TAC Index lets shippers gauge spot market rates

Earlier this week a beta version of the TAC Index went live, giving shippers and forwarders a new way to monitor and visualize general freight rates between key city pairs, reports Journal of Commerce.

At this initial stage TAC collects regular data from a handful of the world’s top 20 leading forwarders to provide rate information about major routes between Hong Kong and North America and Hong Kong and Europe; cities include Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Frankfurt.

As the index moves beyond beta stage, plans are in place to incorporate data from additional forwarders to cover more city pairs, and eventually publish weekly tonnage and $/KG aggregated rates for airport-to-airport routes.

The TAC Index attempts to offer shippers a more useful benchmark rate that serves as a real-time alternative to tenders currently available. According to Panalpina’s former head of airfreight, Robert Frei who has been involved in developing the index, “tenders provide only a look at the rate at any specific time and then you try to lock it in with the other party for three, six or 12 months, but it is still artificial. Our index provides weekly information.”

In addition, the Index enables forwarders the ability to see “the volatility of the rates, and how their internal procurement benchmarks against the entire market,” added Frei.