Top 50 3PLs

The top end of the global 3PL sector is populated by companies that see a down market as a chance to focus on higher-yield customers and those that see a chance to build market share.

The digital freight marketplace is making new software tools that target fake brokers and fraudulent pickups available to customers as well as competitors.

The Chicago-based third-party logistics provider said demand from US shippers is drawing it and its competitors deeper into the cross-border freight market.

The largest US freight broker is trying to eliminate the wait at the gate by not only scheduling truck appointments for shippers, but finding optimal appointment times. 

The Austria-based global logistics provider looks to increase its US presence, adding less-than-containerload services by acquiring a Utah-based forwarder.

The largest US broker and forwarder expects ocean spot rates to subside after the Chinese New Year and for US trucking markets to slowly improve throughout 2024.

The largest US freight broker expects more companies to follow Convoy and exit the market as demand remains weak and rates stay low. 

The largest US logistics provider claims “compelling results” from cross-selling surface transportation and air and ocean services, despite weak market conditions.

The change in leadership is likely to accelerate strategic changes in planning and capital spending at C.H. Robinson that have been under way since last March at the urging of investors.

The acquisition of Fastmore Logistics will give Echo Global Logistics more access to international freight forwarders, linking domestic and international cargo networks.

Weeks of delays in moving freight from US ports to Chicago are eating into the inland warehousing space needed to get that freight out of intermodal railyards and to customers.

Lineage’s latest acquisition expands the global food chain logistics company’s reach across Canada.

As it prepares to go public, Transfix is looking to derive more revenue from non-transactional shipper services, including its drop trailer program, and to draw smaller shippers to its platform.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide, the largest US freight broker, sees autonomous trucking as a “new mode” and a way to better manage its partners’ assets, creating capacity for shippers.

The acquisition of cross-border specialist Forager Group will help multi-modal logistics provider Arrive offer shippers more visibility, connections, and capacity.

A fresh round of investor cash sets the stage for greater automation and expansion of facilities in Lineage’s global cold-chain network.

The $480 million purchase of the former Port Logistics Group connects seaports more closely to Ryder System’s e-commerce fulfillment network.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide is linking its less-than-truckload carrier network to the retail platform offered by SPS Commerce to help shippers get retail goods onto shelves and avoid holiday stockouts.

The third-party logistics market is being reshaped in a crucible of ongoing supply chain disruption and technology, Transplace CEO Frank McGuigan told the JOC Inland Distribution webcast.

As shippers increasingly turn to – or are forced to – the spot market for truck capacity, automation will identify opportunities to lower costs, according to C.H. Robinson Worldwide.

The $1.3 billion acquisition of Echo Global Logistics by a private equity company will fuel an automation drive at the third-party logistics provider as shippers dealing with disruption demand more sophisticated technology.

The acquisition of third-party logistics provider Transplace will transform Uber Freight, providing greater access to shippers, as it builds a “fully-scaled” logistics platform.

The e-commerce boom means more vehicles moving more goods, and potentially emitting more pollutants, but DHL also sees opportunities to advance sustainability goals on land, sea, and in the air as e-commerce expands.

The planned merger of GlobalTranz and Worldwide Express is being driven by extreme US freight market conditions that will push shippers toward third-party logistics providers.

The planned merger of GlobalTranz and Worldwide Express, creating the fourth-largest freight brokerage in North America, allows the third-party logistics providers to pool parcel, less-than-truckload, and truckload capabilities in tight surface capacity market.

The JOC Intermodal Savings Index hit a new record in Q1, but rising spot intermodal rates and surcharges could reduce savings in Q2.

Freight broker and forwarder C.H. Robinson is growing LTL volume "faster than the marketplace” as US shippers scramble to find available capacity for shipments.

Third-party logistics and software firms such as C.H. Robinson Worldwide and Blume Global are broadening the use of technology to drive emissions out of supply chains, increasingly for smaller customers as well as global corporations.

J.B. Hunt will be adding 12,000 new containers in 2021, upping its original order announced in January based on increased shipper demand for intermodal service.

Domestic intermodal shippers in California will be subject to a surcharge of $1,000 to $1,500 on excess contract cargo beginning Apr. 25, the first time Union Pacific has instituted such a peak-season fee before the summer.

Shippers can save more money than ever before on intermodal, if they could find equipment and draymen to move their cargo to and from rail terminals amid scarce supply of both.

Third-party logistics industry had a banner 2020, with double-digit revenue growth, according to SJ Consulting.

Knight Swift CEO Dave Jackson tells JOC’s virtual TPM21 conference that trailer pools, agility, and long-term thinking is the way carriers and shippers can reduce the wild swings seen in trucking rates since 2017.

Union Pacific Railroad is shutting down virtually all business across its intermodal network for 72 hours because of snow and ice in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, and even as far south as Texas.

Shippers may see intermodal savings evaporate in the first quarter if rail contracts rise more than 10 percent and spot truck rates continue to cool off and pressure truck contracts.

Fewer trucking companies are responding to shipper bids, as contract truckload pricing rises by high single-digit percentage rates, Transplace executives said Tuesday.

A significant number of truckload shippers delayed annual bids with the largest US truck freight broker in the fourth quarter to avoid spiking contract rates.

Additional acquisitions will fuel growth for both XPO’s transportation and contract logistics businesses, soon to be separate companies, chairman and CEO Bradley S. Jacobs said.

Third-party logistics provider GlobalTranz saw a strong increase in demand for managed transportation service in 2020 and expects the outsourcing trend to continue as supply chain disruption spills into 2021.

BNSF Railway is limiting the amount of containers its partners can bring into a terminal in Southern California and on certain Chicago lanes due to volumes that usually tail off after Thanksgiving but have stayed elevated this year.