3PLs Face Mixed Results Across Segments in 2024
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Freight Brokerage Firms
The largest freight brokers in North America posted mixed results last year as market conditions generally remained tepid.
Several major acquisitions, howÂever, played a large role in reshaping the business landscape in this segment of the logistics industry.
RXO, the brokerage spinoff of less-than-truckload carrier XPO, Âcompleted its purchase of Coyote Logistics from UPS in September for just over $1 billion.
While RXO moves up to No. 6 on the brokerage list this year, the company is poised to rise further after it accrues a full year of added revenue from its acquisition of Coyote, which ranked No. 4 on this list a year ago.
Other notable deals include No. 9 ³§³¦³ó²Ô±ð¾±»å±ð°ù’s purchase of Cowan Systems, which ranked No. 93 last year, and No. 41 ±·¹ó±õ’s acquisition of Transfix’s brokerage business. Transfix, No. 72 on the list a year ago, now operates as a software and data company.
Meanwhile, C.H. Robinson WorldÂwide remains far and away the industry’s largest freight broker with gross revenue of $11.7 billion from its brokerage operations.
The most prominent ranking change this year is J.B. Hunt Transport Services at No. 2. Unlike prior years, revenue from the company’s intermodal segment is factored into its freight brokerage total to apply consistent criteria for companies throughout the list.
Ìý
â–ºTop 100 3PLs Face Slow Growth, Trade Uncertainty
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â–ºMap: Where the Top 100 Are
â–ºArmstrong: A Time of Uncertainty for Logistics Providers
â–º3PLs Face Mixed Results Across Segments in 2024
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Sector Rankings
Freight Brokerage | Dedicated
Dry Storage Warehousing
Refrigerated Warehousing
Ocean Freight | Airfreight
Familiar names Total ÂQuality Logistics, WWEX Group and Echo Global Logistics round out the top five.
— Seth Clevenger
Dry Storage Warehousing Firms
Providers of warehousing and distribution services, much like other third-party logistics companies, will need to navigate potential changes to international supply chains as new tariffs take effect.
In addition to major shifts in U.S. trade policy, warehousing providers continue to face rising labor costs and high turnover.
Although global trade policies and freight patterns are in a state of flux, the list of North America’s largest dry warehousing providers has seen relatively little change during the past year.
In fact, the 10 largest dry storage warehousing companies are the same as a year ago, with no changes in ranking order.
Again topping the list is online retail giant Amazon.com, which operates an estimated 465 warehouses with 284 million square feet of capacity in North America.
Next on the list are DHL Supply Chain and Ryder System, followed by GXO, NFI and Geodis.
Other companies in the top 10 include FedEx Logistics, Kenco Group, Saddle Creek Logistics Services and CJ Logistics America.
Meanwhile, industry consolidation continues to play out in the warehousing sector.
¶Ù³§³Õ’s planned acquisition of DB Schenker, announced in September, will unite two large multinational logistics providers that both provide warehousing services in North America. That acquisition, expected to close in the second quarter of this year, will combine the Nos. 14 and 15 companies on the warehousing sector list.
In another example of consolidation, No. 22 Total Distribution, a subsidiary of Peoples Services, expanded its capacity in May by acquiring the assets of D+S Distribution and Integrated Logistics Services with 19 locations in Ohio.
— Seth Clevenger
Refrigerated Warehousing Firms
The world’s largest refrigerÂated warehouse operator, Lineage, entered a new phase of its history last year by going public in the market’s biggest initial public offering of 2024.
Lineage easily retained its spot as the industry leader in refrigerated warehousing. (Lineage)
The Novi, Mich.-based real estate investment trust, which raised $4.4 billion through its IPO, began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on July 25.
Lineage also continued to increase its cold storage capacity. The company expanded its temperature-controlled space to 3 billion cubic feet across more than 480 warehouses, an increase of about 30 locations from a year earlier.
The segment’s second-largest company, Americold, also exÂpanded last year. The company boosted its cold storage space to 1.4 billion cubic feet in 234 warehouses.
The list of North America’s largest refrigerated warehousing providers remained largely unchanged from a year ago, with Lineage and Americold continuing to lead the sector by a wide margin.
— Seth Clevenger
Dedicated Contract Carriers
A significant portion of the largest dedicated contract carriers in North America reduced their tractor counts last year as industry freight hauling capacity continued to exceed demand.
Sector leading J.B. Hunt Dedicated Contract Services, for one, trimmed the size of its fleet to 12,647 power units, a decrease of about 600 vehicles from the prior year.
That was still enough to keep J.B. Hunt ahead of No. 2 Ryder DediÂcated Transportation Solutions, which is not far behind with 11,400 tractors.
Third-ranked Schneider bucked the overall trend by expanding its dediÂcated fleet through organic growth along with its acquisition of Baltimore-Âbased Cowan Systems late last year for $390 million. With the addition of Cowan’s business, Schneider said it would operate a fleet of more than 8,400 dedicated tractors, representing about 70% of its truckload fleet.
Schneider moved up one spot to No. 3 on this year's Dedicated list. (Schneider)
No. 4 Penske Logistics, meanwhile, trimmed its dedicated fleet down to 8,325 power units, compared with 9,111 a year earlier.
Rounding out the top five is Knight-Swift Transportation, North America’s largest truckload carrier. Knight-Swift increased the size of its dedicated fleet to 6,500 tractors, an expansion of about 600 from a year ago.
Next on the list is Werner Enterprises with 4,745 dedicated tractors, followed by Ruan and NFI.
— Seth Clevenger
Ocean Freight Forwarders
The global ocean freight forwarding sector has a new leader this year, with China-Âbased Sinotrans Ltd. rising to the No. 1 spot with more than 4.8 million 20-foot-equivalent units forwarded in 2024.
Sinotrans increased its volume by more than 500,000 TEUs last year, which was more than enough to overtake Switzerland-based Kuehne + Nagel, which drops to No. 2 on the list.
Eight of the top 10 ocean freight forwarders posted year-over-year increases in TEU volumes, including No. 3 DHL Supply Chain & Global Forwarding and No. 4 DSV A/S.
Ceva Logistics, the supply chain and logistics business of French shipping company CMA CGM, jumped five positions to No. 5 on this year’s list due in large part to its in February 2024. Bolloré ranked No. 23 on last year’s ocean freight forwarders list and No. 17 on the airfreight list.
— Mike Senatore
Airfreight Forwarders
In a year of growth for international transportation manÂagement, seven of the top 10 global airfreight forwarders increased their volumes in 2024.
DHL handled 6.8% more airfreight last year than it did in 2023. (DHL Supply Chain)
Kuehne + Nagel continued to lead the segment with just under 1.9 million metric tons of airfreight forwarded last year, but second-ranked DHL Supply Chain & Global Forwarding narrowed the gap after growing its airfreight volume to nearly 1.8 milÂlion metric tons.
Denmark-based DSV A/S moved past DB Schenker to claim the No. 3 spot on this year’s list. In September, DSV agreed to acquire Schenker, the logistics division of German rail operator Deutsche Bahn. The deal was expected to close in the second quarter of this year.
Rounding out the top five is Chinese forwarder Sinotrans Ltd., which eclipsed 1 million metric tons of airfreight in 2024.
— Mike Senatore
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