Guide to Trucking
Special Report
Journal of Commerce Top 25 US LTL Carriers
Annual revenues, including fuel surcharges, in millions of US dollars, and average daily shipments in 2025
|
|
|
|
YoY |
Average daily |
Rank |
Carrier |
2024 |
2025 |
change |
shipments |
1 FedEx Freight $ 9,098 $ 8,782-3.5 % 88,700
2 Old Dominion Freight Line $ 5,761 $ 5,446-5.5 % 43,762
3 Estes Express Lines $ 4,994 $ 4,986-0.2 % 52,231
4 XPO $ 4,899 $ 4,832-1.4 % 49,420
5 R + L Carriers1 $ 3,820 $ 3,725-2.5 % 59,500
6 Saia Motor Freight Line $ 3,209 $ 3,234 0.8 % 35,290
7 ABF Freight System $ 2,750 $ 2,735-0.6 % 20,456
8 Tforce Freight2 $ 2,281 $ 2,012-11.8 % 19,972 demand and the bankruptcy and collapse of the thenthird-largest LTL provider Yellow in 2023.
That collapse launched a multi-billion-dollar battle for Yellow’ s terminals and freight.
LTL freight volume declined in 2025, with the total LTL average daily shipment count dropping 1.9 % to 649,796 shipments per day after a 1.5 % increase in 2024. SJ Consulting calculated that shipments declined at 16 of the 25 public and privately-owned carriers.
Eight of the Top 25 carriers increased their daily volume, largely mid-tier and smaller carriers. Among the 10 largest LTL companies, only ABF Freight System, an ArcBest subsidiary, gained daily shipments in 2025, increasing its volume by 3 %.
“ We’ re seeing more and more opportunities with customers as we’ re putting dots on the map.”
9 Southeastern Freight Lines $ 1,700 $ 1,728 1.7 % 33,417
10 Central Transport1 $ 1,628 $ 1,705 4.7 % 23,800
11 Knight-Swift LTL $ 1,236 $ 1,479 19.7 % 23,923
12 Averitt Express $ 1,149 $ 1,077-6.3 % 16,511
13 Dayton Freight Lines $ 1,043 $ 1,054 1.1 % 22,593
14 Pitt Ohio Transportation Group $ 939 $ 1,020 8.6 % 23,185
15 Forward Air $ 945 $ 847-10.4 % 11,384
16 A. Duie Pyle $ 616 $ 605-1.8 % 11,126
17 Roadrunner Transportation1 $ 436 $ 410-6.0 % 5,000
18 Daylight Transport $ 393 $ 387-1.6 % 3,512
19 Oak Harbor Freight Lines1 $ 342 $ 347 1.5 % 5,650
20 Ward Trucking Corporation $ 258 $ 262 1.6 % 4,705
21 Cross Country Freight Solutions $ 219 $ 209-4.6 % 4,428
22 Magnum LTL $ 164 $ 173 5.7 % 3,809
23 Peninsula Truck Lines $ 103 $ 98-4.9 % 1,672
24 Standard Forwarding1 $ 100 $ 78-22.0 % 2,000
25 Southwestern Motor Transport $ 67 $ 66-1.5 % 1,850
Total Top 25 US LTL Carriers $ 48,150 $ 47,297-1.8 % 567,896
Total US LTL Market $ 52,803 $ 51,807-1.9 % 649,846
1 SJ Consulting estimates 2 US revenues only
Sources: Company reports and SJ Consulting estimates. Prepared by SJ Consulting Group, Inc.
Expect a bounce off the LTL shipment floor this year. A cross-modal freight shift is under way that benefits LTL and intermodal rail at the expense of truckload carriers as truckload spot rates surge more than 40 % year over year and contract rates head north.
Much vaunted LTL pricing discipline survived under pressure in 2025, and LTL pricing is climbing from already elevated levels, primed by fuel prices and surcharges. The US producer price index( PPI) for long-distance LTL was up 20 % year over year in May.
Fuel surcharges contributed heavily to that increase, but the PPI was moving upward even before fuel prices surged following the US-Israeli war with Iran. The LTL PPI rose sequentially in January, February and March before rising 33 points in April.
Adding dots to the map
Carriers that spent the past three years building and rebuilding their LTL terminal networks following the collapse of Yellow in 2023 say they are ready for higher freight volumes. The largest LTL companies maintain about 30 % excess capacity in their networks.
And those networks are bigger, partly thanks to terminals from bankrupt Yellow but also because of new construction and expansion of existing terminals.
SJ Consulting research shows that the total US LTL terminal count rose by 536 facilities, or 19 %, from 2023 through 2025, reaching 3,353 facilities last year. In 2025, the nationwide LTL network expanded 5 % following a 13.3 % expansion in 2024.
That’ s more terminals than can be accounted for by the acquisition of Yellow facilities alone. Yellow and its subsidiaries had 308 terminals at the end of 2022.
The Top 25 carriers combined added a net of 28 terminals last year, bringing their total to 2,901 facilities,
34 Journal of Commerce | July 6, 2026 www. joc. com