Why Verified Transactional Data Is Becoming The New Source Of Truth In Freight Pricing

Logistics pricing has historically been built on negotiation, gut feel, and secondhand benchmarks. Now, as verified transactional data from banks and factoring companies comes into focus, pricing decisions are shifting from estimates to evidence. Predictability in the supply chain no longer comes from guessing what a lane should pay, but from knowing exactly what money actually changed hands.

Andrew Cohen, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of logistics pricing platform Farelanes, approaches freight pricing through the lens of someone who spent decades building data-driven pricing systems in aviation. He sees logistics moving away from negotiated assumptions and toward models grounded in verified financial transactions. For Cohen, real efficiency and profitability start with a single, non-negotiable source of truth: what banks and factoring companies actually paid on a lane, not what anyone claimed it was worth.

"We only look at data that comes from banks and factoring companies that actually pay the invoice. That means we know what money changed hands, not what someone guessed the price might be," says Cohen. His philosophy is best explained by looking to the skies. Aviation embraced data-driven pricing decades ago, setting an expectation of precision where no passenger would tolerate an airfare with a vague margin of error attached.

• Three prices, one lane: The ground-based supply chain, in turn, is now demanding the same predictability. Without a single source of truth, different parties often see a different price for the same service, creating information gaps that cause inefficiency. "A shipper pays one price, the broker another, and the carrier receives something else entirely," Cohen explains. "In this environment, most of them simply don't know the real numbers."

Verified transactional data is what determines whether AI produces insight or just accelerates bad assumptions. When models are trained on what has actually changed hands, price prediction, route evaluation, and benchmarking become practical tools instead of abstract forecasts. Without that foundation, even the most advanced AI can’t deliver real predictive value, because price only becomes meaningful when it’s correlated with other verified market signals.

• A costly question: That kind of clarity isn’t just a boardroom concern. It matters most where the margin is thinnest, with the small carriers who keep freight moving. Many of these operators are trying to run stable, profitable lifestyle businesses, but that becomes nearly impossible without a clear view of their true costs. In a slow and uneven recovery, where rates stay under pressure, profitability often comes down to one simple question. "Most of the one-to-five-truck guys really don't know what their costs are," notes Cohen. "We help them look at what the lanes are paying and understand whether an opportunity for 54 cents a mile covers their truck, or if they're losing 3 cents a mile running that lane."

• Chaos and consequence: A growing number of leaders are pushing to reshape supply chains, moving them beyond simple automation by creating a "control tower" view for logistics. According to Cohen, a lack of standardized tracking doesn't just hurt efficiency; it also creates security vulnerabilities, with stakes he connects to everything from financial fraud to major international crime. "When a single load has 17 different numbers on it, you might as well have no number at all," he says. "The fraud and theft numbers are critical, approaching 20%. The government wants to fix this because of the negative problems that have become clear: the import of drugs, human trafficking, and the need to know what’s going on with a load on a truck."

• Proof, not promises: After a period where many vendors treated AI like a hammer in search of a nail, many are pushing to move from reactive firefighting to foresight. With a potential downturn on the horizon, carriers, brokers, and shippers are more hesitant to change their behavior without provable ROI. As much of the initial hype fades, the focus is turning toward demonstrable results. "The learning from the last year is that you must prove where the real opportunities are to save money or increase the life of a customer. The industry needs that proof before it will adopt a new technology. They're not willing to just throw money at something and try it anymore."

Ultimately, Cohen says the industry's "big miss" has been its tendency to overlook the massive, fragmented market of small carriers who move the vast majority of goods. Many now believe the next great opportunity lies in empowering these owner-operators. This segment, representing upwards of 80% of the market with almost 1.5 million trucks on the road, has been chronically underserved. After years of focusing on other parts of the supply chain, the focus is turning toward empowering these businesses with simple, effective, and affordable tools. "We've seen a lot of movement this year on the broker and financial side of managing the transaction," he concludes. "While that will continue, I really believe 2026 will be the year of the carrier."