What is the confirmed market size and growth trajectory for the United States freight brokerage market?
The market was valued at USD 20.4 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.9% to USD 40.44 billion by 2035. Full truckload brokerage is the dominant service type. Dry van is the largest equipment type. Long-haul is the dominant haul length. Digital freight brokerage is the fastest-growing business model. Road freight is the dominant transport mode. Manufacturing and automotive is the largest end-user industry. Large enterprises are the dominant customer size; mid-market is fastest-growing.

What is C.H. Robinson’s market position and how does its Lean transformation define U.S. freight brokerage competitive dynamics?
C.H. Robinson — managing 37 million shipments and USD 23 billion in freight annually through a network of 83,000 customers and 450,000 contract carriers — is the world’s largest freight broker and the benchmark against which all U.S. freight brokerage competitors measure their scale and capability. C.H. Robinson’s 2024-2025 Lean operating model transformation — delivering sustained outperformance through market share gains, gross margin expansion, and higher operating margins — documents that the incumbent market leader is simultaneously improving its operational economics while the post-freight-recession rate environment creates market share opportunity. The February 2025 divestiture of its Europe Surface Transportation business additionally concentrates C.H. Robinson’s capital and management focus on its core North American freight brokerage business.

How did the 2022-2024 freight recession create structural conditions for U.S. freight brokerage market recovery?
The 2022-2024 freight recession — where excess truckload capacity 14% to 20% above freight demand suppressed spot rates below carrier operating costs and drove the highest rate of carrier operating authority revocations since 2007 — removed structural supply capacity from the U.S. trucking market. When shipper demand recovers beyond available carrier supply, freight broker gross margins historically recover 4 to 8 percentage points within 12 to 18 months as carrier capacity tightness enables broker pricing leverage. The structural supply reduction from carrier exits is the primary precondition for the freight market rate recovery that will sustain above-market U.S. freight brokerage revenue growth through the forecast period.

What is the commercial significance of RXO’s acquisition of Coyote Logistics for the U.S. freight brokerage market structure?
RXO’s September 2024 acquisition of Coyote Logistics — a technology-driven asset-light truckload freight brokerage platform — from UPS for USD 1.025 billion created a combined digital-traditional freight brokerage entity with materially expanded carrier network access and digital platform capability. The Coyote acquisition represents the most commercially significant U.S. freight brokerage consolidation since C.H. Robinson’s Echo acquisition, combining Coyote’s established carrier relationships and multi-modal brokerage capability with RXO’s existing digital freight marketplace to create a scale competitor positioned between C.H. Robinson’s incumbency and pure-play digital-native platforms.

How does intermodal freight brokerage create the fastest-growing service type within U.S. freight brokerage?
Intermodal brokerage — coordinating rail-truck combined transportation where brokers source both the truck drayage and the intermodal rail ramp container in a unified service — is growing fastest because rail-truck intermodal delivers 25% to 35% fuel cost savings and 30% to 40% carbon intensity reduction versus all-truck transportation on qualifying lanes above 500 miles, at transit times only 1 to 2 days longer than all-truck. J.B. Hunt’s Intermodal segment and C.H. Robinson’s intermodal brokerage confirm that U.S. shippers are adopting intermodal at the fastest rate in a decade from the combined economics and sustainability advantages.

How does the digital freight brokerage model create commercial value above traditional phone-based brokerage for small business shippers?
Traditional freight brokerage serves enterprise shippers who can commit to contracted rates and minimum volumes that justify dedicated broker account management — effectively excluding sub-USD 10 million annual freight spend small businesses from sophisticated carrier access. Digital brokerage platforms — providing instant rate comparison, mobile carrier booking, and per-load pricing without volume minimums — expand U.S. freight brokerage market accessibility to the millions of small business shippers whose individual freight volumes previously did not justify broker relationship investment, materially expanding the total addressable brokerage market above what traditional brokerage alone could serve.