TAC airfreight rate index expands into Europe

TAC Index, the provider of air cargo price trend indices on major routes, is to start publishing airfreight data from Germany.
After launching earlier this year in Hong Kong, the TAC Index is now expanding, with its first indices in Europe.
The index providers will start publishing data from Monday October 31, using Frankfurt as the origin gateway.
Further expansion covering the other major cargo gateways is scheduled in 2016 and in the first quarter of 2017.
Peyton Burnett, TAC Index managing director, said: “We have been very pleased with the receptiveness of both the data provider and subscriber communities, with a number of major industry category leaders immediately taking up many of the early adopter subscriptions, locking in very favourable route access and long term pricing.
“The Hong Kong government has been very supportive of our activities and we would like to thank them for their continued support.
“There will be many advantages for our customers, both data providers and subscribers alike, and it represents an important milestone for the air cargo industry.”
Burnett continued: “Both data providers and subscribers are coordinating with the TAC Index to develop the best possible index for the industry. We have an exceptional team of experts and are using a methodology which is best market practice.”
Expanding into a new continent is seen as a “key milestone” for the TAC Index. Indexing the market is said to benefit all industry users, with price discovery being one of the main advantages, said Burnett.
The current means of price discovery mainly through tendering is said by TAC Index to be “extremely resource and capital intensive,” arguing that indexation can alleviate this bottleneck. Other markets continue to embrace indexation, air cargo is taking its first steps towards this process.
Robert Frei, director of business development at TAC Index, said: “Data Integrity is paramount as this anchors the index. Firstly, we use only transactional data from forwarders for our raw data set. Secondly, we only focus on General Cargo price trends. Thirdly, we use statistical modelling algorithms, to clean and filter the data.
“It is important to note that we have spent a number of years developing and refining the algorithms and this is an integral part of the IP of the product.”
The TAC Index early adopter package is still available to most subscribers, however, some market segments such as airlines, garments and consumer electronics have limited spaces remaining.
Once a market segment is full, the subscription model switches to a standardized origin gateway or global license.
Said Burnett: “The activities of the TAC Index are carried out in full compliance with all applicable laws, including the competition rules of the European Union and Hong Kong.”
In July this year, Freightos, the logistics technology developer, launched what it described as the world’s “first online marketplace for international freight”.
Freightos Marketplace offers users instant comparison of freight services and prices from multiple logistics providers, enabling users to establish "the optimal and cheapest method" for moving their shipments.
In August, Freightos acquired air cargo rate management provider WebCargoNet, said to create the world’s largest database of air, ocean, and land freight rates with hundreds of millions of international and domestic rates and routes.

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