Where does Xeneta's freight rate data come from, and how is it kept accurate?

Xeneta's benchmarks are built from real contracted and spot freight rates contributed on an anonymized basis by thousands of shippers and forwarders globally. Contributors upload their actual negotiated contract rates across a range of agreement types, from short-term spot bookings through to multi-year fixed contracts, creating a dataset that reflects what the market is genuinely paying rather than indicative or estimated price levels. Before any benchmark is published, Xeneta requires a minimum of five rates per route, per day, per equipment type. On mature trade routes with extensive data collection, benchmarks are built from several hundred valid rates per day. This threshold approach means Xeneta only publishes a benchmark when there is sufficient data to make it statistically meaningful, and confidence increases as more data accumulates on a given lane.

How is the market average, market low, and market high calculated from Xeneta's dataset?

Xeneta's three core benchmarking metrics give procurement teams a view of the full distribution of market rates, not just a single average figure. The market average is the arithmetic mean of all contributed rates valid on a given trade lane on a particular day. The market low represents rates at the 2.5th percentile of the market, reflecting what the most competitively positioned shippers are achieving. The market high represents rates at the 97.5th percentile, indicating the upper range of what the market is paying. Together, these three reference points allow procurement teams to understand not just where the average sits, but the realistic floor of what is achievable with strong negotiating leverage, and the ceiling that signals significant overpayment relative to peers.

How does Xeneta protect the confidentiality of contributed rate data?

All contributed rates are fully anonymized and aggregated before they enter the benchmark dataset. No company-specific rates or supplier names are disclosed to other platform users or published to the broader market at any point. Carriers, freight forwarders, and NVOCCs are explicitly prohibited from contributing data to Xeneta's database or to any indices Xeneta publishes. This structural exclusion preserves the integrity of the benchmarks: the dataset reflects what shippers pay, not what carriers want the market to believe is being paid. Xeneta is also committed to remaining ownership-neutral, with no carriers, forwarders, or NVOCCs holding or able to hold an ownership stake in the platform.

How does Xeneta's dataset differ from publicly available freight indices?

Publicly available spot indices track rate movements based on spot market samples and provide useful directional signals about where the market is trending. What they do not reflect is the contracted rates that shippers with volume and negotiating leverage are actually paying under long-term agreements. Xeneta's dataset aggregates real contracted rates — the rates that appear on actual invoices across short-term, annual, and multi-year agreements. Benchmarks cover port-to-port FCL rates including all ocean freight related surcharges such as BAF, LSS, PSS, PCS, CAF, and ISPS, while excluding inland costs and non-ocean surcharges that would make like-for-like comparison unreliable.

How does Xeneta ensure benchmark accuracy across a wide range of trade lanes and geographies?

Xeneta's geographic coverage is built around a geo-hierarchy developed to reflect how the freight industry actually prices different connections rather than simply grouping ports by physical proximity. Ports are grouped based on price correlation, validated using the millions of rate data points in Xeneta's database. On the highest-volume trade lanes, such as Asia to North Europe and Transpacific corridors, benchmarks are supported by the deepest statistical pools and carry the strongest confidence. Coverage extends to Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and intra-Asian trades, with data depth varying by lane. Xeneta is transparent about confidence levels for each benchmark, allowing users to assess how many data points underpin a given rate reference.

Our Dataset

Xeneta Ocean Freight Rates data

The world's most granular, independent ocean freight rate data — 800M+ actual contracted rates across 160,000+ port pairs, updated daily.

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Xeneta, trusted by the world's biggest buyers & sellers of containerized and air freight

For years, procurement leaders have signed contracts worth millions based on last quarter’s numbers, spot-only indices, or carrier quotes—because that’s what the market offered. Xeneta changes what’s possible.

Xeneta’s ocean freight rate data aligns to how you buy: short- and long-term contracts, by equipment type, carrier, and port pair—built on actual contracted rates paid by shippers and freight forwarders, giving you truly independent benchmarks.

Ocean Freight Rate Data at Scale

What make Xeneta’s Ocean Freight Rate Data Unique

Data sourced from actual rates paid by shippers and forwarders — not carrier data — and independently owned and funded, outside of the industry, so benchmarks stay neutral.

XENETA OCEAN FREIGHT RATE DATA

What's in the dataset

Xeneta’s ocean freight rates reflect the total port-to-port cost a shipper, or freight forwarder, pays to move a container from origin to destination. This data is sourced in partnership with our network of shipper and freight forwarder customers—never from carriers—ensuring truly independent rate benchmarks.

The benchmarked freight rates you see already include major surcharges that shape the cost of the ocean leg. To keep benchmarks comparable across the market, Xeneta excludes charges that vary by shipment specifics.

Total port-to-port cost based on actual rates paid across global trade lanes

Total port-to-port cost by each of 16+ major carriers, benchmarked against the live market.

Forward visibility into rates from contracts starting in the next 10 days (short-term) to 3 months (long-term)

For historical trends on these surcharges broken out individually — BAF, peak season, congestion, EU ETS, Red Sea.

For 3 and 6-month predictive views on major corridors.

Explore each data set

1. Ocean freight rates

Live benchmarks built on actual rates paid from real shipper contracts, and freight forwarder agreements, not carrier-reported numbers.

Valid contracted rates on any given day are combined into a daily market benchmark. Long- and short-term rates are shown separately, giving you clear visibility into the market.

What's included

short-term (less than 32 days) and long-term (more than 87 days), in separate views
Five benchmark rate tiers: market high, mid-high, average, mid-low, market low
View and compare the market at any level: industry peers, corridors, individual trade lanes, or suppliers
16+ carriers and key alliances
Container types: 20' Dry, 20' Reefer, 20' Tank, 40' Dry, 40' HC, and 40' Reefer HC

2. Carrier Rates

See where individual carriers sit against the live market — not just a blended average.

Rates for specific ocean carriers overlaid on broader market benchmarks. Compare any carrier to see exactly where they sit — above, below, or aligned.

What's included

16+ major carriers
Key alliances
Comparison against market average, high, and low

3. Future rates

Forward visibility into contracts that are already signed — not forecasts or guesses.

See rates associated with contracts that begin in the future, so you know what's coming before it hits the market.

What's included

10-day forward view on short-term contracts
Up to 3 months forward view on long-term contracts
Historical comparison for context

4. Ocean Freight Surcharges

Surcharge benchmarks built on actual contracts — tracking how BAF, EU ETS, peak season, congestion, and Red Sea surcharges move across the market, normalized across carrier naming conventions.

What's included

BAF, EU ETS, PSS, Congestion, and Red Sea surcharges — each tracked individually
Market high, mid-high, average, mid-low, and low surcharge rate tiers
Historical and current surcharge levels by corridor, updated daily

Explore surcharge data →

5. Ocean Market Rate Outlook / Freight Rate Forecasts

3- and 6-month forecasts on long-term contracted rates across major corridors — calculated using actual contracted rates data, machine learning, and expert validation.

What's included

3- and 6-month forecasts with predicted range and consensus view
Seven major corridors: Far East Main, Mediterranean Main, North Europe Main, South America East Coast Main, South East Asia Main, US East Coast Main, US West Coast
Monthly updates with quarterly analyst commentary

Explore rate outlook data →

Use Case Scenarios

When you'll use this data

Sourcing & tendering

Carrier bids show their price, not market reality. Xeneta gives you live benchmarks to time your RFQ, assess every round, and hold a defensible position on each lane.

Benchmark rates vs market & market monitoring

Contracted rates are only as good as their market context. See what others pay on the same lane across high, average, and low bands, and track how the market moves.

Spot buying / react to market shifts

Volatile markets lead to last minute bookings. Live benchmarks and alerts let you book urgent capacity at the right price, even under time pressure.

Forecasting & budgeting

Planning off last quarter's numbers leaves budgets misaligned. Rate outlook and historical trends give finance a market-aligned view that holds up under scrutiny.

Report & justify internally

Independent market data makes decisions easier to defend. Xeneta dashboards and exports turn rate decisions into evidence stakeholders accept.

Sources & data processing

How the data is processed

Xeneta’s data is sourced in partnership with our customers, including some of the world’s largest shippers and freight forwarders, drawn from actual contracts that we validate and enrich to deliver an accurate, independent view of the freight rates market.

Collect

Actual contracts

Collect data from our extensive user base. Secure, anonymous, and compliant data integration.

Cleanse

Error-checked

Correct the data and remove any errors before it enters the pool of valid rates.

Normalize

Normalized

Structure the data so it's comparable across contracts, carriers, and container types.

Validate

Quality gated

Check that data is accurate and of sufficient quality to be used to create the benchmarks.

Process

Generate Benchmarks

Create the market high, mid-high, average, mid-low, and low benchmarks, ready to publish in the Xeneta platform, and share via API and reports.

Get the data where you need it

Platform

Explore rates, build comparisons, create reports, and share dashboards with your team.

API & Datalink Download

Pipe rate benchmarks directly into your TMS, procurement system, or internal BI stack via API — or use Datalink Download for extracts without technical integration.

Reports

Tailored, executive-ready reports from Xeneta Advisory that power your decisions and report on savings secured. Add-on for existing customers.

Frequently asked questions

The most common questions we hear from procurement, supply chain, and freight forwarding teams evaluating Xeneta rates data.

How does Xeneta calculate a daily benchmark rate?

Every day, Xeneta takes all valid contracts active on that date for a given trade lane and container type, then calculates benchmark tiers — market high, mid-high, average, mid-low, and market low. Short-term and long-term contracts are aggregated separately, so spot and contract markets don't get blended together. Rates are total port-to-port cost, including the major surcharges shaping the ocean leg.

How accurate are Xeneta's freight rates?

Xeneta's rates are sourced directly from actual shipper and freight forwarder contracts — not modelled, estimated, or carrier-reported. Each data point is validated against Xeneta's quality standards before it enters the benchmark. The result is a benchmark that reflects what the market is genuinely paying, not what it's being asked to pay.

Where does the data come from?

Rates come directly from the contracts of Xeneta's shipper and freight forwarder customers. Data is never sourced from carriers, which keeps the benchmarks fully independent.

What is the coverage of Xeneta's freight rate data?

Xeneta covers 160,000+ port pairs globally — including all major trade lanes, broken down by container type, carrier, and contract length.

How fresh is Xeneta's rate data?

Benchmark rates update in real time, with 90% of data ingested and processed within 1 day.

How does Xeneta keep data secure?

Xeneta is ISO 27001:2022 certified for information security. All contributed rates are fully anonymized and aggregated before entering the benchmark pool — no company-specific rates or supplier names are ever disclosed.

How are Xeneta’s ocean freight rate benchmarks different from freight rate indices from other companies?

Public indices typically show spot prices on a handful of major routes, sampled weekly. Xeneta is built on 800M+ actual contracted rates — both short- and long-term — at port-pair level, updated daily. Indices give you a market signal; Xeneta tells you where your specific lanes, carriers, and contracts sit against what peers are actually paying.

What surcharges are included in Xeneta's freight rates?

Xeneta rates represent the total port-to-port cost — not just the base ocean freight charge. Every rate includes BAF (Bunker Adjustment Factor), CAF (Currency Adjustment Factor), EU ETS (Emissions Trading System), canal surcharges, and all other surcharges within Xeneta's port-to-port definition. THC can be toggled on or off depending on how you buy, so you can match the rate view to your actual cost basis. Destination charges are excluded as these vary by terminal and fall outside the port-to-port definition. For the full surcharge list, see xeneta.com/hubfs/static/surcharge-list.pdf.

See the data in action

Speak with our team to see live rate benchmark data for your lanes, your carriers, to support the decisions you're working through right now.

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Explore other datasets

Our Dataset

Xeneta Ocean Freight Rates data

For years, procurement leaders have signed contracts worth millions based on last quarter’s numbers, spot-only indices, or carrier quotes—because that’s what the market offered. Xeneta changes what’s possible.

Ocean Freight Rate Data at Scale

What make Xeneta’s Ocean Freight Rate Data Unique

800M+

Rates

160k+

Port Pairs Covered

Daily

Rate Updates

XENETA OCEAN FREIGHT RATE DATA

What's in the dataset