A core feature of Xeneta is the ability to compare the freight rates you've uploaded against Xeneta's entire dataset of market rates.Due to the sheer size of the market, freight rates across the industry can be very different, so understanding how to set the right benchmark is critical to getting the most out of the Xeneta platform.For a more practical step-by-step guide, see this article on how to use Xeneta to compare your rates to the market average.Selecting Market MetricsMarket Metrics are used to determine what part of the entire freight market your rates will be compared against.Market Metrics are global settings that persist across all pages in the Xeneta platform, including Price Benchmarks and the Benchmarks and Trends graphs. You can find them in the top-right corner of the screen:Note that the Air product has several exclusive Market Metrics options. To learn more, see our article on Air Market Metrics.Be sure to always set the Market Metrics to reflect the part of the market you wish to compare your prices against.If you feel that your rates are generally very good, it may be useful to set the Market Metrics to the Market Low option, so that Xeneta uses only the best-performing market rates for comparison.On the other hand, if you are unsure of your place in the market, you can set the Market Metrics to the Market Average option. The Market Average option will ensure that your rates are compared against the arithmetic average of all the freight rates on the market.This way, you will be able to easily see which of your rates perform above or below the market average.When benchmarking air freight rates, it is also important to set the Market Metrics to the appropriate service level. Note that Xeneta will update the data displayed in the platform in real-time to reflect any changes in Market Metrics.Applying FiltersEach benchmarking page in Xeneta has a set of filters that work separately from Market Metrics. Filters can usually be found above the data table or the graphs on any benchmarking page.Filters available in Price Benchmarks for AirYou can use these filters to narrow the scope of your own data — that is, your rates uploaded into Xeneta. This is useful when you only want to benchmark certain groups of your rates — between specific locations or for specifc types of equipment, etc.For example, on the Price Benchmarks page for Air freight, you can use the Service Level filter to exclude all rates that don't belong to the selected service level.Effective Benchmarking TipsTo get the most out of your data and the market data provided by Xeneta, you’ll need to combine Market Metrics with filters.The freight market is large and has many players and, as such, contains a lot of information that will not be useful when stacked up against your own data. Market Metrics let you choose the part of the market you want to look at.Similarly, the amount of your rate data uploaded into Xeneta can also be very large and, taken as a whole, may not provide you significant insight into your operations.If you’re interested in the shipping rates between Europe and Asia, your rate data for the Americas will not be of much use — using the filters, you can narrow your data down to only the relevant categories and make the analysis easier.Benchmarking and Data ExportsIt's important to understand that any Excel reports you export in Xeneta will be affected by both your choice of Market Metrics and the filters you set for your data.It is critical that your chosen filters show you the data that you want to see, and that your selected Market Metrics compare the filtered data against the relevant parts of the market.For example, setting the Market Metrics to focus on market rates in the Mid-Tier service level in the Market Average segment will produce a different benchmark than when using Upper-Tier and Market Low rates.Similarly, setting the service level filter to only show only Mid-Tier air freight rates will hide all Low-Tier and Upper-Tier rates from any reports you generate for export.