The Power 25 Forwarders of 2015

The larger you are, the harder it is to shove you aside.

This basic fact of physics can be seen in The Power 25, Air Cargo World’s list of the top 25 largest freight forwarders in airfreight, based on tonnage last year.

Many of the familiar brawny players – DHL Global Forwarding, Kuehne + Nagel, DB Schenker, Panalpina, Expeditors, etc. – are right where they should be, bunched up at the top of the mountain, wielding impressive revenue and tonnage totals.

Take a closer look, however, and you’ll see a few names from the lower half creeping up the slope – not necessarily unknowns, but ones that you may not have expected see leapfrogging a few notches ahead. Firms like Dimerco Express (No. 21), DSV (No. 16) and GEODIS (No. 18), all of which experienced significant growth in tonnages handled in 2014. Evan Armstrong, president of Wisconsin-based Armstrong & Associates, Inc., which calculated this list of the world’s top 25 forwarders, said that there is a theme running through the companies – large and small – who made moves up in the 2014 rankings.

“Generally, the biggest macro trend we see is that the ones with the integrated solutions seem to be the best cross-sell,” he said. “The forwarders that have their own warehouses – that are building up their footprints, that are acting most like the global integrators – are doing the best on the list.”

We welcomed a few other new names on the Power 25 chart, although they are hardly strangers in the business (FedEx Trade Networks & Supply Chain, Pilot Freight Services, Hitachi Transport System). There are also a few notable names not listed (C.H. Robinson, Pantos Logistics, Toll Holdings) – some because of lagging performance, while others have made a recent splash through acquisition that occurred in early 2015, and will certainly be on the “ones to watch” list for next year.

CLICK HERE FOR THE POWER 25 LIST OF 2015

More from the 2015 Power 25:

• Analysis: Top forwarders find strength in integration
• 3 forwarders to watch for 2016
• Panalpina marches to its own beat