increasing pressure to defend decisions with data. Internal historical rates and carrier-provided pricing are no longer enough to benchmark freight spend, validate contracts, or confidently forecast transportation budgets.

As freight markets shift, enterprise shippers need a trusted external reference point to benchmark rates, evaluate procurement strategies, and improve cross-functional decision-making.

Independent Nucleus Research interviewed DAT customers across manufacturing, consumer goods, retail, grocery, and building materials industries to understand how shippers use market intelligence to reduce freight costs.

The findings were consistent: organizations embedding DAT into procurement and budgeting workflows achieved measurable savings, stronger negotiation leverage, and better alignment across logistics, procurement, and finance.

Key takeaways

In this guide

How to reduce transportation costs

For enterprise shippers managing complex freight networks, reducing transportation costs requires more than route optimization or load consolidation. Those tactics help at the margin. The bigger opportunity is procurement: knowing whether the rates you’re paying reflect actual market conditions.

The most effective freight cost reduction strategies share a common foundation: independent market data. When transportation teams can compare contracted rates and carrier proposals against verified lane-level benchmarks, they stop paying above-market rates, enter negotiations with defensible targets, and catch cost creep between annual sourcing cycles.

DAT freight market intelligence gives enterprise shippers that foundation. The sections below explain how.

What is freight market intelligence?

Freight market intelligence is the use of external freight market data, capacity insights, and market trend analysis to inform transportation procurement decisions, benchmark freight costs, and support organizational planning.

Unlike internal rate histories or carrier-provided pricing, freight market intelligence gives transportation teams an objective external reference point. It allows organizations to:

DAT delivers market intelligence through freight rate benchmarking, lane-level performance comparison, and forecasting capabilities that help shippers anticipate market shifts before they affect procurement outcomes.

Freight intelligence is transforming logistics by giving transportation teams access to independently verified market data that shifts decision-making from reactive to strategic. Organizations that embed external benchmarks into procurement and planning workflows can validate rates, anticipate market shifts, and align logistics, procurement, and finance on a shared set of facts.

What the research found

5–15% sourcing savings

Organizations using DAT during annual sourcing events and mid-cycle rate reviews consistently reported 5–15% reductions in transportation spend. Savings were achieved by entering carrier negotiations with independently verified market benchmarks that could not be disputed as internally generated or carrier-influenced.

Better procurement decisions

Shippers with access to lane-level market data made faster, more confident procurement decisions. Transportation teams validated carrier pricing, identified overpriced lanes, and set defensible freight RFP targets—reducing the risk of awarding freight contracts at above-market rates.

Stronger budgeting accuracy

Organizations using DAT forecasting tools aligned transportation budgets to expected market conditions rather than prior-year actuals. Finance and logistics teams reported fewer year-end budget variances and stronger confidence in presenting freight cost projections to executive stakeholders.

Improved cross-functional alignment

A shared external benchmark gave logistics, procurement, and finance teams a common reference for freight rate health, budget planning, and supplier performance. Organizations reported smoother budgeting cycles, fewer internal disputes, and more consistent communication during sourcing events. For shippers looking to justify transportation costs to finance leaders, independently verified market benchmarks provide the most credible evidence—translating lane-level freight complexity into financial context that non-logistics stakeholders can evaluate.

How shippers use freight market intelligence

Nucleus Research identified four primary application areas where enterprise shippers consistently apply DAT market intelligence to improve transportation performance.

Freight benchmarking

Knowing how to benchmark freight rates effectively starts with access to independent, lane-level market data. Shippers use DAT to benchmark spot rates, contract rates, supplier-managed freight, customer pickup (CPU) discounts, and lane-level transportation performance. Organizations use freight benchmarking to:

Transportation procurement

A sound freight procurement strategy depends on independent market data. Shippers who understand how to negotiate freight rates from a data-backed position consistently achieve better contract outcomes—validating carrier proposals, reducing overpayment risk, and conducting mid-cycle rate reviews against current benchmarks. Organizations reference lane-level data when evaluating freight RFP responses, mid-cycle rate adjustment requests, and inbound freight charges embedded in supplier agreements. One organization maintained freight costs 5–6% below market averages through weekly lane-level benchmarking and systematic identification of overpriced lanes.

Budgeting and forecasting

For transportation teams forecasting freight costs for annual budgets and long-range planning, the key input is independently verified market rate data across key lanes and modes. Teams use DAT to prepare annual budgets, monitor market direction, evaluate volatility exposure, and support executive reporting. Organizations that anchor projections to external market benchmarks rather than prior-year actuals report fewer year-end variances and stronger credibility with finance stakeholders.

Network strategy and planning

Several organizations also use lane-level benchmarking and regional market intelligence to support distribution network planning, fleet utilization decisions, plant and DC placement analysis, and cost-to-serve optimization. Organizations in this category use DAT as a strategic planning input—informing make-vs-buy decisions on capacity, fleet strategy, and supplier network design—rather than purely as a real-time rate lookup.

Customer examples

Henkel

Henkel, a global manufacturing and consumer goods organization with three distinct North American supply chains, embedded DAT into its procurement and sourcing workflows to benchmark lane-level pricing, support carrier negotiations, and structure a gain-share/pain-share contract model with mid-year pricing reviews.

Result: ∼$1.5M in annual transportation cost avoidance. Nucleus Research noted that Henkel realized the greatest value by treating DAT as a strategic input into ongoing procurement governance—not a static benchmarking tool.

Colgate-Palmolive

Colgate-Palmolive used DAT to validate supplier-managed freight costs and customer pickup (CPU) discounts against market benchmarks. By referencing DAT rate data during contract negotiations, procurement teams achieved up to 10% savings on certain long-term supplier agreements.

DAT became the organization’s standard reference for transportation pricing across logistics, procurement, and finance. The shared benchmark reduced internal disputes and strengthened negotiation leverage across teams.

Building materials manufacturer

One building materials manufacturer with more than 1,000 North American locations used DAT to benchmark lane costs, rebalance fleet utilization, and integrate transportation benchmarks into Power BI dashboards.

Following a shift from 80% brokered capacity to 80% asset-based operations, the organization achieved approximately 29% transportation savings (∼$129M).

Benchmark beyond assumptions

Independent research validates what high-performing transportation teams already know: objective freight market intelligence is the foundation of defensible procurement decisions, accurate transportation budgets, and stronger carrier negotiations.

Organizations that embed external benchmarking into standard workflows—rather than using it reactively—achieve broader and more sustained financial impact. Download the full Nucleus Research guidebook for complete customer profiles, methodology, and detailed findings.

FAQs

How can shippers reduce transportation costs?

Enterprise shippers reduce transportation costs most effectively through freight rate benchmarking, data-backed carrier negotiations, and systematic mid-cycle rate reviews. Rather than relying on internal rate history or carrier-provided pricing, leading organizations compare contracted rates and RFP responses against independently verified lane-level market data. This approach identifies overpriced lanes, sets defensible procurement targets, and prevents cost creep between annual sourcing cycles. Nucleus Research found that shippers using DAT consistently achieved 5–15% savings during annual and mid-cycle sourcing events.

What is freight benchmarking?

Freight benchmarking is the process of comparing transportation rates, lane performance, and freight costs against broader market data to validate pricing and improve procurement decisions. External benchmarks give transportation teams an objective reference that cannot be influenced by any party in the freight transaction. Shippers use freight benchmarking to enter carrier negotiations with defensible data, set accurate RFP targets, and ensure contracted rates remain competitive as market conditions change.

How do you save on freight transportation costs?

Freight cost savings come from three areas: procurement strategy, lane-level benchmarking, and carrier pricing validation. Organizations achieve the greatest savings when they validate all carrier pricing, including inbound supplier-managed freight and CPU discounts, against independent market benchmarks. One DAT customer maintained freight costs 5–6% below market averages through weekly lane-level benchmarking alone.

Why do shippers use freight market intelligence?

Shippers use freight market intelligence to benchmark rates, reduce transportation costs, improve negotiations, forecast budgets, validate supplier pricing, and reduce exposure to market volatility. Organizations that embed external market data into procurement and planning workflows make more defensible decisions and achieve more consistent financial outcomes. Nucleus Research found that shippers using DAT consistently achieved 5–15% savings during annual and mid-cycle sourcing cycles.

What are the main costs of transportation for enterprise shippers?

The four primary transportation cost categories for enterprise shippers are linehaul rates, fuel surcharges, accessorial charges, and inbound or supplier-managed freight. Linehaul rates, what you pay per mile per lane, typically drive the largest savings opportunity because small percentage differences across high-volume lanes compound quickly. Fuel surcharges and accessorials can also be validated against market norms, and inbound freight embedded in supplier contracts is frequently benchmarked at above-market rates without the buyer’s knowledge.