Every Cargado rate comes with a confidence score that tells you how much you can trust it — calculated from real carrier bid activity, not guesswork.
20+ bids from 10+ unique carriers in the trailing 12 weeks, with a margin of error typically under 10%. Multiple carriers are actively bidding similar freight — quote this rate with conviction.
10–19 bids from 5–9 unique carriers, margin of error typically 10–15%. Most cross-border lanes live here — reliable for benchmarking and quoting, with a reasonable buffer.
Fewer than 10 bids or fewer than 5 unique carriers — sometimes shown as an extended-market rate from a nearby larger market. Treat it as directional guidance, and post the lane to gather fresh bids.
Cargado won't show a rate until at least 5 unique carriers have submitted 10 total bids. A single carrier bidding low on a backhaul doesn't represent the market, and a specialized carrier bidding high for hazmat equipment doesn't either. Requiring multiple carriers filters the outliers out.
A $2,890 median with a 13% margin of error means the true market median likely sits between roughly $2,515 and $3,265. Tight margins mean predictable pricing; wide margins usually mean mixed freight types, seasonal swings, or limited data — widen your quote range accordingly.
"Not enough data" means the lane hasn't hit the minimum threshold — most common on intra-Mexico and intra-Canada lanes, niche equipment, and remote origins.
Post the lane as a potential load. Carriers bid on it, and those bids flow straight back into Market Rates — the next lookup has real data.
One customer searched intra-Mexico lanes and got nothing; three weeks of normal posting later, every lane they'd searched had rates.
Cross-border pricing was guesswork — confidence scores tell you exactly how reliable each number is.
Explore Market RatesHow to read P25 / P50 / P75 →