In two public forums this week, DAT executives outlined how the company aims to rewire the load-matching experience around three pillars: automating routine workflows, hardening identity and compliance to curb fraud, and embedding faster, more predictable payments. The vision is a stitched-together stack where carrier vetting, visibility, pricing intelligence and settlement live in one workflow, reducing manual touches for brokers while giving small carriers cleaner, safer access to freight.
Why it matters now: shippers still hold most of the pricing power. Fresh DAT data shared in industry coverage shows dry van contract pricing hasn’t moved much in more than two years, with September 2025 averaging about $2.42 per mile including fuel. Contract has sat above spot since March 2022, an unusually long stretch that favors shippers and squeezes intermediaries and small fleets. If that stasis continues into the holidays, tools that eliminate waste—phone calls, rework, bad matches—become the difference between red and black ink for a lot of operators.
Owner-operators are navigating the same crosswinds. A newly updated benchmarking deep-dive released over the weekend highlighted steady but modest income improvement for many independents this year, largely attributed to tighter cost control and operational discipline rather than rate relief. The takeaway for small carriers tracks with DAT’s message: tighten your compliance profile, digitize the boring parts, and prioritize lanes and partners that reduce deadhead and paperwork churn.
Global currents aren’t helping. Ocean carriers are wrestling with spot rates that have slipped back toward pre-pandemic territory, a signal that import pricing power is weakening. That can ripple inland: softer ocean spot levels and more aggressive capacity management at sea often temper near-port trucking demand and intermodal handoffs, even as tender volumes in the middle of the country hold up. Brokers and carriers positioned on resilient domestic lanes will feel less whiplash than drayage and transload operators tethered to import surges.
For brokers, DAT’s strategy—described on stage this week—amounts to building a “gated marketplace” where your house rules travel with every post: which carriers can see and book your freight, how identity gets verified, what visibility is required, and how money moves after delivery. That setup can shrink cycle times and reduce fraud exposure while preserving the human relationships that still decide who gets the 4 p.m. rescue load.
For carriers, the payback is practical: a cleaner board with more thoroughly vetted freight, fewer ghost posts and double-brokering attempts, and faster, clearer settlement options. In a cycle where contract rates are sticky and spot remains a grind in many lanes, shaving minutes off each transaction and cutting dispute risk can matter more than chasing the next two cents on rate.
What to watch next: tender rejections and late-quarter restocking should reveal whether seasonal tightness materializes enough to narrow the spot–contract gap into November. If it doesn’t, expect the industry’s near-term winners to be the players who turn “workflow plumbing” into measurable savings—fewer touches per load, fewer claims, fewer bad actors—exactly the ground DAT is trying to occupy.
Sources: FreightWaves, Trucking Dive, Overdrive, The Loadstar
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