How RHI Magnesita Brought Order to a World of Freight Rate Chaos

Freight procurement has always required discipline. In a volatile market, it demands even more. Yet many global shippers still rely on the same tools they used a decade ago. Files spread across regional folders. Supplier inputs arriving in mismatched formats. Formulas that need to be checked again and again. 

This worked when networks were smaller and the market was slower. It does not work anymore. RHI Magnesita, a global manufacturer moving dense cargo across more than 1,700 lanes, know this as well as anyone. Their experience reflects a growing industry reality. Rate management has become too complex, too dynamic and too interconnected to be held together by spreadsheets. 

The shift happening inside organizations like theirs is not a shift toward a new tool. It is a shift toward regaining control over the data, processes and decisions that influence cost, reliability and internal alignment. 

The Cost of a Workflow Built on Spreadsheets 

Many shippers still follow a familiar quarterly rhythm. Suppliers return rate sheets. Teams extract and validate the data. Columns get adjusted. Files are split and merged. And every update sets off a cycle of manual checks that can consume entire workdays. 

RHI Magnesita described this environment clearly. Two people spent three full days every quarter simply updating rates. Much of the work involved pulling data out of spreadsheets, correcting formats, recalculating formulas and reconstructing a master file. 

The challenge is that manual processes introduce fragility. When thousands of lanes are managed through spreadsheets, even small inconsistencies can create pricing errors, audit risks or internal misalignment. And while teams are buried in administrative work, they have less time to focus on the strategic questions that drive value. 

There is also the issue of visibility. When leaders ask where the business stands on a specific lane or corridor, answering requires another round of data checks. In volatile markets, this lag slows response time at the exact moment when clarity is most needed. 

The pressure is not caused by people. It is caused by structure. 

Why More Shippers Are Reconsidering Their Approach 

Over the last several years, the freight market has changed faster than many procurement workflows can update. Rates move quickly. Surcharges evolve. Carrier behavior shifts. And geopolitical events can redraw routing patterns almost overnight. 

In this environment, the old model of spreadsheet-based rate management is becoming a bottleneck. 

RHI Magnesita began rethinking their approach for four reasons that are increasingly common across large supply chains.

They needed a single place to work

Not a collection of folders. Not files passed between teams. A single environment where data is instantly visible, clean and accessible to regional and global stakeholders.

They needed consistency

Supplier updates arriving in different formats were consuming more time than the analysis itself. Standardization became essential for accuracy and speed.

They needed context

RHI Magnesita moves dense cargo where market segmentation matters. Understanding how their rates compare with peers became critical for negotiations and planning.

They needed time back

Three days spent maintaining files could be three days not spent building strategy, evaluating suppliers or preparing for volatility by creating resiliency. 

These needs reflect a broader shift happening across the industry. Rate management is no longer an administrative workflow. It has become the foundation for decision-making. 

What Changes When Rate Management Becomes Structured? 

When RHI Magnesita moved to an integrated approach, the impact was immediate. Quarterly updates that once took three days were completed in a few hours. Supplier inputs followed a single structure. Data was stored in one place. And teams across the business gained the ability to work from the same source of truth. 

With reliable data at the center, the team could finally turn attention to the work that influences outcomes. They could prepare for negotiations with confidence, compare their lanes to the broader market, and identify risks earlier in the cycle. 

Conversations changed as well. Decisions were based on evidence rather than interpretation. Suppliers and the global procurement team aligned faster because everyone was working from the same foundation. 

RHI Magnesita described the shift in simple terms. They no longer operated through a patchwork of spreadsheets. They operated through one source of truth that supported the business consistently. 

A New Standard for Freight Procurement 

What RHI Magnesita experienced is part of a wider transformation happening across the industry. As supply chains grow more interconnected and markets move faster, rate management is becoming an area where clarity, consistency and structure directly influence competitive strength. 

Teams are recognizing that spreadsheets are not inherently the problem. The problem is the way those spreadsheets have become the architecture of rate management itself. As networks expand and volatility accelerates, that architecture cannot keep up. 

Leading shippers are responding by rebuilding the foundation. They are adopting workflows that reduce manual work. They are creating data structures that support faster analysis. They are enabling alignment across functions and regions. They are freeing their teams to focus on strategic decisions. 

This is how rate management evolves from a burden into an advantage. 

Control Is Becoming the New Differentiator 

What RHI Magnesita accomplished is not unique to one organization. It reflects a new expectation across global freight teams. Standardized updates. Clean data. Fewer errors. Faster decisions. And a clear understanding of how rates perform in a shifting market. 

These capabilities are not created by tools alone. They are created when organizations decide to move beyond manual, fragmented processes and build systems that match the complexity of the environment they operate in. 

RHI Magnesita wanted control. And they built a structure that finally gave it to them. 

“Xeneta’s Integrated Rate Management will free me and others up to focus on other priorities instead of spending days on manual tasks - reducing that time to just a couple of hours (instead of days) is a huge deal for us and a big efficiency gain. It will help us to move faster, and keep our data clean and compliant.” 

Update Once. Stay Accurate Everywhere. 

If your team is facing similar pressures, you are not alone. Many global organizations are re-examining how they maintain, validate and use their rate data. 

You can learn more about how integrated rate management works and how it is helping shippers simplify updates, reduce operational risk and operate with greater clarity.