In the world of freight and logistics, flashy technology has long promised to fix inefficiencies. But according to Sam Tibbs—Navy veteran, finance PhD, and founder of Trochi Data Corp—the core problem isn’t tech. It’s incentives. Specifically, who owns the data and how it’s used.
Trochi’s solution? Give freight brokers ownership of the data they generate and build products around shared governance and aligned rewards.
Tibbs argues that today’s rate products are built on incomplete, outdated data, often stripped of critical shipment details like stops, hazmat classifications, or lead times. Worse, brokers—the very source of that data—have to buy it back after it's aggregated and decontextualized. This leads to fuzzy pricing signals and costly mismatches in an increasingly complex freight market.
From Teaching to Trucking: A Founder’s Unusual Journey
Tibbs’ pivot into logistics came after a career that spanned the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power Program, international finance roles, and a stint as a data science educator. His freight experience runs deep, with roles at Covenant Transport, FreightWaves, CloudTrucks, and TriumphPay, where he built some of the most-used pricing and profitability tools in the industry.
His work illuminated a key flaw in freight pricing: the disconnect between data creators and data users. That realization led him to build Trochi—a broker-owned data company modeled on the cooperative success of MasterCard’s shared infrastructure, where competitors collaborate on foundational systems while maintaining market rivalry.
A Broker-Owned, Data-Driven Freight Infrastructure
Trochi’s structure is radical in its simplicity: brokers collectively own 80% of the company, with Trochi retaining 20%. Contributors are rewarded for high-quality, timely data inputs, and they govern what data is shared, how it’s standardized, and which tools are developed on top of it.
This shifts the freight data economy from an extraction model to one of incentivized participation, where brokers transform a cost center into a profit-generating asset. It also creates the conditions for vastly improved rate intelligence: faster, cleaner, and deeply contextualized data that drives more accurate forecasting and pricing.
Better Data = Smarter Freight Rates
Trochi collects data at the booking stage, not after delivery, giving brokers and shippers real-time visibility into market movements. This richer dataset captures shipment specifics often lost in current systems—multi-stop routes, special equipment needs, and regulatory complexities—enabling users to benchmark rates with precision and adapt strategies quickly.
By owning the underlying data layer, brokers no longer operate in the dark or rely on averages that lag behind reality. Instead, they access full rate distributions, predictive signals, and decision-grade analytics that align with modern, omnichannel logistics needs.
A Platform for Broker-Led Innovation
Trochi’s first product is a dynamic truckload rate tool, but its modular, broker-owned architecture means the roadmap is community-driven. Whether it evolves into a new kind of marketplace or powers advanced RFP and pricing engines, the key is flexibility—with brokers deciding what gets built next.
Unlike some freight tech platforms that position themselves to disintermediate brokers, Trochi’s model only works if brokers succeed. By flipping the script, it creates a durable foundation for cooperative infrastructure in a competitive industry.
