What the Index Measures
The Triumph Broker Margin Index measures the spread between what shippers pay and what carriers earn, expressed as a percentage of carrier cost. It covers dry van, flatbed, and reefer transport types across the contiguous United States.
Geographic Scope
The 48 contiguous states in the US
Canadian shipments are excluded to avoid issues like currency conversions and market dynamics that don't align with the domestic truckload market.
Transport Types Covered
Dry Van, Flatbed, and Reefer. All other equipment types are excluded to ensure consistent comparisons across reporting periods.
How the Data Is Filtered and Qualified
To improve data quality, shipper and carrier rates are trimmed at the 5th and 95th percentiles for each transport type each month, removing extreme outliers. Transactions with zero margin (where shipper and carrier costs are identical) and records with missing shipper cost data are excluded. All filtration thresholds are statistically validated to ensure accurate market representation.
Calculation Method
The index is calculated as the sum of (shipper cost minus carrier cost) divided by the sum of carrier cost, for each month and transport type.
Historical Coverage
The index begins in 2020, providing a baseline that includes COVID-era market disruptions for context on current margin conditions.
