Blog · Wallet share and penetration · Freight brokers and 3PLs
Why lane share means different things on contracted and spot freight, how to carry the flag from the TMS, the two lists it produces per shipper, and the mistakes that follow when a broker reads a low share on a contract lane as a sales problem.
A broker's TMS knows which loads moved under a contract and which were won on the spot market, and most lane reports throw the distinction away. The result is a rep chasing a low-share contract lane with sales calls when the problem is that the shipper's planners are ignoring the routing guide, or a rep ignoring a spot lane where a few more quotes would win. This guide sets out the two lists.
| Contract | Spot | |
|---|---|---|
| How won | Agreed in a tender at a rate and volume | One load at a time, on price and availability |
| Low share means | Shipper not following the routing guide, or you rejecting tenders | You are not quoting, or not winning |
| Who to talk to | The shipper's logistics lead, or your own operations | The shipper's planners, with a better price or a faster answer |
| Measure | Tender acceptance and routing guide compliance | Quote rate and win rate |
Contract lanes, per shipper:
Compliance = loads tendered to you ÷ loads the contract expected Acceptance = loads you accepted ÷ loads tendered to you
Spot lanes, per shipper:
Quote rate = loads you quoted ÷ loads the shipper put to market that you saw Win rate = loads won ÷ loads quoted
Shipper identifiers only.
One shipper, last quarter.
| Lane | Type | Expected or seen | Tendered or quoted | Won | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago–Dallas | Contract | 60 expected | 58 tendered, 48 accepted | 48 | Compliance fine; ten rejections, capacity |
| Atlanta–Newark | Contract | 40 expected | 14 tendered | 12 | Compliance 35 percent; the shipper is routing elsewhere |
| LA–Phoenix | Spot | 26 seen | 22 quoted | 4 | Quoting, not winning; price |
| Denver–KC | Spot | 30 seen | 6 quoted | 3 | Not quoting; coverage |
Four lanes, four different problems, and a blended lane share would have shown one number near 40 percent and said nothing about any of them.
Flag missing. Loads without a contract reference all read as spot, and contract compliance cannot be measured. Get the reference onto the load at booking.
Expected volume absent. A contract without an expected volume cannot show compliance. Carry it from the tender award.
Rejections not recorded. Tenders you rejected vanish, and a capacity problem looks like a shipper problem. Record every tender and its outcome.
Blended share in the deck. The one number that describes nothing. Two lists, always.
Mapped once, the TMS export with the contract flag produces the compliance list and the spot list per shipper every week, reconciled to invoiced loads. Covirage builds this from the export as it is. The freight brokers page describes the setup, and the lane share guide covers the measure the two lists are built on.
The TMS, where a load booked under a contracted rate carries the contract reference. Loads without one are spot. Where the TMS does not carry it, the rate table does: a load at the contracted rate on a contracted lane is contract.
Either the shipper is tendering loads to others despite the agreement, which is a conversation with the shipper's logistics lead, or your team is rejecting tenders for lack of capacity, which is an operations conversation. The tender acceptance rate tells them apart.
For revenue, yes. For share, no. A shipper's blended lane share mixes an agreement with a competition and describes neither.