The current freight market presents unprecedented volatility, with geopolitical tensions, capacity fluctuations, and evolving trade policies creating constant challenges for shippers. Drawing insights from a recent Freightos Enterprise product demonstration featuring Judah Levine, Head of Research, and Oliver Esch, VP of Commercial for Enterprise Shippers, this analysis reveals how data-driven strategies can transform freight procurement from reactive scrambling into proactive, cost-saving operations.
Three Data-Driven Strategies to Cut Costs
1. Leverage Real-Time Market Intelligence for Strategic Timing
The key to successful procurement in volatile markets lies in timing decisions based on comprehensive market intelligence. As demonstrated in the Freightos walkthrough, the platform provides real-time access to global ocean and air freight indices through the Freightos Baltic Index (FBX) and Freightos Air Index (FAX).
Levine demonstrated during the Freightos Terminal walkthrough how the platform tracks rate movements across major trade lanes. The system’s intuitive capabilities automatically identify cost-saving opportunities. “The platform is automatically calculating and analyzing for how many lanes and how many containers we might see cost avoidance,” Esch explained during the procurement demonstration.
Key Market Intelligence Capabilities:
- Real-time visibility into spot rate movements across 13 major container shipping lanes
- Historical trend analysis to identify optimal procurement windows
- AI-powered analytics that automatically flag lanes with potential savings
- Integration with market events and capacity trend analysis
The timing advantage is particularly critical given current market patterns, with rates fluctuating dramatically throughout 2025—from elevated peaks during front-loading periods to current lows as overcapacity pressures intensify.
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2. Automate Procurement Processes to Increase Agility
Traditional spreadsheet-based tendering cannot keep pace with today’s dynamic market conditions. “With all the volatility on the market, we do believe that tender preparation is quite inefficient, and getting the Excel spreadsheets first uploaded or ready to send them to individual LSPs is quite challenging,” Esch noted.
The Freightos Procure solution addresses this by creating what Esch called a “single source of truth” for rate management, enabling immediate market responses through comprehensive automation.
Automation Capabilities Include:
- Automated RFQ launches: “If I click now, start RFQ, the system is automatically running the RFQ,” Esch demonstrated
- AI-powered rate refresh: “The system is automatically grouping the different rate IDs to your incumbent LSP, and you decide what column information you would like to update”
- Intelligent optimization: “With this combinatorics, you can also create, or you let the system propose to you the best potential setup for your future business”
- Built-in analytics: “That’s actually what we would like to avoid, because the system can learn, can improve, learns with all the different clicks you are doing in the system”
3. Implement Index-Linked Procurement Strategies
The most innovative approach to managing freight cost volatility is index-linked contracting, where rates automatically adjust based on transparent market indices. “In the FBX, and that’s coming more and more often, we hear it from different carriers, but we also hear it from different shippers. We also have a connection here to procurement activities to also have a linked procurement, index-linked procurement approach,” Esch explained.
Index-Linking Benefits:
- Transparent benchmarking: “We can easily use the FBX, the FAX, yeah, which is also listed on the Baltic, which is in collaboration with the Baltic Index, also on the Singapore and Chicago”
- Government validation: “I think I also need to highlight that even the US government is using the index”
- Risk sharing: Automatic rate adjustments eliminate constant renegotiation
- Multi-year stability: Enable longer-term contracts with built-in market responsiveness
Market Context: Understanding Current Volatility
For those interested in the broader market dynamics driving the need for these solutions:
As Levine outlined in the September walkthrough, multiple disruptive factors have fundamentally altered traditional shipping patterns throughout 2025:
- Tariff volatility: “Tariffs that were first at a lower level were pushed all the way up to 145% by the U.S. on all Chinese exports,” Levine explained
- Red Sea diversions: “Since the very end of 2023, a very significant share of container traffic has avoided the Red Sea because of Houthi attacks on passing vessels”
- Growing overcapacity: “We’ve had continued, real significant growth in new vessels, new container vessels being delivered to the market”
“The big question, though, is what will tariffs do in terms of consumer demand?” Levine noted, highlighting why adaptive procurement strategies are essential in today’s market.
Implementation and Measurable Results
Rapid Deployment and Integration
The onboarding process is efficient and straightforward. “Yeah, especially Freightos Terminal, immediately, yeah, so you get immediate access to Freightos Terminal,” Esch explained. “For the Freightos Procure environment, on average, let’s say, per mode of transport, it takes 3 to 4 weeks.”
The platform features comprehensive integration capabilities: “What I can say is that we are quite well connected to different TMS, ERP, and real-time visibility solutions, where we can definitely import all the relevant information with an API JSON REST interface.”
Performance Optimization
The platform’s analytical capabilities enable comprehensive cost optimization. “You could say 60% should be weighted with the price, 30% with the transit time, 10% with the CO2 emission, and the system is automatically selecting the preferred LSP for your business,” Esch demonstrated.
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Esch emphasized the evolution toward full automation: “But together, within the next 1, 2, 3 years, we can get to a more and more automated process for your procurement events. Manual effort will be avoided.”
As Esch concluded: “These are typical use cases clients are using and benefit from the different solutions focusing on Procure and Terminal, identifying the best moment, launching different tender events to the market.”
The technology exists today to transform freight procurement from reactive scrambling into a proactive, strategic advantage. The question for shippers is not whether to adopt these data-driven approaches, but how quickly they can implement them to capture the substantial benefits available.
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