Expeditors (EXPD)
Moves global freight through carrier capacity, customs expertise and a company-operated logistics network.
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Expeditors buys space on other companies' planes, ships and trucks, resells it to shippers, and handles the paperwork that gets the cargo across borders. It owns no aircraft and no vessels; what it owns is people, offices and software it writes itself. Right now the air side is booming on technology gear leaving Asia, the customs desk is busy because tariff rules keep changing, and the ocean side is only just steadying.
Item facts: FY2025 · year ended Dec 31, 2025, from filings, earnings calls and company pages.
Judgment weights, not filed revenue
The band summarizes business focus and direction. ~ marks estimates.
8 in detail · 15 more below
Customs Brokerage Services
Filing import paperwork and chasing duty refunds, charged per entry. The highest-margin work Expeditors does and the least tied to freight prices; in August 2026 management said it saw no logical peak to customs growth.
Competes with Livingston International (Purolator) · Customs brokerage within Global Forwarding (C.H. Robinson) · Flexport Customs (Flexport)
In plain English
Every box that crosses a national border needs a form filed with that country's customs service: what it is, what it is worth, what duty is owed. Expeditors does that filing for importers and charges per form and per line on the form, the way an accountant charges per tax return.
This is the steadiest money in the company, because the work is created by rules changing rather than by freight moving. After a US court struck down a set of tariffs in February 2026, customs authorities opened a refund channel that brokers file into — roughly a hundred and thirty billion dollars of refund claims were working through it by mid-2026. Simpler trade rules would shrink the job.
Airfreight Services
Bulk space on cargo planes, resold as door-to-door moves. Tonnage rose 14% in the second quarter of 2026 against an industry expected to grow about 2% for the year — share gained, while the slice kept per dollar thinned to about 24 cents.
Competes with Air Logistics (Kuehne+Nagel) · DSV Air & Sea (DSV) · DHL Global Forwarding air freight (DHL Group)
In plain English
Picture someone who books a whole row of seats on a flight and then resells them one seat at a time. Expeditors buys space on cargo aircraft in bulk, fills it with many customers' boxes, and sells each customer a door-to-door delivery with a promised date.
What the customer pays is not the profit. The airline's bill comes out first, and roughly a quarter of the customer's payment stays behind — a share that has been thinning as airlines charge more for the same space. Volumes, though, have run far ahead of the industry, pushed by computing hardware moving out of Asia for customers building artificial-intelligence data centres.
Critical Logistics Services / Aircraft on Ground
Emergency shipping for grounded aircraft and aerospace customers, staffed around the clock and extended worldwide in July 2026. Small enough that it earns no line of its own in the accounts.
Competes with Air Logistics (Kuehne+Nagel) · DHL Global Forwarding air freight (DHL Group)
In plain English
When an aircraft is stuck on the ground waiting for the part it needs, every hour it sits is money lost. Expeditors keeps a dedicated team and support centres running twenty-four hours a day for exactly this kind of emergency, and widened the service worldwide in July 2026 as demand for time-critical aviation work rose.
Nothing about it is reported separately, so its size is a guess rather than a figure. It is a specialised corner of the freight business, sold to airlines and aerospace manufacturers rather than to general shippers.
Ocean Freight and Ocean Services
Container slots bought from shipping lines and resold as full or shared boxes. Revenue slid through 2025 and bottomed early in 2026; volumes then rose 7% from the previous quarter. Carriers selling logistics themselves is the standing threat.
Competes with Sea Logistics (Kuehne+Nagel) · DSV ocean freight (DSV) · CEVA Logistics (CMA CGM)
In plain English
The same trade as air, one speed slower and far cheaper: boxes on ships instead of pallets on planes. Expeditors books container slots from the shipping lines, fills a whole box for one large customer or shares a box between several smaller ones, and arranges the pickup and the road leg at each end.
This is the part that shrank. The lines have been adding vessels faster than cargo has grown, so prices on the big Asia-to-US-West-Coast route fell steeply, and a business paid a slice of a falling price collects less. Cheap ships cut Expeditors' own costs too — and volumes picked up again in the spring of 2026.
Transcon (Global Ground Transportation)
Cross-border trucking bought from haulers and resold as a managed door-to-door move. The fastest-growing part of the mix, and lower-margin than customs work — which is why that line's margin slipped. Leans on cross-border trade rules holding.
Competes with North American Surface Transportation (C.H. Robinson) · Road Logistics (Kuehne+Nagel) · DSV Road (DSV)
In plain English
Trucks, not planes or ships. Transcon moves freight overland within a continent and across land borders — the North American runs between Mexico, the United States and Canada are the demand story, as manufacturing moves closer to home. Secure fenced yards and cross-docks sit right at the crossings, so a load can change trailers and clear customs in one stop.
Expeditors owns none of the trucks. It buys the haul from carriers and sells the managed move, keeping the difference. That difference is thinner than on customs paperwork, so growing fast here quietly pulls the average margin down.
Warehousing & Distribution
Running warehouses for customers whose freight it already carries: storing, picking, packing, returns, and bonded goods held before duty is paid. Capacity is being added, with chilled and frozen space the piece management keeps naming.
Competes with DHL Supply Chain (DHL Group) · Contract logistics (GXO Logistics) · Contract Logistics (Kuehne+Nagel)
In plain English
Somewhere between the ship and the shop, goods have to sit. Expeditors rents warehouse space and runs it for customers — receiving, storing, picking single items off shelves, packing, handling returns, and holding bonded goods under customs control until duty is settled.
It sells this almost entirely to companies whose freight it already moves, so it grows quietly rather than by winning big outsourcing tenders. The company leases rather than builds, and spending on property stays small. It is currently fitting out more chilled and frozen space, where it says demand is growing, and in September 2026 a decade-long customer, L.B. Foster, named it distribution partner for mainland Europe.
EXP.O NOW and the Global Technology organization
The customer portal — shipment search, reports and a duty calculator — written in-house and bundled with the service rather than sold. A charge taken in the second quarter of 2026 reshapes the technology team and is meant to save about $50 million a year.
Competes with Flexport platform (Flexport) · myKN (Kuehne+Nagel) · DSV digital solutions (DSV)
In plain English
The screen customers log into. EXP.O NOW is Expeditors' own dashboard, where a shipper can look up a shipment, see where it is, pull reports and estimate the duty on a product.
It isn't sold on its own; it comes with the shipping service, because a customer whose orders, documents and tracking all live in one place does not change forwarders casually. That makes it a cost rather than an income line — and this year the cost was cut. A charge in the second quarter of 2026 reshaped the technology team, aiming at about fifty million dollars of annual savings, close to a tenth of head-office expenses, while management promised to keep spending on artificial-intelligence tools and technology staff.
Order Management
Customers hand over their purchase-order files and Expeditors runs the bookings and reports status item by item. A small line on its own — its real job is pulling freight, customs and warehousing along behind it.
Competes with myKN (Kuehne+Nagel) · Flexport platform (Flexport)
In plain English
Big importers do not buy one shipment at a time. They issue purchase orders to dozens of factories and then need to know what is ready, what is late, and what can travel together. Customers send those order files to Expeditors electronically.
Once the orders are in the system, Expeditors is the one arranging the factory pickups, deciding what gets combined into a single load, and reporting status down to the individual item. The freight, the customs filing and the warehousing then tend to follow to the same provider. Small money, sticky position.
Customs Brokerage ServicesFiling import paperwork and chasing duty refunds, charged per entry. The highest-margin work Expeditors does and the least tied to freight prices; in August 2026 management said it saw no logical peak to customs growth.Filing import paperwork and chasing duty refunds, charged per entry. The highest-margin work Expeditors does and the least tied to freight prices; in August 2026 management said it saw no logical peak to customs growth.
In plain English
Every box that crosses a national border needs a form filed with that country's customs service: what it is, what it is worth, what duty is owed. Expeditors does that filing for importers and charges per form and per line on the form, the way an accountant charges per tax return.
This is the steadiest money in the company, because the work is created by rules changing rather than by freight moving. After a US court struck down a set of tariffs in February 2026, customs authorities opened a refund channel that brokers file into — roughly a hundred and thirty billion dollars of refund claims were working through it by mid-2026. Simpler trade rules would shrink the job.
Competes with Livingston International (Purolator) · Customs brokerage within Global Forwarding (C.H. Robinson) · Flexport Customs (Flexport)
Airfreight ServicesBulk space on cargo planes, resold as door-to-door moves. Tonnage rose 14% in the second quarter of 2026 against an industry expected to grow about 2% for the year — share gained, while the slice kept per dollar thinned to about 24 cents.Bulk space on cargo planes, resold as door-to-door moves. Tonnage rose 14% in the second quarter of 2026 against an industry expected to grow about 2% for the year — share gained, while the slice kept per dollar thinned to about 24 cents.
In plain English
Picture someone who books a whole row of seats on a flight and then resells them one seat at a time. Expeditors buys space on cargo aircraft in bulk, fills it with many customers' boxes, and sells each customer a door-to-door delivery with a promised date.
What the customer pays is not the profit. The airline's bill comes out first, and roughly a quarter of the customer's payment stays behind — a share that has been thinning as airlines charge more for the same space. Volumes, though, have run far ahead of the industry, pushed by computing hardware moving out of Asia for customers building artificial-intelligence data centres.
Competes with Air Logistics (Kuehne+Nagel) · DSV Air & Sea (DSV) · DHL Global Forwarding air freight (DHL Group)
Critical Logistics Services / Aircraft on GroundEmergency shipping for grounded aircraft and aerospace customers, staffed around the clock and extended worldwide in July 2026. Small enough that it earns no line of its own in the accounts.Emergency shipping for grounded aircraft and aerospace customers, staffed around the clock and extended worldwide in July 2026. Small enough that it earns no line of its own in the accounts.
In plain English
When an aircraft is stuck on the ground waiting for the part it needs, every hour it sits is money lost. Expeditors keeps a dedicated team and support centres running twenty-four hours a day for exactly this kind of emergency, and widened the service worldwide in July 2026 as demand for time-critical aviation work rose.
Nothing about it is reported separately, so its size is a guess rather than a figure. It is a specialised corner of the freight business, sold to airlines and aerospace manufacturers rather than to general shippers.
Competes with Air Logistics (Kuehne+Nagel) · DHL Global Forwarding air freight (DHL Group)
Ocean Freight and Ocean ServicesContainer slots bought from shipping lines and resold as full or shared boxes. Revenue slid through 2025 and bottomed early in 2026; volumes then rose 7% from the previous quarter. Carriers selling logistics themselves is the standing threat.Container slots bought from shipping lines and resold as full or shared boxes. Revenue slid through 2025 and bottomed early in 2026; volumes then rose 7% from the previous quarter. Carriers selling logistics themselves is the standing threat.
In plain English
The same trade as air, one speed slower and far cheaper: boxes on ships instead of pallets on planes. Expeditors books container slots from the shipping lines, fills a whole box for one large customer or shares a box between several smaller ones, and arranges the pickup and the road leg at each end.
This is the part that shrank. The lines have been adding vessels faster than cargo has grown, so prices on the big Asia-to-US-West-Coast route fell steeply, and a business paid a slice of a falling price collects less. Cheap ships cut Expeditors' own costs too — and volumes picked up again in the spring of 2026.
Competes with Sea Logistics (Kuehne+Nagel) · DSV ocean freight (DSV) · CEVA Logistics (CMA CGM)
Transcon (Global Ground Transportation)Cross-border trucking bought from haulers and resold as a managed door-to-door move. The fastest-growing part of the mix, and lower-margin than customs work — which is why that line's margin slipped. Leans on cross-border trade rules holding.Cross-border trucking bought from haulers and resold as a managed door-to-door move. The fastest-growing part of the mix, and lower-margin than customs work — which is why that line's margin slipped. Leans on cross-border trade rules holding.
In plain English
Trucks, not planes or ships. Transcon moves freight overland within a continent and across land borders — the North American runs between Mexico, the United States and Canada are the demand story, as manufacturing moves closer to home. Secure fenced yards and cross-docks sit right at the crossings, so a load can change trailers and clear customs in one stop.
Expeditors owns none of the trucks. It buys the haul from carriers and sells the managed move, keeping the difference. That difference is thinner than on customs paperwork, so growing fast here quietly pulls the average margin down.
Competes with North American Surface Transportation (C.H. Robinson) · Road Logistics (Kuehne+Nagel) · DSV Road (DSV)
Warehousing & DistributionRunning warehouses for customers whose freight it already carries: storing, picking, packing, returns, and bonded goods held before duty is paid. Capacity is being added, with chilled and frozen space the piece management keeps naming.Running warehouses for customers whose freight it already carries: storing, picking, packing, returns, and bonded goods held before duty is paid. Capacity is being added, with chilled and frozen space the piece management keeps naming.
In plain English
Somewhere between the ship and the shop, goods have to sit. Expeditors rents warehouse space and runs it for customers — receiving, storing, picking single items off shelves, packing, handling returns, and holding bonded goods under customs control until duty is settled.
It sells this almost entirely to companies whose freight it already moves, so it grows quietly rather than by winning big outsourcing tenders. The company leases rather than builds, and spending on property stays small. It is currently fitting out more chilled and frozen space, where it says demand is growing, and in September 2026 a decade-long customer, L.B. Foster, named it distribution partner for mainland Europe.
Competes with DHL Supply Chain (DHL Group) · Contract logistics (GXO Logistics) · Contract Logistics (Kuehne+Nagel)
EXP.O NOW and the Global Technology organizationThe customer portal — shipment search, reports and a duty calculator — written in-house and bundled with the service rather than sold. A charge taken in the second quarter of 2026 reshapes the technology team and is meant to save about $50 million a year.The customer portal — shipment search, reports and a duty calculator — written in-house and bundled with the service rather than sold. A charge taken in the second quarter of 2026 reshapes the technology team and is meant to save about $50 million a year.
In plain English
The screen customers log into. EXP.O NOW is Expeditors' own dashboard, where a shipper can look up a shipment, see where it is, pull reports and estimate the duty on a product.
It isn't sold on its own; it comes with the shipping service, because a customer whose orders, documents and tracking all live in one place does not change forwarders casually. That makes it a cost rather than an income line — and this year the cost was cut. A charge in the second quarter of 2026 reshaped the technology team, aiming at about fifty million dollars of annual savings, close to a tenth of head-office expenses, while management promised to keep spending on artificial-intelligence tools and technology staff.
Competes with Flexport platform (Flexport) · myKN (Kuehne+Nagel) · DSV digital solutions (DSV)
Order ManagementCustomers hand over their purchase-order files and Expeditors runs the bookings and reports status item by item. A small line on its own — its real job is pulling freight, customs and warehousing along behind it.Customers hand over their purchase-order files and Expeditors runs the bookings and reports status item by item. A small line on its own — its real job is pulling freight, customs and warehousing along behind it.
In plain English
Big importers do not buy one shipment at a time. They issue purchase orders to dozens of factories and then need to know what is ready, what is late, and what can travel together. Customers send those order files to Expeditors electronically.
Once the orders are in the system, Expeditors is the one arranging the factory pickups, deciding what gets combined into a single load, and reporting status down to the individual item. The freight, the customs filing and the warehousing then tend to follow to the same provider. Small money, sticky position.
Competes with myKN (Kuehne+Nagel) · Flexport platform (Flexport)
Named in filings, launches and programs
- TradewinBrandWholly-owned trade-consulting arm: classifying goods, arguing valuations and recovering overpaid duty for the same importers the customs desk files for.
- TradeflowProductTrade-management software that automates customs documents and compliance checks, used alongside the brokerage work.
- Cargo SignalBrandSingle-use sensors tucked into shipments, reporting location, temperature, humidity, shock and light back to a round-the-clock command centre.
- Expeditors Cargo Insurance BrokersBrandCargo insurance broking and claims handling, so a customer can insure the goods with the same firm that moves them.
- Onyx Strategic InsightsBrandConsulting arm advising customers on supply-chain design and sustainability.
- Tariff CalculatorProductDuty-estimating tool sitting inside the customer portal — handy exactly when tariff rules keep moving.
- exp.o VisibilityProductStatus reporting down to the individual order and item, fed by the purchase-order files customers upload.
- Network Optimization Tools, CO₂e Dashboard and Cargo Claims AppProductSmaller tools in the same portal: route analysis, emissions reporting and cargo claim filing.
- Global Transcon Retail ServicesServiceThe retail-focused cross-border package: trucking, customs filing and risk cover bundled through gated yards at each crossing.
- Project CargoServiceOversized loads and energy-project moves — a specialist corner of the forwarding work rather than routine boxed freight.
- Foreign Trade Zone servicesServiceRunning bonded and free-zone space, so importers can hold goods before the duty falls due.
- Risk Management, Delivery Management and SecurityServiceThe remaining services wrapped around the freight: insurance handling, delivery scheduling and cargo security.
- Temperature-controlled capacityService · RampingChilled and frozen warehouse space being fitted out; management named it in August 2026 as where demand is growing.
- L.B. Foster mainland Europe distributionCustomer program · AnnouncedA decade-long customer named Expeditors its European distribution partner in September 2026, with a German hub targeted for the fourth quarter.
- Independent agent networkEcosystemThirty-five independent agents work alongside 172 company-staffed district offices; the network grows by opening offices, not by buying firms.
TradewinBrand
Wholly-owned trade-consulting arm: classifying goods, arguing valuations and recovering overpaid duty for the same importers the customs desk files for.
TradeflowProduct
Trade-management software that automates customs documents and compliance checks, used alongside the brokerage work.
Cargo SignalBrand
Single-use sensors tucked into shipments, reporting location, temperature, humidity, shock and light back to a round-the-clock command centre.
Expeditors Cargo Insurance BrokersBrand
Cargo insurance broking and claims handling, so a customer can insure the goods with the same firm that moves them.
Onyx Strategic InsightsBrand
Consulting arm advising customers on supply-chain design and sustainability.
Tariff CalculatorProduct
Duty-estimating tool sitting inside the customer portal — handy exactly when tariff rules keep moving.
exp.o VisibilityProduct
Status reporting down to the individual order and item, fed by the purchase-order files customers upload.
Network Optimization Tools, CO₂e Dashboard and Cargo Claims AppProduct
Smaller tools in the same portal: route analysis, emissions reporting and cargo claim filing.
Global Transcon Retail ServicesService
The retail-focused cross-border package: trucking, customs filing and risk cover bundled through gated yards at each crossing.
Project CargoService
Oversized loads and energy-project moves — a specialist corner of the forwarding work rather than routine boxed freight.
Foreign Trade Zone servicesService
Running bonded and free-zone space, so importers can hold goods before the duty falls due.
Risk Management, Delivery Management and SecurityService
The remaining services wrapped around the freight: insurance handling, delivery scheduling and cargo security.
Temperature-controlled capacityService · Ramping
Chilled and frozen warehouse space being fitted out; management named it in August 2026 as where demand is growing.
L.B. Foster mainland Europe distributionCustomer program · Announced
A decade-long customer named Expeditors its European distribution partner in September 2026, with a German hub targeted for the fourth quarter.
Independent agent networkEcosystem
Thirty-five independent agents work alongside 172 company-staffed district offices; the network grows by opening offices, not by buying firms.