Our global freight forwarding network keeps our customers freight moving across the world.

Where forwarders lose margin - and how to stop it

A profitable quote does not always become a profitable shipment. In this episode of The Loadstar Podcast, host Charlotte Goldstone asks where freight forwarders lose money between booking and delivery, and what they can do to protect their margins. Emma Crumpton, enterprise solutions director at Portcast, explains how detention and demurrage charges, mismatched buy and sell rates, and costs that are never billed back to customers can erode the return on a job. The problem is often the volume and complexity of information operators must manage across carriers, ports and contracts. Ian Powell, tech and solutions director at Metro, brings the forwarders' perspective. He discusses the cost of manual processing and rework, and describes how Metro pilots technology before rolling it out across its operations. The conversation also examines what AI can realistically do with shipment data. Both guests argue that reliable data, clear processes and human oversight matter more than simply adding another tool. For forwarders wondering where to start, their advice is to identify the cause of a margin leak first, then decide whether a process change or technology can fix it.

UP-NS to be won or lost on the numbers...

Recap: the Surface Transportation Board (STB) has made permanent the head of the office that tests merger economics, eight weeks before opening comments on Union Pacific's bid for Norfolk Southern fall due. A leaner agency will do that work, and shippers who want their objections to land should bring their own data. On 24 September, STB chairman Patrick Fuchs named Marty Schlenker director of the board's Office of Economics and Terrence McDermott as his senior adviser.

CH Robinson rejects racketeering claims and confirms Super Ego carriers' exit

CH Robinson has strongly refuted allegations in a racketeering lawsuit brought by six US trucking companies, and confirmed that carriers within the Super Ego network are no longer part of its freight network. The company told The Loadstar that the complaint mischaracterised its carrier relationships and inaccurately described testimony given by a former employee. "Super Ego is a holding company. The specific trucking companies under their umbrella that we worked with each had individual operating authority from the US government," it said. "Like all the carriers we work with, they were each in good standing with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration at the time we worked with them. Super Ego carriers are no longer part of our network." The company did not specify when or why those relationships ended. The response follows a complaint filed in the Eastern District of Texas on 23 September against CH Robinson entities and Total Quality Logistics (TQL). The plaintiffs - Stevens Trucking, Western Flyer Express, Freymiller Trucking, IWX Motor Freight, Christenson Transportation and EOS - allege that the brokers won shipper business using carriers whose costs were suppressed by breaches of safety and labour rules. They claim this enabled the brokers to offer rates compliant trucking companies could not match. The allegations have not been established in court. Super Ego is cited extensively in the complaint as an example of the carrier networks allegedly used by the brokers, but is not a defendant. CH Robinson also challenged paragraph 161, in which the plaintiffs describe a deposition given by former carrier-services head Bruce Johnson. The complaint attributes to him an account of the company winning shipper bids before sourcing carriers described by the plaintiffs as "illegal carriers". The company said Mr Johnson "said nothing of the sort in his deposition", adding: "That is entirely false, and nothing like that appears in the deposition." CH Robinson said the complaint's inaccuracies and mischaracterisations also extended to other aspects of the deposition. The Loadstar has not independently verified the disputed account against the transcript. Chief legal officer Dorothy Capers rejected the lawsuit's wider portrayal of the company. "We reject the allegations in this civil lawsuit, its false characterisation of CH Robinson and our business practices, and its fundamental inaccuracies about how the freight market actually works," she said. "We've worked hard to build a network of carriers, from the largest to the smallest, including family-run operations who've been hauling freight for our customers for decades and grown their businesses across generations. "All the carriers we work with are authorised by the federal government, plus meet additional safety standards and higher levels of insurance than legally required. Running a responsible company is foundational to who we are, and serving our two-sided marketplace of shippers and carriers well is why we've been successful for 120 years." Ms Capers also disputed the complaint's account of pricing and carrier selection. "No freight broker sets rates. The marketplace does. When demand for carriers is high and supply is low, carriers command higher rates. When demand is low and the supply of carriers is high, shippers command lower rates," she said. "This is reflected in the rate forecasts we publish monthly and, as a publicly traded company, we report our margins quarterly. "It's also a myth that freight brokers merely find the lowest-priced carrier. The choice of a carrier for any shipment rides on a multitude of factors. Our process takes into account carrier proximity, size, equipment, certifications, and customer requirements ranging from sustainability to service levels." The trucking companies are seeking damages for alleged lost business, including treble damages under US racketeering law. They have not specified a total claim, although Freymiller identifies $51.2m in alleged lost sales across 63 customers. "We look forward to defending ourselves vigorously and pursuing counterclaims supported by real facts and the law," Ms Capers said.