XPO

"We transformed the traditional brokerage business model by capitalizing on the intersection of two big, advantageous trends: the shift toward using truck brokers as middlemen, and the efficiencies of automated services in an industry where that was not yet the norm. If I was to sum up the genesis of XPO, GXO, and RXO, it would be the vision I shared with Mario in my living room in 2011: Automate everything you can. The importance of that, within the context of this chapter, is that we got the big trend right in our industry a dozen years ago, when it was far less apparent than it is today."

"I loved making “obscene profits” for the shareholders of United Waste, and again with United Rentals, and again with XPO. It meant that my team and I were doing our jobs in creating the most value for the investors who trusted us with their money."

"XPO’s tech team created a fully automated, digitally enabled transportation network that spans a nationwide, virtual freight marketplace with a single repository of information, facilitating transactions in a private cloud. Huge amounts of data flow into the platform in real time, giving the sales and carrier procurement teams the exact same visibility into loads and trucks moving around the network. This high-profile platform is in use today as RXO Connect® in North America and XPO Connect® in Europe. Ten years ago, zero percent of XPO’s truck brokerage loads were created or covered digitally. Today, 96 percent of loads tendered by RXO—the brokerage business we spun off in 2022—have a digital component, and many of them are touchless transactions through direct digital connections with customer systems."

"More recently, I divided XPO into three separate, publicly traded companies as a value-creation strategy. Between 2021 and 2022, we completed the spin-offs of GXO, the largest pure-play contract logistics provider in the world, and RXO, a leading freight brokerage platform that runs on technology we developed in-house. As a result, XPO is now primarily a less-than-truckload (LTL) transportation provider—a road-freight service that combines shipments from multiple customers on the same truck to move them efficiently through a high-speed network. I currently chair all three companies, and each business is helmed by a strong CEO."

"I created XPO with a private investment in public equity (a “PIPE”) that gave me control of a logistics company with about $175 million in revenue. Its main focus was freight transportation: matching truckers with shippers, forwarding freight, and expediting urgent shipments. I felt confident we could create a business model with a major upside to earnings by applying scale and technological innovation, and we did that, building XPO into an integrated, global logistics leader."

"XPO By the time I was looking in earnest for a new venture in 2010, the world was rapidly moving into an extreme phase of instant gratification in communications and data access, thanks to smartphones. The trend toward on-demand everything, which I had bet on with equipment rental ten years earlier, was now well established. And the concept of dynamic pricing, which we had deployed so effectively at United Rentals, had by now increased the profitability of a whole raft of other industries, including transportation, entertainment, and hospitality. I knew that whatever line of business I went into next, tech was going to be essential to making a lot of money."

"The second trend that could impact supply chains in the long term is electric vehicles, or EVs. A major truck manufacturer asked XPO to test its EV trucks, and it turns out our drivers love them. They’re quiet, safe, clean-running, and powerful. But they currently cost about three times the price of diesel trucks. They’re not going to be competitive without huge government subsidies. But with the U.S. currently in debt by tens of trillions of dollars, and Europe as a whole not far behind, it’s difficult to see where that money would come from. Regarding EVs overall (consumer and commercial vehicles), I still don’t understand whether EVs are good or bad for the environment. Buying an electric vehicle is emotionally satisfying, but there are some significant downsides. As more EVs are put into use, they’ll require a lot more…"