Introduction

What is Freight Rate Intelligence?

Freight Rate Intelligence (FRI) provides programmatic access to cost-basis freight rate data, market intelligence, and AI-powered forecasting. Every response is receipted — you always know where a number came from.

FRI is designed for AI agents, ops teams, and carriers who need auditable numbers instead of scraped rates.

Key Concepts

Cost-Basis Rates

Rates are computed from public federal data sources (EIA diesel, BLS wages, FRED economic indicators, FMCSA carrier data), not scraped from load boards. Every number has a verifiable source and can be audited.

Constitutional Receipts

Every API response includes a receipt_id and auth_obj_id. These are cryptographic records that let you prove which data sources and factor versions produced a specific answer.

Skills

The API is organized around skills — discrete capabilities like rate-lookup, market-analysis, lane-comparison. Each skill has its own endpoint and its own data contract.

Factor Versions

Each response includes a list of the exact data series versions used in the computation. Store these with your records if you need to reproduce a rate months later.

Available Skills

Data Sources

All rates are computed from public federal data. No scraped load boards, no anonymous submissions.

Capacity Intelligence

FRI includes real-time carrier capacity signals derived from FMCSA authority registrations. The carrier-capacity skill returns:

• Active carriers in any region (MC authority + DOT number)
• New authority trend (30-day rolling)
• Capacity pressure index (tight / balanced / loose)
• Safety score distribution across the region

Next Steps

• Quick Start — Make your first API call in under 5 minutes
• Authentication — Generate and manage API keys
• Agent Guide — Build AI agents on top of FRI
• MCP Integration — Use FRI as an MCP server in Claude
• API Reference — Complete endpoint documentation