XPO’s tonnage officially returned to positive territory in February for the first time since June 2024. The Monday update from the Greenwich, Connecticut-based less-than-truckload carrier followed a second consecutive favorable manufacturing report released earlier in the day. 8% decline in weight per shipment.
2%. Management said on a fourth-quarter call in early February that January tonnage would have been 3% higher y/y, excluding the impact from severe winter storms. February tonnage was likely negatively impacted by a blizzard that dumped roughly three feet of snow across New England at the end of the month.
The company previously forecast tonnage to be flat y/y in the first quarter. Table: Company reports Manufacturing data released Monday showed industrial activity was positive for the second time this year. 4 reading in February, 20 basis points lower than January.
) The dataset has largely been underwater for more than three years. 8. ) XPO added 10,000 local accounts (small and midsize shippers), which typically have better margin profiles, last year.
The company is also expanding its grocery consolidation offering, and it recently inked deals with a few large customers in the healthcare sector. 9%). The company normally sees 50 bps of sequential operating margin deterioration in the first quarter, but it expects to record improvement this year.
Even if its margin came in flat with the fourth quarter, that would be 150 bps better y/y, and at the top end of its full-year 2026 guidance range (100 to 150 bps of y/y improvement). The company’s cost levers include: AI-driven efficiency gains across its dock, linehaul, and pickup-and-delivery operations, a reduction in outsourced miles, and lower equipment maintenance costs resulting from a lower average tractor age. Its full-year margin guidance doesn’t assume a macroeconomic recovery.
Shares of XPO were unchanged in after-hours trading on Monday. 2% during Monday’s session compared to the S&P 500, which was flat on the day. More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden: RXO: TL market seeing ‘biggest structural change’ since deregulation 2026: The year TL carriers turn the tide?
B.
