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Transportation

XPO’s pricing, operating initiatives drive Q3 beat

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XPO once again outperformed expectations, driven by higher volumes and stronger pricing that continue to amplify the impact of its operational efficiency initiatives. XPO (NYSE: XPO) reported third-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.70, which was 13 cents ahead of the consensus estimate and 63 cents higher year over year. The adjusted EPS number excluded transaction and restructuring costs, among other items. Consolidated revenue of $2.37 billion was 12% higher y/y but $10 million below analysts’ expectations. Less-than-truckload revenue increased 17% y/y to $1.47 billion. Revenue was 9% higher excluding fuel surcharges. (Diesel fuel prices were 48% higher y/y in the quarter.) window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag.cmd.push(function() { var gptSlot = googletag.defineSlot('/21776187881/FW-Responsive-Main_Content-Slot1', [[300, 100], [320, 50], [728, 90], [468, 60]], 'div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0').defineSizeMapping(gptSizeMaps.banner1).addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag.enableServices(); setInterval(function() { if (!document.hidden) { googletag.pubads().refresh([gptSlot]); } }, 60000); }); googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0'); }); The revenue increase in LTL was driven by a 5% y/y increase in tonnage and a 12% increase in yield (revenue per hundredweight). The tonnage result stemmed from a 6% increase in daily shipments and a 1% decline in weight per shipment. Yield (ex-fuel) increased 4% y/y. The company’s freight mix includes more shipments from local accounts (SMBs), which are typically lighter but produce better margins. September marked the ninth straight month of expansion for the U.S. manufacturing complex, which is a significant source of LTL freight. The unit booked an 80.1% adjusted operating ratio, which was 260 basis points better y/y and in line with management’s guidance (sub-81%). The OR result was just 20 bps worse than the second quarter, handily outpacing the historical progression. The company normally sees 200 to 250 bps of OR degradation from the second to the third quarter. A variety of pricing and operating efficiency initiatives are driving the improvement. XPO’s European transportation segment reported a 5% y/y increase in revenue to $900 million. Adjusted EBITDA of $48 million was 26% higher y/y. The company will host a call at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday to discuss third-quarter results. Why it matters? XPO is one of a few publicly traded LTL carriers. Its quarterly results provide insight into a subsegment of trucking where few public datasets exist. More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden: window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag.cmd.push(function() { var gptSlot = googletag.defineSlot('/21776187881/fw-responsive-main_content-slot3', [[728, 90], [468, 60], [320, 50], [300, 100]], 'div-gpt-ad-1665767553440-0').defineSizeMapping(gptSizeMaps.banner1).addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag.enableServices(); setInterval(function() { if (!document.hidden) { googletag.pubads().refresh([gptSlot]); } }, 60000); }); googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1665767553440-0'); }); Old Dominion’s tonnage turns positive; recovery needs demand inflection Insurance claims adjustments tank Landstar’s otherwise strong Q3 Werner Enterprises sees cost headwinds lingering into Q1 The post XPO’s pricing, operating initiatives drive Q3 beat appeared first on FreightWaves.

XPO once again outperformed expectations, driven by higher volumes and stronger pricing that continue to amplify the impact of its operational efficiency initiatives.

XPO (NYSE: XPO) reported third-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.70, which was 13 cents ahead of the consensus estimate and 63 cents higher year over year. The adjusted EPS number excluded transaction and restructuring costs, among other items.

Consolidated revenue of $2.37 billion was 12% higher y/y but $10 million below analysts’ expectations.

Less-than-truckload revenue increased 17% y/y to $1.47 billion. Revenue was 9% higher excluding fuel surcharges. (Diesel fuel prices were 48% higher y/y in the quarter.)

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The revenue increase in LTL was driven by a 5% y/y increase in tonnage and a 12% increase in yield (revenue per hundredweight). The tonnage result stemmed from a 6% increase in daily shipments and a 1% decline in weight per shipment. Yield (ex-fuel) increased 4% y/y.

The company’s freight mix includes more shipments from local accounts (SMBs), which are typically lighter but produce better margins. September marked the ninth straight month of expansion for the U.S. manufacturing complex, which is a significant source of LTL freight.

The unit booked an 80.1% adjusted operating ratio, which was 260 basis points better y/y and in line with management’s guidance (sub-81%). The OR result was just 20 bps worse than the second quarter, handily outpacing the historical progression. The company normally sees 200 to 250 bps of OR degradation from the second to the third quarter. A variety of pricing and operating efficiency initiatives are driving the improvement.

XPO’s European transportation segment reported a 5% y/y increase in revenue to $900 million. Adjusted EBITDA of $48 million was 26% higher y/y.

The company will host a call at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday to discuss third-quarter results.

Why it matters? XPO is one of a few publicly traded LTL carriers. Its quarterly results provide insight into a subsegment of trucking where few public datasets exist.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

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  • Old Dominion’s tonnage turns positive; recovery needs demand inflection
  • Insurance claims adjustments tank Landstar’s otherwise strong Q3
  • Werner Enterprises sees cost headwinds lingering into Q1

The post XPO’s pricing, operating initiatives drive Q3 beat appeared first on FreightWaves.

Source: FreightWaves

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What the Mastio Rankings Actually Tell Shippers

When a shipper puts an LTL lane out to bid, price is the number everyone can compare in five minutes. Price, however, doesn’t say much about what happens six months into the contract. A rate quote doesn’t indicate whether a shipment arrives on the dock when it’s supposed to, whether the weight matches the bill of lading, or whether a claim gets resolved in two weeks or two months. Those costs simply show up in a shipper’s bottom line in the form of detention charges, rebooked appointments, and customer service hours. The Mastio & Company LTL Carrier Customer Value & Loyalty Study is one of the best resources for quantifying what happens after the contract goes into effect. Now in its third decade, the survey interviews more than 1,600 shippers directly and scores national LTL carriers across 28 performance attributes. It’s one of the few datasets shippers can use to parse out marketing language from measurable performance. What’s Measured Mastio’s methodology does not rely on a self-reported scorecard, and it isn’t built from carrier marketing claims. Each year, researchers conduct detailed interviews with shipping decision-makers (more than 1,600 of them for the 2026 edition) and collect thousands of additional data points from open-ended questions about specific carriers. The result is a grade across 28 attributes that roughly sort into four groups. Operational performance covers the fundamentals: on-time pickup and delivery, transit time consistency, and whether a shipment arrives without damage or shortages. Service quality covers the human side, including how responsive a carrier’s team is, how proactively it communicates when something goes wrong, and how professional its drivers are at the dock. A third group covers the business mechanics shippers feel on every invoice: billing accuracy, weighing precision, accessorial pricing, and overall ease of doing business. The last layer is loyalty; i.e., whether shippers believe a carrier has earned their repeat business and would recommend it to a peer, which Mastio has found correlates with outsized revenue growth over time. The study goes beyond a one-dimensional ranking system, and it’s not a simple popularity contest or trophy. It acts as a detailed breakdown of carrier performance and customer experience. One Strength Isn’t the Only Strategy No carrier typically wins all 28 categories. The attributes measure genuinely different things, and a carrier built to win on price often isn’t the same carrier built to win on claims prevention or proactive communication. That’s useful information, but only if a shipper knows which categories matter most to their own operation. If you’re a retailer who moves time-sensitive inventory into stores ahead of a promotional window, you probably care more about on-time delivery and transit consistency than about accessorial pricing. If you’re a manufacturer and you ship oversized freight to a narrow set of industrial customers, you might weigh damage prevention and billing accuracy more heavily, since one mis-rated invoice or damaged pallet can cost more than a year of rate savings. If you’re a high-volume shipper and you juggle multiple carriers, you may care more about ease of doing business and visibility. The goal isn’t to find the carrier that wins the most categories overall. It’s to find the carrier whose performance aligns with what matters most to a specific supply chain. There are typically a handful of attributes where consistency has an outsized effect on cost and customer experience, whether that’s transit reliability on a tight production schedule or billing accuracy across thousands of monthly invoices. Old Dominion Freight Line’s Consistent Results Old Dominion Freight Line’s 2026 Mastio results are a useful illustration of what breadth across categories looks like in practice. The carrier was named the #1 National LTL Carrier for Quality for the 17th consecutive year and ranked first in 24 of the study’s 28 attributes, based on responses from more than 1,600 shippers surveyed this year. The headline ranking isn’t the whole story as it pertains to shippers, though. If you’re evaluating the data, you need to see where those 24 wins land. They include categories tied directly to operational risk, like on-time delivery and damage and shortage prevention; alongside categories tied to cost predictability, like billing accuracy and ease of doing business; and categories tied to day-to-day account management, like timely customer service and carrier trustworthiness. That’s a carrier scoring well across the operational, financial, and relationship dimensions of the study at once, rather than leaning on strength in one area to offset weakness in another. “This award is very important to us because it is selected by shippers,” Old Dominion President and CEO Marty Freeman said of the result. “It shapes how we focus our strategy. From strategic investments to our culture, it is all built around serving our customers.” Mastio & Company President Kevin Huntsman, whose firm runs the independent survey, called the streak “a particularly impressive accomplishment” given how much the carrier landscape has shifted over nearly two decades. If you’re building a scorecard, multi-category consistency is itself a data point that suggests performance across a range of conditions, not just the ones a single rate quote can capture. Consistency Is the Important Signal A 17-year win streak over a time period in which freight shipping has changed substantially is a track record that’s difficult to overstate. Not only have conditions changed drastically over the past two decades, but so have consumer expectations. Each year’s Mastio results show a carrier exactly where shippers think it’s falling short, and carriers that take the study seriously use that feedback to fix those specific weak spots before the next year’s survey. The relevant information for Old Dominion Freight Line has been less about any single year’s score and more about whether improvements are made in areas that matter most to shippers. “Our business strategy is focused on customer service,” says Chip Overbey, Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning at Old Dominion Freight Line. “When we look at Mastio, we recognize it outlines the key attributes our customers actually care about. If we know what our customers want, we then have to ask ourselves what we need to do to ensure we’re the best at delivering what they’re looking for. And that’s exactly what we’ve done. It hasn’t happened overnight, but we’ve stayed focused on chipping away at it and continue to do so year after year.” That’s a different kind of evidence than a single award cycle provides. A carrier that jumps to the top of one year’s survey could be having an unusually good year due to a fluke in the market, or could be benefiting from a competitor’s misfortunes. A carrier with close to two decades of sustained, broad-category performance has had to keep closing gaps as shipper expectations shift around digital visibility, accessorial transparency, or whatever attribute shippers start weighting more heavily next. Those kinds of consistencies are evidence of an operation that’s built to keep responding to what shippers are saying year-to-year. Building Your Own Scorecard The practical takeaway, if you’re evaluating LTL carriers, is that Mastio gives shippers the opportunity to pull the attribute-level data, identify the four or five categories that matter most to a specific supply chain’s priorities, and compare carriers against those specifically. For a time-sensitive operation, that likely means weighting on-time delivery and transit consistency above everything else. For an operation with thin margins on accessorials, it means scrutinizing billing accuracy and ease of doing business. For an operation managing dozens of lanes with a small team, it means weighting responsiveness and the digital tools that reduce manual follow-up. If you want to see how a 17-year streak breaks down, category by category, rather than taking the headline ranking at its word, Old Dominion Freight Lines’s results are published in detail on its Mastio award landing page. Click here to learn more about Old Dominion Freight Line. 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Transportation

9 alleged Sinaloa Cartel associates arrested in California train theft ring 

Nine men allegedly connected to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel have been arrested in Southern California following a yearlong investigation into an organized cargo theft operation that targeted BNSF Railway trains and resulted in millions of dollars in stolen merchandise, authorities said. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department announced Wednesday that its Rural Crime Task Force arrested the nine suspects Oct. 16 during a search of a residence in San Bernardino. Investigators said the suspects were part of a coordinated criminal network connected to the Sinaloa Cartel that had been burglarizing BNSF Railway trains over the past 12 months. 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On Oct. 16, investigators with the Rural Crime Task Force, assisted by the Sheriff’s Specialized Enforcement Division, executed a search warrant at a residence in the 1200 block of East 35th Street in San Bernardino. During the search, deputies recovered more than $333,000 in stolen retail merchandise, including JBL speakers, Logitech computer hardware, Victoria’s Secret merchandise, Nike and New Balance shoes, and Husky tools. Investigators also seized four semiautomatic handguns, a drone allegedly used for surveillance, a large amount of cash, tools used to access train cargo containers and four vehicles connected to recent rail cargo burglaries. Authorities also reported recovering suspected fentanyl believed to have been possessed for sale. 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The post 9 alleged Sinaloa Cartel associates arrested in California train theft ring appeared first on FreightWaves.

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Transportation

Trailer Bridge appoints new CEO

Trailer Bridge has named Charles Gittens its next chief executive officer, effective Nov. 2, as the carrier continues investing in its ocean transportation operations and Puerto Rico service. The Jacksonville-based company announced the appointment Oct. 26. Gittens succeeds Mitch Luciano, who left the company Oct. 1. He had served as CEO since 2015. Gittens brings more than 30 years of transportation and logistics experience, including leadership roles in Caribbean shipping, commercial strategy and business operations, according to Trailer Bridge. Most recently, he served as president of trade for King Ocean Services, overseeing operations across the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and the Eastern Caribbean. Previously, Gittens was president and chief commercial officer of Seacor Island Lines. Trailer Bridge credited him with increasing revenue by 115% during his tenure while expanding services and improving operational efficiency. “Charles is a valuable addition to Trailer Bridge, combining extensive industry expertise with proven commercial and operational leadership in the Caribbean trade,” said Eric Fabrikant, chairman of Trailer Bridge’s board, in a statement. “The Board is confident in the trajectory of the business, and his experience, together with the strength of the existing team, positions Trailer Bridge for long-term success.” Gittens’ appointment comes as Trailer Bridge undertakes upgrades to its fleet and supporting operations. The comapny sold its domestic logistics division in 2025; recent initiatives include more than $9 million in improvements to its roll-on/roll-off barges, including onboard generators designed to expand refrigerated cargo capacity. It has also enhanced fleetwide monitoring technology and entered new long-term partnerships supporting terminal operations and tug services. “I am excited to join Trailer Bridge and work alongside a team with an excellent reputation for customer service and a commitment to the markets it serves,” Gittens said. “The company has a well-established position in Puerto Rico, and I look forward to building on that foundation and working closely with customers and partners to support the continued growth of the business.” Founded in 1991 by transportation pioneer Malcom McLean, Trailer Bridge operates roll-on/roll-off and lift-on/lift-off barges serving the Puerto Rico trade. Its cargo includes containers, vehicles, heavy equipment, oversized freight and breakbulk shipments. Why it matters: Gittens takes over as Trailer Bridge concentrates on its ocean transportation business following an agreement to sell its domestic logistics division in 2025. Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here. Read more: Strike threat by port security workers at Los Angeles–Long Beach Backlog grows as 35,000 containers await rail service at LA–Long Beach Port Houston container volumes jump 11% as imports surge in September Canada port reaches new longshore union labor deal The post Trailer Bridge appoints new CEO appeared first on FreightWaves.

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