C.H. Robinson extends three-year run of market outperformance in Q3

In a freight environment that is increasingly sensitive to disruptions and sudden changes in demand amid geo-political tensions and other factors, C.H. Robinson demonstrated resilience in the third quarter. Notably, it's largest business division, North American Surface Transportation (NAST), grew volume by 3.5% year-over-year, while the Cass Freight Shipment Index declined 0.3% over the same period.

This marks the 14th consecutive quarter in which NAST year-over-year volume growth outpaced the index, reflecting continued market share gains in both truckload and LTL.

CEO Dave Bozeman credits his team's ability to quickly adapt to the environment with disciplined revenue management, like repricing a large amount of their contractual truckload portfolio and capturing spot volumes at higher margins, alongside agentic workflows and Robinson's Lean AI strategy for the company's consistent performance again this quarter.

"We're highly confident in our ability to continue executing on all of our strategic initiatives in any market environment," Bozeman told investors and analysts during the company's quarterly earnings call. "Our industry-leading cost-to-serve model is highly scalable, and we expect it to strengthen further as we harness AI's capabilities to automate more of the quote-to-cash lifecycle of a load."

Q3 Highlights

• Total revenues increased 29.5% year-over-year to $5.4B
• Adjusted gross profit (AGP) increased 14.5% year-over-year
• Achieved NAST and Global Forwarding mid-cycle operating targets
  • 40.3% NAST operating margin (excluding restructuring costs), an increase of 110 basis points year over year.
  • 36.6% Global Forwarding operating margin, an increase of 660 basis points year-over-year
• $289.1M cash returned to shareholders in the quarter
• Year-to-date insurance and claims expense remains at less than 50 basis points of total revenues
• Earnings per share (EPS) grew 28.6% year-over-year to $1.80

Growth across key targeted verticals, including retail, healthcare, and technology verticals drive NAST market share gains

C.H. Robinson's NAST division has outgrown the market every quarter over the past three years. It's a claim no competitor can make with the same consistency. So, what's fueling the growth? Industry leading solutions that help Robinson win truckload volume growth from shippers in key targeted verticals like retail, healthcare and technology. And they're winning in both contractual and transactional markets.

What does that growth look like tangibly?

• 3.5% year-over-year growth in total truckload and LTL volume, while the Cass Freight Shipment Index declined 0.3% over the same period.
• More than 15% year-over-year increase in NAST shipments per person, per day in Q3, up more than 65% since the end of 2022.
• A 17% year-over-year increase in truckload AGP per shipment.
• A $3B less-than-load (LTL) business that moves more LTL freight than any other 3PL in North America.

Additionally, the team's improved price and cost discovery - the way of interacting with the market to determine fair economic value of a good or service - has enabled them to move more efficiently, repricing their contractual portfolio in a changing environment faster than they have historically.

"Our customers know they can trust the market and rate information we're bringing to them, which has resulted in a historically high level of acceptance in our repricing campaigns," said Michael Castagnetto, president of C.H. Robinson North American Surface Transportation.

Lean AI strategy serves up sustainable productivity improvements, continued new uses

It's been a consistent drumbeat for the past three years of C.H. Robinson's transformative performance with Dave Bozeman at the helm: Lean AI. Lean AI. Lean AI. It's not just catchy corporate messaging: the proof of its power is in the company's performance.

In the third quarter, both NAST and the company's Global Forwarding division delivered greater year-over-year productivity improvements than they achieved in the first half of 2026, while also achieving their mid-cycle operating margin targets, again.

"As we continue to integrate our custom-built AI agents into more workflows within the quote-to-cash lifecycle, the value of our Lean AI is showing up across the enterprise," said Arun Rajan, chief strategy and innovation officer. "This includes improved service and responsiveness to the customer and productivity gains of more than 65% in both NAST and Global Forwarding since the end of 2022. These outcomes reflect the combination of our custom-built technology and our proprietary data and context."

In October, the company debuted new custom AI agents for ocean shipping, air freight and customs, bringing greater speed, precision and agility to supply chains around the world. The agents represent an expansion of the company's Lean AI capabilities into freight forwarding, for the benefit of more customers, and into work so complex that a single shipping task can require over a dozen AI agents working in tandem.

The sustainable productivity results come from repeatable execution.

"As we have said before, we remain in the early innings of our Lean AI transformation," said Rajan. "We have automated only a fraction of the hundreds of processes across the quote-to-cash lifecycle, with substantial runway remaining across NAST and Global Forwarding. Our logistics expertise, proprietary data and context, custom-built technology, and Lean operating model work together to deliver measurable outcomes and create advantages that are difficult to replicate."

Applying Lean AI to an acquisition

Beyond the company's current performance, Bozeman also made clear during the company's earnings call its confidence in its ability to extend its success once it closes on its planned acquisition of RXO. To no surprise, Lean AI will be a key player.

"The same Lean operating model and AI technology that have been vitally important in the transformations of our NAST and Global Forwarding businesses are what will enable us to successfully integrate and transform the RXO business," Bozeman told investors.

In fact, Bozeman said the company's Lean AI disciplines are what will enable Robinson to deliver different results than this industry's past acquisitions. The integration will be led by a team responsible for implementing Robinson's current operating model and driving the company's Lean transformation.

Company leaders also noted that the acquisition is not a substitute for organic growth. Rather, the company anticipates that the acquisition will accelerate growth and profitability. A team of external advisors completed a thorough analysis of potential customer overlap, focusing on the top 100 truckload brokerage customers. Through this analysis, C.H. Robinson was able to confirm there is limited overlap in customers for the company's largest business division.

"We have strong conviction in the strategy we're executing and intrinsic value of the business," said Damon Lee, chief financial officer of C.H. Robinson. "Significant transformational runway remains across the enterprise, and we believe our Lean operating model, our technology, and our expertise position us well to create value through both our organic initiatives and future inorganic additions."