The immediate aftermath of a major hurricane event often creates chaos in the supply chain. Government agencies and retailers rush critical freight to staging areas near the disaster zone and significant amounts of trucking and trailer capacity can be absorbed and taken off the highway by relief efforts. Meanwhile, as shippers in the region come back online, they face an uncertain freight environment—carrier networks have been disrupted, trucks may not be dispatchable, and they may find themselves calling on sources of flexible, last-minute capacity.
In those periods of volatility, it’s critical to have fast and accurate pricing, volume, and capacity data so that normal operations can be restored as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible.
Truckload shipments inbound to Lakeland, Florida, are being rejected at the highest rate in a year. (Chart: SONAR)
Hurricane Helene has ravaged the southern Appalachian region, destroying transportation, power, and water infrastructure, displacing thousands of people and killing more than 200 people. Now, Hurricane Milton threatens the Gulf Coast of Florida and is predicted to make landfall south of Tampa on Thursday, October 10, at 2 AM as a major Category 3 hurricane.
Due to the high risk of supply chain disruption, SONAR is granting free access to its supply chain intelligence and freight market data platform for the next 10 days, until October 18.
SONAR provides supply chain participants such as shippers, carriers, intermediaries, and financial institutions with the fastest freight data available, including data on rates, volume, and capacity.
For the next 10 days, members of the public will be able to access all of SONAR’s data to prepare for and understand the impact of these natural disasters as part of a free trial. We anticipate that a broad swath of supply chain participants can benefit from SONAR data during the crisis. Carriers will be able to look up accurate rate information based on transactions less than 24 hours old, while shippers and brokers can monitor tender rejection rates on a market- and lane-level to see how much capacity is available.
SONAR’s Critical Events dashboard imports real-time weather information and identifies infrastructure and facilities that are under threat based on predictive analytics.
Users will have access to SONAR’s charting and mapping functions and all of its internal applications. These include Market Dashboard+, an app for pricing truckload shipments based on lane-level market conditions; Market Dashboard+ is built to handle bulk uploads of lane data to facilitate bids in response to RFPs. Container Atlas displays spot and contract rates for the global ocean container market, as well as volume and capacity information based on bookings made 8 to 10 days before sailing.
Comprehensive information on SONAR’s data offerings is available in the SONAR Knowledge Center.
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