SONAR Puts a Price on Routing Guide Failure: 22% on Second Tender

Loads accepted on the second tender cost shippers a median 22.02% more all-in than first-tender loads, and third-tender loads cost 26.44% more. Those numbers, current as of Oct. 20, 2026, come from SONAR's new Routing Guide Premium datasets — RGP2.USA and RGP3.USA — and they answer a question shippers have always had to estimate on their own: how much more does a load cost when the primary carrier says no?

SONAR released three new truckload dataset groups this week, all measuring shipper-to-provider costs — the rates shippers pay brokers and carriers, not carrier operating costs or broker margins. Every dataset updates daily on a 7-day rolling average and is live now.

How much does a failed tender actually cost?

Routing Guide Premium measures the median percentage change in all-in transportation cost — base rate, fuel and accessorials — when a load lands on a later tender instead of the first.

• RGP2.USA: premium paid on second-tender loads versus first-tender loads
• RGP3.USA: premium paid on third-tender loads versus first-tender loads

The premiums are not flat through the year. Both spiked above 30% around the December holidays, in early February, and from late June into July. Tight capacity in peak windows pushes backup pricing up. Shippers can now see the true cost of freight slipping past the primary provider, in dollars and percent, before deciding whether to rebid.

How often does freight fall through the guide?

Routing Guide Acceptance Share answers the companion question — how often does freight move past the first tender at all.

• RGAS1.USA: share of loads accepted on the first tender
• RGAS2.USA / RGAS3.USA: share accepted on second and third tenders

As of Oct. 20, 2026, 89.05% of accepted loads were taken on the first tender — below the 12-month average of 91.60%. Second-tender acceptances made up 6.84%, third-tender 4.11%. The dataset covers positions from first tender through fifth and beyond. Combined with the premium data, it shows both how often a routing guide breaks and what each break costs — the core inputs for deciding when to rebid.

Are contract rates resetting higher?

The third dataset, Contract Rate Change Direction (CRCD.USA), measures the average percentage change between new and previous contract base rates. It counts only changes where the prior rate was stable for more than 90 days, which filters out short-term noise.

Positive values mean new contract rates are resetting above the rates they replace. As of Oct. 20, 2026, CRCD.USA stood at 12.58% — new contract base rates averaged about 12.6% above the rates they replaced. That is well above the 12-month average of 8.34%, and the index has climbed steadily since late 2025.

What does this change for shippers, brokers and carriers? For shippers, it is bid timing. A climbing CRCD reading alongside falling first-tender acceptance is the classic signal that incumbent contract rates no longer clear the market and bid pressure is building. For carriers, it shows where contract pricing is heading before the next RFP cycle. For brokers, it flags lanes and windows where routing guides are failing and spot exposure is rising.

SearchCarriers: monitoring that doesn't stop at onboarding

Alongside the datasets, SONAR expanded SearchCarriers, its carrier-checking tool, from a one-time lookup into a continuous monitoring platform.

Carrier watchlists. Users can add carriers to a personal Company Watches list by company name or USDOT number, tracking up to 200 carriers each. Bulk Import adds many at once. For each watched carrier, users choose what to monitor: inspections, contact info, reported trucks, reported trailers, reported drivers, MCS-150 overdue status, for-sale monitoring and out-of-service orders — or select All updates.

Email notifications. Once a notification email is added and verified in settings, SONAR sends an alert when a watched carrier changes, based on the selected alert types. That matters because changes such as a new out-of-service order, updated contact details or an overdue MCS-150 filing can signal risk or possible fraud — and now they reach the inbox instead of waiting for the next manual check.

Inspection search. Users can pull up a specific carrier inspection and its details quickly, speeding safety and compliance reviews during qualification and audits.

Equipment lookup by VIN or license plate. Searching a VIN or plate returns available information on a truck or trailer, helping teams confirm the equipment showing up at the dock matches the carrier that was booked — a direct check against double brokering and identity fraud.

Together, the new tools shift carrier qualification from a point-in-time check to continuous monitoring: catch red flags earlier, verify equipment against the carrier of record before loading, and reach safety data faster during audits and claims.

The Routing Guide Premium, Acceptance Share and Contract Rate Change Direction datasets are available in SONAR today, and with second-tender premiums above 22% and contract resets running at 12.58%, shippers heading into the next bid season now have daily evidence of whether their routing guides will hold — and what it costs when they don't.