Let's talk data.
Outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate freight data doesn’t just derail your supply chain, it wastes time chasing rates that no longer exist. And when it’s time to tender, a lack of real-time, accurate data puts you on the back foot.
Worst of all? With bad data, you don’t even know what you don’t know.
In this post, I’ll unpack why so many supply chain professionals struggle to trust their data — and how you can turn that weakness into a competitive advantage.
This is no longer just a data problem, it’s a strategy problem
“The volatility we’ve had over the past years is now just what container shipping is.”
This was one of the key takeaways from Emily Stausbøll in the latest episode of The Freight Debate. The old idea of a “normal” tender season doesn’t exist anymore. Carriers will push when they’re in power, shippers will pull when they can, and the spread between the two is far wider than it was pre-pandemic.
This isn’t a cycle. It’s a structural shift. And logistic professionals can no afford to walk into tenders with the same old playbook or limited datasets.
It takes a robust combination of internal and external data to achieve the most favorable contracts (check out Xeneta's on-demand webinar: What data actually matters in a tender, to learn why) and minimize disruption to often delicate supply chains.
So, the fact that only 6% of companies report full visibility on their supply chain (Zippia), only 4% of supply chain professionals trust their data (Zencargo) and 79% non-procurement executives lack confidence in using procurement data when it comes to strategic decision making, this is a huge strategic problem.
To rebuild confidence in procurement data, it’s crucial to explore why trust is currently so low. And it ultimately comes down to three key reasons:
#1 Data often lags behind the market: The freight market is incredibly volatile. Rates can undergo big swings in short timeframes, meaning last week’s data is pretty obsolete in the present. Many benchmarks are only updated weekly, or even monthly, so they can’t be fully trusted for the decisions you make today (or tomorrow).
#2 Market intelligence usually lacks transparency: A lot of benchmarks depend on carrier-reported rates and voluntary submissions which means they don’t always reflect the complete market landscape. Plus, many benchmarking tools will only provide a single market average without full logistics data transparency to get into the granular details.
#3 Inconsistent methodologies hinder comparison: Different platforms use different methodologies to report market intelligence, and this makes them hard to compare. And if you don’t know what data sources a benchmark uses, for example if it uses quoted rates instead of actual paid rates, you could be easily misled by the resulting insights.
And then there's who decides when to act on the data you do have?
Another reason confidence is low? Misalignment between procurement and logistics.
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Procurement professionals usually own the tendering process. They decide when to launch an RFQ, which suppliers to invite, and how to structure contracts. Their focus is on commercial outcomes — costs, compliance, and risk allocation.
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Supply chain/logistics professionals live the operational reality. They see when service levels slip, cargo is rolled, or surcharges creep in. They’re the ones flagging, “This carrier is no longer delivering as promised — we need to rethink.”
The problem? Too often procurement makes the call without full visibility into operational performance, while logistics can’t always translate performance issues into the financial language procurement and finance require.
The result? Tenders are launched too late, contracts get misaligned with the market, and decisions don’t hold up under scrutiny.
It’s time to rethink outdated data strategies
Relying on outdated or opaque benchmarks undermines your ability to identify the right suppliers, negotiate with confidence, or defend your decisions to key stakeholders.
Instead, here are a few things you might consider prioritizing in your 2026 freight strategy:
- Compare Current Rates to Your Contract
Don’t just look at averages, benchmark today's long-term market rates against your existing contracts to understand your leverage. For example, shippers on key routes like Far East → North Europe have seen 23–41% savings compared to prior agreements - Forecast Market Movements
Use real-time and forward-looking insights to anticipate shifts. Even if rates decline further before your next tender, current rate levels already point toward meaningful savings - Embrace Index‑Linked Contract Structures
Fixed-price contracts can quickly become misaligned. An index-linked model keeps pricing flexible, resilient, and aligned with market changes—so your contracts remain valid through volatility - Layer Complementary Data for Richer Insight
Go beyond rates. Evaluate carriers based on capacity dynamics (like alliance shifts or blanked sailings), schedule reliability, and transit performance to build a more robust procurement strategy
Discover your go-to source for real-time, trustworthy freight data
If you’ve felt these same pressures, take a page from your peers. Procurement leaders worldwide rely on Xeneta to gain the clarity and context needed to make confident, data-driven freight decisions their standard practice.
As a starting point, Xeneta benchmarking goes beyond a single average. You’ll see the market high, low, spread, and a six-month forward view — giving you a holistic picture of current conditions and where they’re heading. With over 600 million contracted, duplicate-free datapoints across 170,000+ port-pairs, you can trust the intelligence you bring to the negotiating table.
And because we collect millions of rates every month, from both short- and long-term contracts, Xeneta insight goes further than rate benchmarking alone. You also gain visibility into:
- Spend benchmarks
- Surcharges
- Carrier rates
- Tender benchmarking
- Schedule reliability
- Capacity shifts and blank sailings
- Reports and analyst insights
The less data you have, the more exposed your strategy becomes.
With peers and competitors already leveraging real-time insights to stay ahead, the real question is: can you afford to be the one without it?
Xeneta gives you a real-time, crowdsourced view of ocean and air freight rates across the global market — so you can benchmark against what’s happening now and monitor key indicators to keep your supply chain moving.
It’s transparency traditional methods simply can’t match.
Hungry to rethink your tender strategy?
Start with Xeneta's on-demand webinar with Eunice Medina and Reda Beloui: What data actually matters in a tender.
And then for a deeper dive, download the Tender Rules eBook to build a procurement playbook that works in today’s volatile market.
