Top 10 Logistics Companies in World 2015

Published in Top Brands category by MBA Skool Team

Here is a list of the top 10 logistics companies in the world. Logistics business is the backbone of any industry and all the biggest companies of the world, especially FMCG are completely depend-ent on good supply chain management. The services provided by the biggest logistics companies are material handling, production, packaging, inventory, transportation, warehousing, and often security. Some of the biggest names in the world are among the top 10 logistic companies global-ly.


10. CEVA

CEVA’s roots can be traced back to 1946 when TNT or Thomas Nationwide transport was found by Ken Thomas in Australia with a single truck.


Image: flickr.com/photos/didbygraham/


In 1996, TNT got acquired by a Dutch company called KPN. The company then got its functions divided in 3 areas - Logistics, Express and Post.

10 years later in 2006, TNT Logistics was sold to venture capitalists Apollo Management LP which renamed it to CEVA. Soon Apollo Management made another acquisition of US-based freight management company called EGL and merged it into CEVA. CEVA is now a full service transportation and logis-tics company that provide freight management and contract logistics at 950 locations. It is a non-asset- based supply chain management companies. They provide industry solutions for Automo-tive, Healthcare, Consumer and Retail, and Energy sectors. They provide Air Freight Solutions with Air Charter, Air Now, Air Premium, Air Value, On board courier, and other value added services. Their Ocean Freight services and Ground Freight Services include Freight Management Services, Full-Container Load, Less-than-Container Load, Ocean Charger & Project Solutions and other value added services. In Contract Logistics, CEVA provides a number of services like After market Logis-tics, Inbound Logistics, Lead Logistics Provider, Manufacturing Support, and Outbound Logistics. CEVA also provides a specialised set of services called CEVA Showfreight, CEVA Asset Recovery, and CEVA Fixtures.

Revenue- $ 7,864m

9. Panalpina

Panalpina is a Swiss company which started its operations in 1935.


Image: flickr.com/photos/bribri/


Some of the products and Solu-tions include Air freight, ocean freight, Logistics services, Energy solutions, Supply Chain Solutions, Road and Rail Services, Business Implementation. It covers 9 core industries - Fashion, Manufac-turing, Telecom, Automotive, Chemicals, Consumer and Retail, Energy, Hi Tech and Perishables. The Panalpina Group has 500 offices in 70 countries and has partner companies working in further 90 countries. Some of the company’s mergers and acquisition include Grampian International, Scotland, International Aero-Sea Forwarders, South Korea and Janco Oilfield Services, Singapore, and Norwegian Overseas Shipping Group. Panalpina’s operating structure is divided into four re-gional units - the Americas, Aisa Pacific, Europe and Middle East, Africa & CIS. Panalpina got listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange in 2005 via its holdingg company named Panalpina World Transport (Holding) Ltd (PWT).Their core values that hold the company includes performance, integrity, and Professionalism.


Their vision statement:

We want to be the most customer focused global provider of freight forwarding and logistics solu-tions – a trusted, valued and respected partner.

Revenue- $8912.74 m

8. C. H. Robinson

C. H Robinson was founded in 1905 by Charles Henry Robinson in partnership with Fred Parks Nash and Willis King Nash as a wholesale produce brokerage house.


Image: company website


They are a fortune 500 com-pany is headquartered at Minnesota, USA. C H Robinson is the largest third party Logistics (3PL) which got listed on NASDAQ in 2012. The company has over 46,000 customers, and operates in 4 zones namely North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. The company maintains its opera-tion by associating with 66,000 transportation providers worldwide, including contract motor carri-ers, railroads, air freight carriers, and ocean carriers.


Their Logistics solutions include over the road, air, ocean, intermodal and rail, project Logistics, Managed TMS, Collaborative outsourcing, and Supply Chain Consulting services. Their industry coverage Supply chain solutions extend to Oil and Gas Logistics, Chem Solutions, Global Textile Logistics, Food and Beverage, and Retail domains. Some of their recent acquisitions include Apreo Logistics S.A., Poland, Phoenix International, Inc., Chicago, IL, and freightquote.com, Kansas, MO. C H Robinson also took the initiative of introducing Robinson Fresh to help people like small family store or a large retail grocer, a local restaurant or franchisee in finding efficient supply chain solu-tions.

Revenue- $ 13,470.07m

7. Nippon Express

Nippon Express is a Japanese company that was established formally in 1937 as a semi-government transportation enterprise.


Image: flickr.com/photos/1000zen/


The company was formed by accumulating assets of a number of japan’s small-scale rail transport companies and is headquartered at Minato-ku, Tokyo. In 1950 the company went public and later reestablished as a private company. They provide Ser-vices and Solutions in Air Freight, marine transport, moving services, Fine Arts Transport, Heavy Haulage and Logistics Design and IT. The company thrives to be a driving force for social Devel-opment. It has about 33,153 employees and 29 areas of operations. It serves 5 regions - the Amer-icas, Europe/Middle East/ Africa, East Asia, South & South East Asia, Oceania and Japan. It also provides a smooth one-stop service, from Procurement Logistics to Distribution Logistics.

Some of the certifications and awards won by the company include AS9120 for showing its com-mitment to quality in the aerospace industry, TAPA (Technology Asset Production Association), ISO9001 ISO14001, AEO (Authorized Economic Operator), and C-TPAT (Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism). The company Nippon Express Group comprises of about 365 companies

with 480 business locations in 229 cities .

Revenue- $14,061m

6. DB Schenker

DB Schenkar is a European company and a whole owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn.


Image: flickr.com/photos/widnes_road/


The 2 ma-jor divisions are DB Schenker Logistics and DB Schenker Rail. Their various products and services include Eco Solutions, Rail Freight, Land Transport, Air Freight, Ocean Freight, Contract Logistics, Lead Logistics, and other Specials products like Tailor-made Logistics solutions for Oil and Gas in-dustry and other complex industries. Their expert teams are responsible for connecting the mod-ules of entire service range and form complex value chains. The company provides industry Solu-tions for Aerospace, Automotives, Chemicals, Customers, Electronics, Healthcare, Marine Parts, Retail and Semicon/ solar. It has 2000 plus locations and around 95,700 employees. DB Schenkar is known to have transported a 4000 Metric Tons of weight over trains, send supplies stuff over 250 trains daily. They have 32,000 Regular Scheduled Services over Land Transport per week, and 1200 of their own chartered planes per year for air freight. Their ltag line is “Delivering Solu-tions”.


A strategy 2020 built by D B Schenkar encompasses all the dimensions of sustainability viz. eco-nomic success, corporate social responsibility, and protection of environment. According to them, this strategy would help them become top leader in the markets of they target. They plan to con-tinue investment in growth markets, new business and employees’ expertise by building on long-term financial stability.

DB Schenker assumes to take their green product portfolio and eco-consulting expertise to a new level as they plan to reduce noise emissions and set benchmarks in carbon and energy efficiency.

Revenue- $19,800m

5. Kuehne + Nagel

Kuehne + Nagel started in 1890 in Bremen, Germany by August Kuehne and Friedrich Nagel.


Image: company website


Kahn + Nagel provides Supply Chain Solutions to industries ranging from Aerospace to FMCG to Forests and Hotels to Marine. They provide many products and services in Airfreight, Seafreight, Over-land, Contract Logistics and Integrated Logistics and have about 63000 employees working over 100 countries.

They are the best sea freight forwarder all over the world having maintained double digits growth rate year after year. They share a good rapport and partnerships with wide range of preferred ocean carriers. They are second best cargo forwarder around the world and have earned Global Cargo 2000 Phase 2 certification for their work. They are number 2 global contract logistics pro-vider and leading global lead logistics provider. Overland, they feature in top 3 providers of Eu-rope. They have dedicated and individual delivery services all over the Europe.

The efficient operating processes at Kuehne + Nagel’s help deliver immediate environmental ben-efits. Pooling the volumes can measurably deliver sustainable reductions in fuel consumption and a company’s carbon footprint. It is member of Clean Cargo Working Group. Its initiative Global Facility Carbon Calculator aims to monitor actions to reduce carbon emissions, landfill waste and consumption of energy, land and water. It also plans to have Green Standard for its new buildings.

Revenue- $22,530.64m

4. SNCF

SNCF (Société nationale des chemins de fer français) or the French National Railways company is headquartered at Monaco, France.


Image: flickr.com/photos/eldelinux/


SNCF Group is France’s state-owned railway company and pro-vides full range of mobility solutions in 5 spheres including SNCF Infra, Proximities, Voyages, Lo-gistics and Connexions. SNCF Logistics Division was formerly known as SNCF Geodis. Geodis, a supply chain Operator in Europe is now a part of SNCF Logistics. SNCF Logistics is No. 1 for lo-gistics and transport in France, and No. 4 in Europe. The company has 43000 employees that pro-vide expertise in 5 areas - Freight Forwarding, Supply Chain optimisation, Road Transport, Distribu-tion & express delivery and Contract Logistics.

Apart from Geodis the company has 3 other specialised experts STVA, TFMM and Ermewa. Ge-odis

is assigned the responsibility for Managing and Optimising Logistics Chain, STVA is the multimod-al logistics for finished, new and used vehicles. SNCF has 3 million vehicles transported every year with 3200 trucks and wagons contributing to STVA’s fleet. by 2020, they aim to expand interna-tional operations to 50% of SNCF logistics activity.TFMM helps SNCF with Rail and multimodal freight transport. The Ermewa Group is the source for Resource Management and Rail Equipment Rentals. Another service provided by SNCF is named Fret SNCF that offers a full logistics support package to complement its transport services. They provide rail, road and storage services for the freight shipment. Akiem offers customised, flexible and reliable solutions in leasing of electric an diesel locomotives, mainline and shunters with the average age of SNCF fleet being 5 years.

Revenue- $ 30,453.6m

3. FedEx

FedEx, founded as Federal Express in 1971, is an American company headquartered at Memphis, Tennessee.


Image: flickr.com/photos/curimedia/


It has a fleet of 325,000 employees working worldwide. They provide FedEx Services in-cluding FedEx Office and FedEx TechConnect, FedExpress service including FedEx trade networks and FedEx supply chain, FedEx ground services to deliver FedEx SmartPost and FedEx freight ser-vices to provide FedEx Custom Critical. FedEx started with Fedex Express in 1971, FedEx Ground in 1985, global headquarters Pittsburg, US, FedEx Services in 2000 and FedEx Freight in 2001. These both again headquartered at Memphis, Tennessee. FedEx provides various products and services like post delivery, express mail, freight forwarding and third party logistics.

FedEx plans to grow their business by forming new Alliances, covering more countries, through e-commerce & technology. FedEx in the long term in their mission statement wants to achieve bet-ter profits growing at a faster rate, improve cash flows, increase return on invested capital and returns to their shareholders. FedEx Corporation is listed on NYSE with Dow Jones Transportation, S&P 500 Component. The company in order to expand their business have undergone mergers and acquisitions including GENCO in 2015, Bongo International and Supaswift in 2014, Opek Sp.z o.o., TATEX, and Rapidão Cometa in 2012. As a part of their sustainability measures, FedEx has imple-mented EarthSmart to encourage environmental responsibility. For this, they have installed solar panel fields at certain hub facilities, reducing carbon radiations, built all-electric trucks for use and helped transfer the endangered sea turtles to better breeding grounds.

Revenue- $ 45,567m

2. UPS Supply Chain Solutions

UPS or United Parcel Services, is headquartered at Georgia.


Image: company website


It started in 1907 as American Mes-senger Company by James Casey. It provides wide array of services in delivering packages and in-dustry solutions with UPS Supply Chain Solutions. UPS also provides solutions for Transport and Freight, Contract Logistics, Customs Brokerage, Consulting services, and Industry Solutions. UPS gives Industry Solution for Aerospace and Defense, Automotive, Customer Services, Customer Ser-vices, Healthcare, High Tech, Industrial Manufacturing and Distribution, Professional Services and Retail. UPS is helping small startups and E-commerce companies in growing their business by tying up with them and taking care of their supply chain needs, which they believe is important for sus-tainability.

UPS is known for its smooth tracking and return process. The company grew with a number of mergers and acquisition in its recent years like Haulfast and Carryfast, Menlo Worldwide Forward-ing etc. In a recent acquisition in mid June, the company took over Parcel Pro, providing security while transferring high-valued products of their customers. The company got listed in 1999 on NYSE.

Revenue- $ 58,232m

1. DHL Logistics

DHL Express is a subsidiary of a German Logistics company called Deutsche Post DHL covering deliveries world wide.


Image: flickr.com/photos/atomictaco/


DHL Logistics provides complete logistics solutions including Freight trans-portation, Warehousing and Distribution, Customs, Security and Insurance, Supply Chain Solutions, Industry sector solutions. DHL has four major divisions - DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding, DHL Global Mail and DHL Supply Chain. The core industry sectors in which they operate include Life Sciences & Healthcare, Technology, Energy, Automotive and Engineering & Manufacturing. Their vision is to make DHL “The Logistics company for the world”.

The company has its operations distributed in 3 regions - Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe and has workforce over 325,000 employees. The headquarters for America is in Florida. Indian head-quarters is in Mumbai. The company provides different services like same day or time definite Ex-port, import and domestic support. DHL is also considered one of the most trusted services for sending urgent documents and goods reliably on-time door-door and for this has a very comprehen-sive express network including a fleet of 250 plus aircrafts. They are now investing in developing Green solutions and provide Green Express Shipment and Green mail and parcel shipments services as a part of this initiative. They also release a company magazine named ‘Delivered’ keeping cus-tomers up to date with the latest DHL developments and solutions. They have a DHL Innovation Centre at Bonn, that helps keep all their customers, investors, partners, employees connect and communicate to make DHL Experience the best in the World.

Revenue (2014)- $ 61,830.90m


Ranking Methodology:

The top 10 logistics companies have been ranked on the basis of their revenues.


This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

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