Schneider National, Inc. and its subsidiaries (Schneider) provide multimodal surface transportation and logistics solutions in North America.
The company offers a scaled portfolio of services and an array of capabilities and resources that leverage artificial intelligence, data science, and analytics to provide innovative solutions that coordinate the timely, safe, and efficient movement of customer products. The company offers truckload, intermodal, and logistics services to a diverse customer...
Schneider National, Inc. and its subsidiaries (Schneider) provide multimodal surface transportation and logistics solutions in North America.
The company offers a scaled portfolio of services and an array of capabilities and resources that leverage artificial intelligence, data science, and analytics to provide innovative solutions that coordinate the timely, safe, and efficient movement of customer products. The company offers truckload, intermodal, and logistics services to a diverse customer base throughout the continental U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
The company’s portfolio of complementary service offerings enables it to serve the diverse needs of its customers and to allocate capital in a manner that seeks to maximize returns across all market cycles and economic conditions. The company’s service offerings include the transportation of full-truckload freight, which it directly transports utilizing its company-owned transportation equipment and company drivers, owner-operators, or third-party carriers under contract with it. The company has arrangements with most of the major North American rail carriers to transport freight in containers. The company also provides customized freight movement, transportation equipment, labor, systems, and delivery services tailored to meet individual customer requirements, which typically involve long-term contracts. These arrangements are generally referred to as dedicated services and may include multiple pickups and drops, local deliveries, freight handling, specialized equipment, and freight network optimization. In addition, the company provides comprehensive logistics services with a network of over 20,700 qualified third-party carriers. The company is able to expand capacity through its Power Only offering by leveraging its nationwide trailer pool to match customer demand with third-party carriers.
Segments
The company operates through three segments: Truckload, Intermodal, and Logistics.
Truckload: Over-the-road freight transportation via dry van, bulk, temperature-controlled, and flat-bed trailers across either dedicated or network configurations. Freight is transported and delivered by company-employed drivers in company trucks and by owner-operators with company-owned trailers and executed through long-haul or regional services, including customized solutions for high-value or time-sensitive loads throughout North America.
Intermodal: Door-to-door container on flat car service through a combination of rail and dray transportation, in association with its rail providers. The company’s intermodal business uses company-owned containers, chassis, and trucks with primarily company dray drivers, augmented by third-party dray capacity.
Logistics: Asset-light freight brokerage (including both traditional brokerage and Power Only services, which leverage the company’s nationwide company-owned trailer pools to match third-party capacity with customer demand), supply chain (including 3PL), warehousing, and import/export services. The company’s logistics business provides value-added services using both its assets and third-party capacity, augmented by its trailing assets, to manage and move customers’ freight.
Additionally, the company leases equipment to third parties through its wholly owned subsidiary, Schneider Finance, Inc., which is primarily engaged in leasing trucks to owner-operators, including but not limited to, owner-operators with whom it contracts, and the company provides insurance for both company drivers and owner-operators through its wholly owned insurance subsidiary.
Strategy
The company’s strategy is based on delivering superior experiences to its customers utilizing an integrated, multimodal approach to provide capacity-oriented solutions centered on delivering customer value and industry-leading service.
Acquisitions
On December 2, 2024, the company completed the acquisition of Cowan Systems (Cowan Systems, LLC; Cowan Transport Holdings, LLC; and Cowan Equipment Leasing, LLC), a privately held truckload carrier based in Baltimore, Maryland that offers customized delivery solutions for retail and food manufacturing customers. Cowan Systems provides mainly dedicated and logistics services that complement its operations. The operating results of Cowan Systems are reported in the company’s Dedicated and Logistics operations as part of its Truckload and Logistics segments beginning on the closing date of the acquisition.
Customers
During the year ended December 31, 2024, the company offered its services to approximately 7,850 customers across its portfolio (excluding customers from its recent Cowan Systems acquisition), including 134 Fortune 500 companies, and 22 of its top 25 customers used services from all three of the company’s reportable segments. The company’s Logistics segment manages over 20,700 qualified carrier relationships in 2024.
The company’s revenue is derived from a diverse customer base across a broad end-market footprint, encompassing numerous industries including consumer products, retail, auto, chemicals, electronics and appliances, e-commerce, home improvement, and food and beverage.
Regulation
The company’s operations as a for-hire motor carrier are regulated and licensed by various federal, state, and local government agencies in North America, including the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT); Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA); the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS); National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA); the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). These regulatory authorities have broad powers over matters relating to authorized motor carrier operations, as well as motor carrier registration, safety and fitness of transportation equipment and drivers, transportation of hazardous materials, certain mergers and acquisitions, and periodic financial reporting.
The company’s driver associates and owner-operators must also comply with carrier qualifications and enacted governmental regulations regarding safety, equipment, and operating methods, including DOT regulation of equipment weight and drug and alcohol testing of its current and prospective driver associates and FMCSA regulation of driver HOS. In addition, the company is subject to compliance with cargo-security and transportation regulations issued by the Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection within the DHS, and its cross-border operations in Canada and Mexico are subject to regulation by each of those countries.
Additionally, the company is subject to a variety of laws and regulations which are targeted at reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, improving air quality and fuel efficiency at a national level, and accelerating a large-scale transition to medium and heavy-duty ZEVs. Prominent among those regulations are certain environmental regulations in effect in the state of California which have been adopted by CARB, including:
The Heavy-Duty Vehicle GHG Emission Reduction Regulation which was issued to reduce GHG emissions from certain long-haul tractor-trailers that operate in California by requiring owners of such vehicles or equipment to retrofit their vehicles with aerodynamic elements and accessories and implement technologies that improve fuel efficiency (regardless of where the vehicle is registered).
CARB’s ACT regulation, as enacted, is intended to accelerate the adoption of zero-emission trucks in California by 2035. Under ACT, an increasing percentage of tractors sold in California will need to be zero-emission by 2045.
The company continues to monitor and evaluate the proposed rule makings of the SEC, DOT, FMCSA, NHTSA, EPA, State of California, and other federal and state regulatory agencies to determine the expected impact on its operations.
History
Schneider National, Inc. was founded in 1935.