The Next Phase of Freight Analytics by Prodensus
A proper view of profitable and unprofitable freight. A clearer understanding of backhaul performance. And a better foundation for deciding what to bid, what to price harder, and what to leave alone.
Friday, April 24, 2026
The freight market has not exactly become easier to read in 2026.
Through the first few months of the year, freight spend has moved up, truckload rates have firmed, and tariff uncertainty has kept plenty of commercial teams operating with less confidence than they would like. Cass reported freight expenditures rising month over month in February, while DAT reported spot and contract truckload rates hitting their highest levels in more than two years by mid-April.
And that's exactly why the next phase of DataMate by Prodensus matters.
Because most brokers, asset carriers, and forwarders still don't have a clear answer to some very basic commercial questions.
They don't really know their backhaul performance.
They don't always know which lanes are genuinely profitable.
And they often don't know which contracted lanes are costing more to service than they are worth.
That's not because the data does not exist. It usually does.
It is just spread across old RFP spreadsheets, shipment history, rate files, shared folders, and a TMS that is useful for running today’s operation but much less useful for understanding what the business has actually learned over time.
That's the gap we are working to close.
Now in pilot, the next phase of DataMate is being built to bring together historical TMS data, RFP spreadsheets, shipment data and market pricing intelligence into one clearer view of freight performance over time.
Not just what moved. Not just what was awarded. But what actually worked.
Which lanes supported stronger returns.
Which ones exposed weak backhaul positions.
Which pieces of contracted freight looked good on paper but made less and cost more than expected.
And which bids should probably not be pursued in the same way again.
That's the real shift.
The industry does not need more raw data. It needs better commercial intelligence. Like this, from a customer recently analysing over 1,200+ shipments previously moved under contract in response to a re-negotiation request:
Too much pricing effort today still goes into rebuilding the same story over and over again before the next contract round. Teams are manually pulling together lane history, customer context, market movement and cost-to-serve logic just to get to a rate they can defend.
That's time better spent elsewhere.
On building stronger customer relationships. On protecting and growing existing accounts. On developing better pricing strategies off the back of Prodensus platforms, with better evidence and sharper commercial judgement behind them.
That's the ambition for DataMate.
A proper view of profitable and unprofitable freight. A clearer understanding of backhaul performance, and a better foundation for deciding what to bid, what to price harder, and what to leave alone.
