Delhivery has unveiled Freight Index One, a new platform designed to provide transparent pricing information for India's logistics sector. The service offers historical, current, and forward Full Truckload (FTL) pricing estimates across major trucking lanes for various container vehicle types.
The platform addresses a significant gap in India's logistics market, which currently lacks equivalents to established global freight indices such as the Cass Freight Index and Freightos Baltic Index. This absence has created challenges including routing inefficiencies, cost uncertainties during seasonal demand periods, and information asymmetries across the industry.
"Having a reasonable estimate of freight pricing is key to reducing overall logistics costs and increasing revenues for transporters and shippers," said Rohan Anand, Head of Data Science at Delhivery. The platform draws on nearly a decade of market intelligence and internal data, incorporating factors such as supply fluctuations, seasonality, route viability, and economic indicators including fuel prices, toll rates, and taxes.
Delhivery's Chief Technology Officer, Kapil Bharati, emphasized the collaborative nature of the initiative. "Through Freight Index One, we plan to open up freight rate data and forecasts to partners from the logistics industry, including freight brokers and shippers," he said. The company aims to deepen the accuracy and coverage of the index through partnerships with various market participants.
The platform targets multiple stakeholders in the logistics ecosystem, including transporters, fleet owners, shippers, and third-party logistics providers. By providing access to market-wide data, Freight Index One enables price benchmarking and supports better budget planning and rate negotiations.
Delhivery serves over 44,000 customers across 18,800 pin codes nationwide and has fulfilled more than 3.6 billion shipments since its inception. The company offers express parcel transportation, partial truckload freight, full truckload freight, cross-border services, supply chain solutions, and technology services.