DSV Q3 2026: low-margin customers cut as volumes fall

In brief: DSV is cutting business that doesn’t pay enough, which its CEO said accounts for about two points of a roughly 3% drop in its air and sea volumes in the third quarter.

Implications:

Renewals: DSV has already let go of accounts that paid below its targets, so expect it to hold its price.
Warehousing: DSV is also closing or exiting warehouse work that loses money, so ask where your DSV-run site stands.

The News

DSV has dropped customers that didn’t pay enough in the third quarter of 2026, and CEO Jens Lund said that explains most of a fall in its air and sea volumes that an analyst on the earnings call estimated at about 3%. Lund put about two percentage points of that decline down to the last stage of cleaning up the business after the DB Schenker purchase. “I think we’ve finished sanitizing, what can I say, the business,” he said.

The rest of the drop came from customers leaving, which peaked in July. By August and September, Lund said, air freight volumes were running flat to 1% below a year earlier.

DSV’s road unit, which runs mostly in Europe, lost volume after service slipped during the Schenker integration, according to DSV’s third-quarter report, and Lund said getting it back will “probably take 6 to 9 months into next year.”

Why It Matters

DSV is choosing margin over volume, so the shippers it is most willing to lose are the ones paying below its targets.

No discounts to win road freight back: Lund said DSV will not offer road customers “terms and conditions that are materially different” to regain lost volume, because that would cost it in the long run.
Warehouses too: In contract logistics, DSV is consolidating less profitable sites, and Lund said it is exiting “loss-making business” that doesn’t deliver the returns it requires.

Who’s Exposed

Small road freight accounts: Lund said larger customers with complex road freight stayed with DSV through the integration, while those shipping in one or two markets were more likely to switch providers.
Former Schenker customers: Almost every country has finished or started the Schenker integration, and the last few start in the fourth quarter. The report doesn’t name which ones remain, so accounts still on Schenker systems may not have moved yet.
DSV warehouse customers: Sites DSV sees as less profitable are being consolidated, which can mean a move to another building or a new contract.

What’s Next

Q4 2026: the last few countries start the Schenker integration, and DSV has pushed the savings from road and some group functions into 2027.
Mid to late 2027: Lund expects road volumes back to their earlier level six to nine months into the year.