Know What Carriers Are Asking—Before You Pick Up the Phone

TL;DR

• Parade’s new Estimated Carrier Bid (ECB) feature gives you a live benchmark of what carriers are asking for a lane, based on thousands of real-time quotes across the Parade network.

  • Price faster, negotiate with confidence, and protect margin with live market intelligence.

  • Know how much confidence to place in every estimate with built-in quote counts.

  • Bring the same pricing intelligence into your TMS or pricing engine with the Parade Data API.

• If you already use Parade, see the market alongside your own brokerage’s history with My Past Loads and Last Moved, all within the Parade workflows your team already uses.

Price Freight with Today’s Market

Every buy-rate decision starts with the same question: What will it take to cover this load today?

Most brokers still piece together yesterday’s rates, outdated benchmarks, and gut feel. Estimated Carrier Bid replaces guesswork with a live market benchmark built from what carriers are quoting right now.

Schedule a Demo

Why it matters

• Negotiate from a market-backed starting point

• Reduce time spent researching rates

• Protect margin with fresher market intelligence

• Give every rep the same trusted pricing signal

See the Market Before You Negotiate

Estimated Carrier Bid (ECB) is the real-time carrier asking rate for a lane.

Instead of looking backward at settlement data, ECB shows what carriers are actively quoting today. Every estimate is backed by a quote count, so you know how much confidence to place in the number.

At a glance

• Live carrier asking rates

• Updated hourly

• Quote count for confidence

• Anonymous, aggregated market data

• Dry Van, Reefer, and Flatbed

How it works within Parade

Estimated Carrier Bid is integrated across Parade (Load Details, Quote View, and the Source page), updating hourly with distance-normalized median quotes for your target pickup dates.

This delivers a real-time market signal precisely when your team makes buy decisions, without requiring them to switch screens.

Parade also displays your historical data: My Past Loads plots your brokerage's average assigned carrier rates alongside network estimates, while Load Last Moved provides an immediate anchor using the date, total rate, and dollar-per-mile of your most recent load on that lane.

Bring Live Market Pricing Into Your Own Systems

The same Estimated Carrier Bid your reps see in Parade is also available through the Parade Data API. Instead of jumping between tools, spreadsheets, and historical reports, your team gets everything they need to negotiate from a single screen.

You send an origin, a destination, an equipment type (Van, Reefer, or Flatbed), and an optional pickup date. You get back:

• estimated_carrier_bid: the estimated rate in USD for your requested date

• rate_per_mile: the same estimate normalized per mile

• total_quote_count: the number of quotes behind the estimate, so you can gauge confidence

• daily_breakdown: the estimate and quote count for each day, from 7 days before pickup to 10 days after

• last_updated_at: when the underlying data was last refreshed

The daily breakdown is especially powerful. Instead of pricing only today’s freight, you can understand how the market is trending before and after your pickup date—making it easier to quote future loads and plan ahead.

What You Can Build With It

Estimated Carrier Bid doesn’t replace your pricing strategy; it strengthens it. Use the API anywhere your team makes buy-rate decisions.

Common use cases

• Auto-price new loads the moment they’re created in your TMS.

• Benchmark incoming carrier quotes against a live market estimate instead of relying on yesterday’s rates.

• Accelerate RFP pricing by pricing dozens of lanes at once instead of researching each individually.

• Enhance your pricing engine by combining Estimated Carrier Bid with your own historical assigned rates and other pricing signals.

Parade provides a new market signal with the Estimated Carrier Bid. Your team controls the weighting, margin logic, and final shipper price—so your pricing strategy remains proprietary while benefiting from a live, network-wide view of the market.

Getting Started

New to Parade? Schedule a Demo

Already a customer? Estimated Carrier Bid is available today inside Parade. The API uses your existing Data API key.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Estimated Carrier Bid?

A live estimate of what carriers are asking to move a specific lane, based on anonymized quotes across the Parade network.

How is it different from settlement rates?

Settlement rates show what ultimately got paid. Estimated Carrier Bid shows the opening asking price, giving brokers a stronger starting point for negotiations.

How often is it updated?

Hourly.

How do I know if I can trust the estimate?

Every estimate includes a quote count so you can gauge confidence based on recent market activity.

What equipment types are supported?

Dry Van, Reefer, and Flatbed full-truckload freight.

Does it work for future pickup dates?

Yes. The API includes daily estimates from 7 days before to 10 days after the requested pickup date.

Is individual carrier or broker data exposed?

No. All estimates are anonymized and aggregated across the Parade network.