How to read Tender benchmark reports

This guide provides a detailed description of the full Tender benchmark report to help you better navigate and understand its contents.

Before you start

Before you dive into the report, there are a few things you need to keep in mind:

All benchmarks in the report are provided in USD and include surcharges that are common for the requested trade lanes
Any pre- and post-carriage costs (for example, rail or trucking costs) are not included in the benchmarks
Rates provided in the report are only for standard general cargo (no dangerous goods, temperature-controlled, or oversized cargo)

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Each line in the report is returned exactly as it was in the template and includes a Line number in a separate column to help you identify them more easily.

Report contents

The content of the report can be divided into two larger sections:

Input data and default values — entry data carried over from your template and default values provided by Xeneta
Benchmark data — actual report data with a comparison of your supplier rates on specific port pairs to different market segments

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The report file has a Glossary sheet where you can find a quick guide on key terminology used in the report.

Input data and default values

Bid rate — rate compared to different market segments in the report
Included THC — indicates whether the benchmark rates include terminal handling charges
OTHC value and DTHC value — origin and destination THCs (in USD) on the requested port pair that are always displayed for reference. Depending on what you selected in the Included THC field in your template, these values will either be included or not included in the benchmark rates.

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Selecting NONE in the OTHC or DTHC fields may also result in negative benchmark values for certain trade lanes in the report. Negative all-in rates are possible on some port pairs and our benchmarks on those trade lanes also reflect this.

Benchmark data

The benchmark data in the full report is divided into several sections that provide a comparison to market rates across different contracts grouped by their length and how recently they were signed:

Short
Long (all contracts)
Long and contracted within three months
Long and contracted within six months

In addition to rate benchmarks, the full report also includes information on transit time and free days before detention and demurrage charges on the requested trade lanes.

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The market rates used in our benchmarks already include all relevant surcharges.

Each individual section is comprised of the columns with the following information:

Market rate valid on — date that the market rates used for the benchmark are valid on
Used origin and Used destination — actual origin and destination used for the report if the requested origin-destination pair has limited rate data coverage
Geo-hierarchy level — level of Xeneta's geo-hierarchy used in calculating the benchmark. Indicates if the requested origin or destination were "bumped up" to a larger geographic region due to limited data coverage

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Exact match in the Geo-hierarchy column indicates that the benchmark rate matches your requested port pair.

Rate quality — number of contracts for the requested origin-destination pair that Xeneta has in aggregation
Your rate — rate that you provided to Xeneta that the report will use for the benchmark if you leave the Bid rate field in your template blank
You vs. market — key value in the report that shows the difference (in USD) between your Bid rate and the five market segments — market low, market mid-low, market average, market mid-high, and market high
Announced and Actual transit time — average transit time on the requested trade lane or corridor
Free days before detention/demurrage/combined — average number of free days before the respective charges that are available at the origin (export) and destination (import) ports within the requested trade lane