Armstrong & Associates

Last-mile delivery of big items a fertile field for 3PLs, report says

The last-mile delivery of big and bulky e-commerce items will be big business for 3PLs through 2025, following the trend of the past four years, according to a report published Thursday by 3PL research and consulting firm Armstrong & Associates Inc. and the National Home Delivery Association.

According to the report, the highly fragmented $9.3 billion market, which grew at an 18.2% compounded annual rate from 2017 to 2021, will experience 11.8% annual growth from 2022 through 2025. The segment...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/last-mile-delivery-of-big-items-a-fertile-field-for-3pls-report-says

Returns could be pot of gold at end of 3PL rainbow

For third-party logistics providers to capture a share of a multitrillion-dollar global market for reverse logistics services, all they have to do is effectively synchronize product cost-recovery efforts, heightened demands of customers and their customers’ customers, and a sharp focus on sustainable operations.

Of course, it’s nowhere near that simple nor familiar. Unlike the straightforward and mature business of forward logistics in which 3PLs are well entrenched, reverse logistics is in its...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/returns-could-be-pot-of-gold-at-end-of-3pl-rainbow

Geodis acquires broker Velocity Freight Transport

Geodis

French logistics company Geodis said Tuesday that it has acquired freight broker Velocity Freight Transport Inc. from McLane Co. Inc., a unit of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) Terms of the transaction, which closed June 30, were not disclosed.

Velocity, based in Plano, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, will remain in its current location. Geodis’ Americas operation is based in Brentwood, Tennessee, near Nashville.

The transaction will have a modest impact on Geodis’ brokerage...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/geodis-acquires-broker-velocity-freight-transport

The beginning of the end?

XPO Logistics CEO Brad Jacobs speaks at the BGSA conference in West Palm Beach.

He came. He saw. He conquered. He stayed on for a while. He then left, making himself and his shareowners much richer than when he arrived.

If history is any guide, that will be Brad Jacobs’ arc at XPO Logistics Inc. (NYSE:XPO), the company he founded nearly a decade ago with a $150 million investment and grew into a $17 billion multinational behemoth that has been a massive wealth-builder for shareholders. Wednesday’s announcement that Greenwich, Connecticut-based XPO would split its...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/the-beginning-of-the-end

Should we stay or should we go?

The baseball legend Yogi Berra once said that “when you get to the fork in the road, take it.” The analogy is far from perfect, but that may be the situation that Brad Jacobs eventually finds himself in.

With word out over the weekend that XPO Logistics, Inc. (NYSE:XPO), the company Jacobs founded less than a decade ago, had put out feelers for its European supply chain business, the debate has begun over the best way for Jacobs and his board to maximize shareholder value. Should XPO sell the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/should-we-stay-or-should-we-go

US 3PL industry to post revenue drop in 2020, Armstrong predicts

The U.S. third-party logistics (3PL) industry will post a drop in gross revenues in 2020, its second consecutive year of declines coming off a banner decade, according to a study by Armstrong & Associates Inc., a consultancy which closely tracks the U.S. and global 3PL markets.

For 2020, gross revenues for U.S.-based 3PLs are expected to hit $208 billion, a nearly $5 billion fall-off from 2019 levels of $212.8 billion. The full-year 2020 projections, if accurate, would represent a modest...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/us-3pl-industry-to-post-revenue-drop-in-2020-armstrong-predicts