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For shippers

Help for shippers

Cargado shows you what Mexico and Canada freight is actually costing in the market right now, built from real carrier bids rather than survey data or a published tariff. This page covers how to read those rates, how to get at them, and how the marketplace fits around your existing brokers.

One thing to be clear about up front: Cargado is not your broker and does not move your freight. We do not take a margin on your loads. What we run is the marketplace your brokers and carriers work in, and the rate data that comes out of it.

Read the band, not the number

A market rate is a range, because the market is a range. Every lane comes back as three figures and a confidence score.

Low
The level a quarter of recent carrier bids came in at or below.
Mid
The middle of the range. The most useful single number if you only take one.
High
The top quarter. Where the lane clears quickly and you pay for it.
Confidence
How much real bidding sits behind the band. Low confidence means thin data, not a cheap lane.

The bands include fuel. They are all-in rates, not linehaul. If a broker quotes you linehaul plus a fuel surcharge, add the surcharge before you compare, or you will read the market as cheaper than it is.

Two things that trip shippers up

Mexican domestic lanes are priced in pesos

Freight moving inside Mexico is bid and paid in pesos, so that is how we show it. Do not convert a peso figure to dollars to compare it against a US lane. The cost base is different, and the exchange rate moves underneath the comparison.

No rate does not mean no carriers

A lane with no band has too little recent bidding to publish one. It does not mean nobody runs it. Ask a broker to post it and the bids that come back will tell you where it prices, and will build the band for next time.

Three ways to get the rates

The same data, in whichever place your team already works.

1

In Cargado directly. A subscription of your own, with lane lookups in the app and rate history you can pull up on a call.

2

In Excel, for a whole bid file. Paste in origin, destination, trailer type and crossing, fill down, and the bands come back beside every lane. This is the one to use for an RFP rather than looking lanes up one at a time.

3

Through the API, or a partner platform. Put the rates straight into your own procurement or TMS workflow. Some teams reach us through a platform they already use, such as GoodShip, rather than integrating themselves.

Guides

Working with brokers on Cargado

Your brokers keep doing what they do. Cargado changes what they can see.

Your brokers reach more carriers

When a broker posts your lane here, every vetted carrier that fits the equipment and the crossing is notified, not just the ones already in that broker's book. On Mexico and Canada freight that is usually where the coverage problem actually sits.

Vetting still runs

Cargado vets every carrier before it can bid, and your broker's own onboarding runs on top of that, on every match. Our check is an extra layer, not a replacement for theirs.

Ask them to price against the band

A useful habit on a bid: ask your broker where the lane sits in the Cargado band rather than only what they will do it for. It moves the conversation from haggling to evidence.

Talk to someone

Already a customer, or working with a Cargado broker? Email success@cargado.com and we will get you to the right person.

Sizing us up, or not sure whether a subscription or a partner platform fits your team better? Email contact@cargado.com. If you send us a bid file or a lane list, we can show you where those lanes are actually pricing before you commit to anything.

This section of the help center is new and deliberately short. If the answer you came for is not here, tell us what it was and we will write it.