DAT Freight API
★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentE CommerceShipping Logisticsbearer9 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Look up freight rates, post and search loads, advertise truck availability, and check carrier DOT details across the DAT freight marketplace.
Use for: I need to look up the current freight rate for a Chicago to Atlanta lane, Post a new load on the DAT load board, Search available loads heading from Dallas to Phoenix, Retrieve historical rate trends for a freight lane
Not supported: Does not handle parcel shipping, customs filings, or last-mile delivery - use for North American truckload freight rates, load board postings, truck availability, and DOT-based carrier lookup only.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for DAT Freight API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. DAT operates the largest North American load board for freight brokers and carriers, exposing rate intelligence, load posting, truck availability, and carrier lookup through a single API. The 9-endpoint surface covers rates lookup and history, load posting and search, truck availability, and DOT-number-based carrier checks. Authentication uses bearer tokens against the https://api.dat.com base URL.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the DAT Freight API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the DAT Freight API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fdat.com%2Fdat" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fdat.com%2Fdat" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with DAT Freight API.
Look up current freight rates between origin and destination lanes
Retrieve historical rate trends for a specific freight lane
Post available loads to the DAT load board for carriers to find
Search the DAT load board for matching loads as a carrier
Advertise truck availability against specific origins and destinations
Look up carrier safety and operating data by DOT number
Use Cases
Patterns agents use DAT Freight API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Broker Rate Quoting
Quote shippers in real time using current and historical lane rates from DAT instead of static rate cards. POST /rates/lookup returns a current point-in-time rate, and GET /rates/history returns trend data for the same lane. Suitable for freight brokerages building modern quoting tools or rate APIs for their shippers.
Call POST /rates/lookup for a Chicago to Atlanta dry van lane and pair it with GET /rates/history for the same lane to produce a quote with a 30-day rate trend.
Automated Load Posting and Matching
Post loads directly from a transportation management system to the DAT load board and pull matching trucks. POST /loads creates a load, GET /loads searches existing loads, and GET /trucks lists available capacity. Useful for brokers and 3PLs that already manage loads in another system.
Post a 45000 lb dry van load originating in Dallas with a delivery in Phoenix, then poll GET /trucks for matching capacity over the next two days.
Carrier Vetting Workflows
Vet carriers before tendering loads by pulling DOT-based carrier information directly from DAT. GET /carriers/{dotNumber} returns identifying details from the carrier's DOT profile. Useful for compliance teams that need a programmatic vetting step before dispatch.
Look up carrier DOT 1234567 via GET /carriers/{dotNumber} and return the operating name and authority status for the broker's vetting checklist.
Capacity Planning for Carriers
Help carriers plan repositioning by combining truck postings with rate history on candidate lanes. POST /trucks advertises availability, and GET /rates/history surfaces lanes worth deadheading toward. Suitable for fleet planners and asset-based carrier tools.
Post a truck available in Memphis on Friday, then call GET /rates/history for outbound lanes from Memphis and rank them by recent average rate.
Agent-Driven Freight Operations via Jentic
AI agents that operate inside a brokerage or carrier's TMS can call DAT through Jentic without holding the bearer token. The agent searches Jentic for the relevant intent, loads the schema, and posts loads, looks up rates, or checks carriers using credentials held in your Jentic One instance. This keeps DAT credentials isolated per operator.
Use Jentic to search 'look up a freight rate', load POST /rates/lookup, and execute it with the lane and equipment type from the user's quoting request.
Key Endpoints
9 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for dat freight api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
POST
/rates/lookup
Look up the current rate for a freight lane
GET
/rates/history
Get historical rate trends for a lane
POST
/loads
Post a load to the DAT load board
GET
/loads
Search loads on the DAT load board
POST
/trucks
Post truck availability
GET
/trucks
Search available trucks
GET
/carriers/{dotNumber}
Look up a carrier by DOT number
POST
/rates/lookup
Look up the current rate for a freight lane
GET
/rates/history
Get historical rate trends for a lane
POST
/loads
Post a load to the DAT load board
GET
/loads
Search loads on the DAT load board
POST
/trucks
Post truck availability
GET
/trucks
Search available trucks
GET
/carriers/{dotNumber}
Look up a carrier by DOT number
Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring the DAT Freight API by hand means learning its bearer auth against api.dat.com and building the request and retry plumbing for rate lookups, load board postings, and truck availability yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the DAT Freight API from the API Directory, store the token once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
DAT carries most freight details in the request body, with only the carrier lookup keyed by a DOT number in the path (/carriers/{dotNumber}), so limit the agent to the operations it needs, such as looking up a rate or posting a load. Every operation the agent can run is one you added to that allowed set.
Credential isolation
Your DAT bearer token is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'look up a freight rate' or 'post a load to the board', and Jentic returns the matching DAT operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without parsing the DAT integration documentation.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using DAT Freight API through Jentic.
Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for DAT Freight API?
DAT does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call DAT Freight API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.
What authentication does the DAT Freight API use?
The DAT Freight API uses bearer token authentication via the bearerAuth scheme - the access token is sent in the Authorization header. Through Jentic the bearer token sits in the vault and never enters the agent's context.
Can I post loads to the DAT load board with this API?
Yes. POST /loads adds a load to the DAT load board with origin, destination, equipment type, and weight, and GET /loads searches existing postings.
What are the rate limits for the DAT Freight API?
The OpenAPI spec does not declare explicit numeric limits. Production limits are issued under your DAT subscription - apply backoff on 429 responses and batch lane lookups where possible.
How do I look up a freight rate through Jentic?
Run pip install jentic, then search Jentic for 'look up a freight rate', load the POST /rates/lookup schema, and execute it with the origin, destination, and equipment type. Jentic injects the bearer token at call time.
Does the DAT Freight API let me look up carriers by DOT number?
Yes. GET /carriers/{dotNumber} returns DAT's carrier identity and operating data for the specified DOT number, useful for vetting workflows before tendering loads.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the DAT Freight API?
Yes. Because you run your own self-hosted Jentic One instance, your rules decide which DAT operations the agent may call and which credentials it may use. You can allow just a rate lookup on POST /rates/lookup, or add load posting on POST /loads, truck availability on /trucks, or a carrier DOT lookup on GET /carriers/{dotNumber}, and leave everything else out. Every operation the agent can run is one you added to that allowed set.
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