With 2024 drawing to a close, team leaders at SONAR discussed during a Thursday webinar the top enhancements made to the logistics data platform.
Kent Bakker, customer success team lead, Gabby Francisco, enterprise customer success manager, and Danielle Roberts, onboarding specialist team lead, talked about updates made to the platform this year to improve usability and get vital data into customers’ hands faster.
They also highlighted their top features added to SONAR in 2024.
1. A new and improved user interface
Up first for discussion was SONAR’s new and improved user interface. The interface is faster, stronger and more streamlined for easier navigation.
“It got a whole new look,” Roberts said during the webinar. “It had less load time, fewer clicks to get to functions, and the overall feedback that we received from this was really positive.”
Bakker said 2024 was all about making the data that SONAR already had more usable. He said the upgraded user interface helped to achieve more accessibility for customers.
2. Market Dashboard and Market Dashboard+
Market Dashboard is a single-lane search application with which customers can see the current spot as well as the contract rate for a lane.
In 2024, SONAR pushed out an update adding Key Market Area (KMA) rates to gain deeper insights into flatbed markets in both dashboard applications.
“Flatbed [TRAC rates] was one of the most exciting releases that we had all year,” Francisco said. “The rates and data that we had behind our flatbed rates have proven to be very valuable and extremely in line with the market – sometimes 1% to 2% within what our shippers are hearing back from their brokers and carriers as they’re getting quotes.”
Bakker added that hurricanes and storms in the American Southeast brought more flatbed activity for various rebuilding projects.
“Having good, clean, fast rates where customers aren’t really taken advantage of in the market is really where the flatbed rates have shined,” Bakker said.
3. Quick rates tool
Bakker said the addition of the quick rates tool was a simple and easy driver of efficiency with SONAR’s customers.
“It pulls up a separate page where you can put in your origin, your destination, choose your equipment type, and you get the rate information [with] some limited context around that,” Bakker said. “We’ve been told there’s a lot in SONAR. This is a quick and simple way to get the rates that, maybe, that’s all you’re looking for.”
4. Custom pages
Custom pages for showing SONAR data are now easier to create along with 11 predefined layout options available.
Pre-formed “wizard” page libraries can also be created and tailored to each customer’s needs in SONAR.
5. Critical events: Now powered by Weather Optics
SONAR’s new weather tool powered by Weather Optics helps customers see impacts of weather on their operations in a seven-day forecast.
These impacts can be downloaded to Microsoft Excel in alert categories for hurricanes, wildfires, snowstorms, air quality, hydrologic outlook and more. It also displays impact indices for traffic flows, road conditions, business disruptions, power outages and more.
6. Excel add-in
The Excel add-in gives SONAR customers the ability to analyze and aggregate data using the Microsoft Excel spreadsheets tool.
“This will allow you to fully customize and analyze SONAR data, combine it with your own internally, [and] you can be able to gain that enterprise-level access without having to get your IT team involved,” Francisco said. “You can customize as you see fit and pull in the data that you want and need most to do your own benchmarking, market analysis [or] forecast.”
7. New data
Several new datasets were added this year, including for Reefer and the Flatbed Truckload Rate Indexes [RTI and FTI] – available at the national level.
Mexico contract load volumes data expands cross-border capabilities with specialized data for looking at nearshoring activity and its impacts. New data for intermodal contract rates was also made available this year.
8. Broker tool kit: New landing page and coverage guide
SONAR’s newest initiative is a more simplified and interactive landing page when logging into the platform.
Truckload National Insights helps customers gain clarity on what’s driving current market behavior with simplified summaries for clear, strategic decisions. Key market insights drill down into specific markets for localized insights with the click of a button.
“There’s no need to enter any tickers in here,” Bakker said. “All this information is pre-built out.”
These insights can help identify whether markets are outbound-heavy with higher rates or inbound-heavy with potential cost savings.
Additionally, the coverage guide provides insights into how brokers can prioritize their day and helps give data-empowered answers for more negotiating power.
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