Industry's First-Ever LTL Freight Claims Index

RALEIGH, N.C. - EntSun -- Synchrogistics has launched the Synchro LTL Claims Index, the first-ever public claims index for Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) freight, a market-level tool that provides shippers with a standard to judge their own claims experience against a market benchmark for dry LTL shipments. The index allows shippers to be more informed about claims activity with their LTL freight, which has historically been difficult to track and compare.

LTL carriers track and report claims using the claims ratio. The claims ratio is the total claims paid (in dollars) divided by carrier revenue. For example, a carrier with a claims ratio of 0.6% on $250 million in carrier revenue would have paid out $1.5 million in claims. While many shippers tend to think about claims based on the incidence of claims (example: 2 claims per 100 shipments), from a carrier perspective, the claims ratio provides a more comprehensive understanding of the financial impact of claims on their business than an incidence rate.

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Synchrogistics gathered data from LTL carriers going back to 2020. The result is a consolidated index showing the overall industry claims ratio, which began at 0.588% in 1Q20 and was at 0.345% in 1Q25. This represents a decrease of nearly 50% in 5 years, or a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of -9.7%.

Although carriers have reported improvements, surveys and feedback from shippers continue to indicate that claims remain an opaque source of pain. One reason the claims ratio may show improvement for carriers but not translate into an improvement in shipper experience could be due to carrier payouts on claims not keeping pace with LTL carrier revenue growth (5.88% CAGR for the last five years). In our carrier sample, the dollar amount of claims paid in Q12025 was actually lower than during Q12020. As a result, the claims ratio could see improvement due to carrier revenue rising while payouts remain flat, negatively impacting the customer's experience.

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Despite its limitations, the claims ratio offers insights into how claims activity and payouts are trending over time and serves as one of the few available benchmarks for shippers to assess risk exposure at the market level.

"I've been in LTL now for over two decades, and I've never seen a consolidated picture of what a normal claims experience is for a shipper," said Bill Jackson, Founder of Synchrogistics. "The Synchro Claims Index is designed to fill in that gap, and ideally let our customers know whether their claims experience is in line with the market or not."

The Synchro LTL Claims Index will be updated quarterly and made available to the public. To gain full, free access to the Synchro LTL Claims Index and see how your freight claims performance compares, visit www.synchrogistics.com/synchro-LTL-claims-index/.