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Who’s Growing Fastest in Freight Brokerage?
We dug through this year’s Inc. 5000 to see which freight brokerages actually grew through the freight recession. We break down the standouts in the feature below.
FreightCaviar · September 14, 2026 · 5 min read
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Happy Monday. We dug through this year’s Inc. 5000 to see which freight brokerages actually grew through the freight recession. We break down the standouts in the feature below.
Plus:
Port of L.A. Sets Record
Uber Freight Warns of Q4 Squeeze
PE Firms Acquire Navajo Expedited
and more…
💡 QUESTION OF THE DAY:
Logistics companies on the 2026 Inc. 5000 posted a median 3-year growth rate of 114%. What's driving your company's growth right now? Comment below.
🍳 WHAT’S COOKIN’ IN FREIGHT
⚓ Port of L.A. Sets Record. The Port of Los Angeles recorded its busiest three-month stretch ever, moving more than 2.9 million TEUs from June through August despite tariffs and global supply-chain disruptions. August volume topped 955,000 TEUs, while loaded imports ran nearly 7% above the five-year average. Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen pointed to the record as a potential “narrative violation,” amid expectations that tariffs would weigh heavily on imports. Port officials expect September to remain strong before national import volumes ease later this year.
🚛 Uber Freight Warns of Q4 Squeeze. Uber Freight is warning shippers that tightening truck capacity could drive another surge in freight rates this fall. In its Q3 market outlook, Uber's logistics arm said dry-van contract rates reached $2.39 per mile in July, up 18% from a year earlier, while tender acceptance remains well below recent norms. The company says driver attrition, diesel volatility and tight cross-border capacity are limiting supply. Uber Freight is urging customers to secure capacity and strengthen routing guides before the traditional late-October peak.
💰 PE Firms Acquire Navajo Expedited. Private-equity firms Centre Partners and Altivare Capital Partners acquired Navajo Expedited, an eight-year-old truckload brokerage previously owned by carrier Navajo Express. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Navajo generated $62 million in revenue in 2020 and said it was on pace to top $120 million in 2021, though more recent figures aren’t public. Its new owners plan to invest in carrier vetting, pricing automation, and additional acquisitions, positioning Navajo as a platform for further consolidation in the freight brokerage industry.
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The Fastest Growing Freight Brokerages
Inc. released its 2026 ranking on Aug. 11. It placed 167 companies in its broad “Logistics & Transportation” category, representing $23.1 billion in combined revenue, more than 115,000 employees, and a median three-year growth rate of 114%.
The category is broad enough to include freight brokers, movers, school-bus operators, fulfillment companies, and limo services. So we narrowed it to the freight brokerages and brokerage-led 3PLs most relevant to FreightCaviar readers.
One thing to keep in mind: the Inc. 5000 ranks companies by percentage growth in gross revenue from 2022 through 2025. It does not rank them by profit, EBITDA, or absolute size. That makes the headline percentages useful, but not always comparable.
Among the brokerages we identified, Vektor Logistics ranked highest at No. 59 overall, with 4,577% growth. Roadana followed at No. 173 with 1,921%.
Then there’s one we know well.
Freight Flex ranked No. 204 after growing revenue 1,642% over three years, putting the Denton, Texas-based brokerage in Inc.’s $50 million-to-$100 million revenue bracket. Freight Flex is a FreightCaviar media partner.
We visited its Texas office in April and sat down with Founder and CEO Reed Rivers. During that interview, Rivers brought up Freight Flex’s previous Inc. 5000 appearance and made a prediction:
“We’re going to hit it again this year.”
They did.
Other familiar names include Zeal Logistics at 983% growth, LandCal Logistics at 629% growth, BlackBox Logistics at 201% growth, Southern Reins Logistics at 186% growth, FreightVana at 121% growth, TransLoop at 108% growth, and Motus Freight at 90% growth.
This year, we also sat down with Will Hopkins, co-founder of Birmingham, Ala.-based BlackBox Logistics.
The biggest percentages, though, aren’t necessarily the most impressive.
Axle Logistics grew 55%, while Armstrong Transport Group grew 39%. Both sit in Inc.’s $1 billion-to-$2.5 billion revenue range. Growing 1,000% from a small base and adding substantial revenue to an already billion-dollar brokerage are very different achievements.
What the Inc. 5000 does show is that even in a weak freight cycle, some brokerages and 3PLs kept adding customers, lanes, agents, or market share while others were cutting back.
It is not a scoreboard of who is biggest, but a snapshot of who managed to keep growing when the market gave them very little help, and which companies are worth keeping an eye on.
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🌎 AROUND THE FREIGHT WEB
⛽ Diesel Hits Record $6.05 Per Gallon. The national average reached $6.05 on Friday, per AAA, roughly 60% above its level before the war with Iran began in late February.
💰 Motive Raises $1.3 Billion, Drops IPO. Motive pulled its S-1 and took more than $1.3 billion from General Catalyst instead, with ARR now past $600 million and growth accelerating to 30% year-over-year.
👻 Falsified ELD Records Draw Federal Scrutiny. False records of duty status were the second-most-cited driver violation in 2025 at more than 58,000 instances, and FMCSA has delisted 95 noncompliant ELD devices since January 2025.
💵 Anderson Trucking Raises Van Pay 16.7%. ATS increased regional company van drivers' rate from $0.60 to $0.70 per mile, effective September 7, covering both loaded and empty miles.
📋 FMCSA Pauses USDOT Number Deactivations. Carriers whose biennial updates came due on or after June 1 will not face inactivation while the agency works through MOTUS rollout problems.
🥬 DEA Pulls Meth From Cabbage Load. Agents seized more than 2,000 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in a cabbage shipment in the Rio Grande Valley, the third produce-concealment bust at that crossing since July.
🎣 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR CORNER
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😂 FREIGHT HUMOR
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🎧 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR PODCAST
Andrew Leto, Founder at GlobalTranz, Emerge, and now Felix AI, joined Reed Loustalot on the FreightCaviar Podcast to discuss how AI agents could help carriers find more loads, why margins could fall from 12–13% to 8–9%, and why Andrew believes carrier-side technology and carrier data could become the biggest opportunity in trucking.
Watch it on YouTube, or listen to the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
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