The News
XPO moved 5% more LTL tonnage per day in the third quarter of 2026 than a year earlier, while its yield, revenue per hundredweight excluding fuel, rose 3.6%, its smallest increase in at least three years. Fuel surcharges lifted the all-in rate per hundredweight 12%.
LTL revenue rose 17% to $1.47 billion. Fuel surcharge revenue rose 67% to $323 million. Revenue excluding fuel rose 8.5%.
“We don’t believe that price and volume are mutually exclusive,” CEO Mario Harik said.
The details
Most of the new freight is share XPO took from other carriers, by its own estimate. Some of it moved over from truckload. Shipments per day rose 5.8%. The average shipment was lighter than a year earlier in each of the last 12 quarters.
“We estimate it to be roughly around one-third market and two-thirds us,” Harik said of the volume growth.
“As truckload rates really started to sharply increase, we did see more conversion of freight from truckload to LTL,” chief strategy officer Ali Faghri said.
Much of the growth came from small and midsize shippers. “We onboarded 30% more new logos than we did in the comparable period last year,” Harik said.
XPO says its pricing is firming. Shorter hauls held down the third-quarter yield, and October yield is running higher.
Average length of haul fell 1.4% to 855 miles, which lowers revenue per hundredweight. XPO says its core pricing accelerated from the second quarter once length of haul and shipment weight are taken out.
Yield excluding fuel was tracking up 5% in October. Preliminary October tonnage per day was up in the mid-6% range.
The general rate increase XPO took this fall was “similar magnitude to last year,” CFO Kyle Wismans said. It applies to about 20% of XPO’s business. XPO says contract renewals have a bigger effect on its yield.
XPO’s investor presentation names add-on charges and smaller local accounts as two ways to raise yield. The company has also built spare room for more freight.
The presentation lists “expanding accessorial revenue from premium service offerings” and a bigger share of its “higher-yielding local channel,” served by a larger local sales force.
More than 30% of XPO’s dock doors are spare. Harik said the current workforce could handle “low to mid-single digit” more shipments.
Outside carriers ran 5.6% of XPO’s linehaul miles in the third quarter, down from 25.2% in 2020. XPO says that cuts its exposure to rising truckload rates.
Old Dominion and Saia grew in other ways. Old Dominion kept raising price while its shipment count fell. Saia hauled heavier shipments.
My notes
XPO has the most room for new LTL freight right now. It has more than 30% of its doors free and says it can add shipments without hiring. Old Dominion is moving fewer shipments and Saia is filling trailers with heavier freight, so XPO is the one of the three chasing shipment count.
The three big LTL carriers are still after different freight. In August, XPO was growing on lighter shipments, Saia on heavier ones, and Old Dominion was trading volume for price. The third quarter kept that split, so a shipper renewing with all three is hearing three different pitches.
What’s next
XPO expects yield and revenue per shipment, excluding fuel, to rise again in the fourth quarter from the third.
(Photo: XPO)
