RXO Executive Reflects on Launching Amid Freight Down Cycle
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RXO Chief Strategy Officer Jared Weisfeld discussed what it was like to launch a new company amid a freight market downturn on RXO’s one-year anniversary Nov. 1.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based asset-light transportation solutions provider marked the one-year anniversary with executives ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. The company executives did the same thing in 2022 when they first launched as the stand-alone company. They were joined by employees, customers and board members for the event.
“It’s just incredible how fast the last year went and how much we’ve accomplished,” Weisfeld told Transport Topics. “So it was great to be back, and it’s always exciting to be back. No matter how many times you’re at the New York Stock Exchange, it’s always such an incredible experience.”
RXO brokers truckload freight via a proprietary digital freight marketplace that provides access to truckload capacity and complementary brokered services for managed transportation, last-mile and freight forwarding. XPO started the company by separating from its tech-enabled brokered transportation platform so it could better take advantage of unique market tailwinds.
Weisfeld
“We’ve got an entire organization that is more focused than it ever has been, by definition, on asset-light transportation, more time meeting with customers, more time creating solutions,” Weisfeld said. “So I think that, while we’ve clearly been in a soft freight environment since we spun off a year ago, we’re taking this time to get even closer to our customers, continue to gain a significant amount of market share and doing it profitably with very strong margins.”
Weisfeld said the past 12 months have been difficult because of the freight cycle. But he noted that the slower freight environment has provided an opportunity to focus on business fundamentals.
“We’ve accomplished a lot over the last year,” Weisfeld said. “You think about opening up a new world-class facility down in Laredo, Texas, to take advantage of the nearshoring movement, to expand with seven new brokerage offices. We are a tech-enabled truck brokerage, and during the year, we achieved a pretty important milestone of more than 1 million downloads of RXO Drive, which is our mobile app that’s on Android and iOS.”
🎥🎥 One year, countless milestones. We’ve had an amazing ride the last 12 months! #OneYearDelivered pic.twitter.com/PDPZoToWEL — RXO (@rxoinc) November 1, 2023
#GrowGrowRXO!
The tech-enabled freight transportation powerhouse celebrates one year of $RXO 🚊 Here’s to many more, @rxoinc! pic.twitter.com/2sX9f0RZsr — NYSE 🏛 (@NYSE) November 1, 2023
Weisfeld added that being a smaller and more focused organization has actually helped with how dynamic the freight environment has become. He noted that having that kind of flexibility and agility is proving out the rationale for the spin.
“I think that by being part of a more nimble, smaller and more focused organization, that’s been a tremendous advantage, and you’ve seen that in the results,” Weisfeld said. “Going through our last quarter from June 30th — which is the last report that we have out there — just continued profitable market share gains significantly in excess of the market, and that’s the point, being able to build the foundation and lay the groundwork for when the market inflects.”
Weisfeld said that being a smaller and more focused business has helped the company during the freight down cycle. (RXO)
XPO started spinning off business segments with the aim of becoming a pure-play less-than-truckload carrier in 2020. GXO was the first business segment to become its own stand-alone company about a year later, with its focus on contract logistics. RXO launched as a tech-enabled truckload freight broker a little over a year later.
“RXO has been around for a long time; it’s just been part of a much larger company, under XPO,” Weisfeld said. “We strategically have been investing in this business for a long time. When you’re in an environment like we’re in right now, I think being able to leverage the investments that we’ve made over the last decade and getting closer to our customers as a more focused organization, I think that’s the value proposition associated with the spin.”
RXO ranks No. 18 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America.
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