Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. (EXPD) Business Profile

What it does

Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. is a global third-party logistics provider founded in 1979 and headquartered in Seattle. Daniel R. Wall is President and Chief Executive Officer.

It helps customers move and position goods internationally without owning aircraft or ships. Rather than operating transportation assets, it combines carrier capacity with freight forwarding, customs work and supply-chain services. Its customers can use the company for airfreight and ocean freight, customs clearance, warehouse and distribution work, order management, ground transportation, cargo insurance, temperature-controlled transit, monitoring and tracking, and logistics consulting.

In airfreight, Expeditors can combine multiple customers’ shipments, choose a route and airline, and arrange delivery at destination. In ocean freight, it handles full-container and less-than-container-load shipments, direct forwarding, and cargo consolidation at origin. Its Project Cargo unit manages shipments requiring specialized attention because of their size or nature, using air, ocean, ground transportation, or a combination.

Customs brokerage includes preparing and filing import documentation, calculating duties and taxes, arranging inspections, and coordinating destination pick-up, storage and delivery. Warehousing offerings include inventory management, order fulfillment and vendor-managed inventory. The company does not compete for overnight courier or small-parcel business.

How it makes money

Expeditors earns revenue principally from airfreight services, ocean freight and ocean services, and customs brokerage and other services. A typical customer agreement has one performance obligation: freight is shipped and received. That work can include origin pickup, transport, customs clearance and final delivery, and the company generally recognizes revenue as it renders those services over time.

For much of its air and ocean business, Expeditors buys transportation capacity in volume from asset-based airlines and ocean carriers, then resells space to customers. The customer rate is recorded as revenue and the carrier rate is a directly related transportation cost. Consolidating freight from several customers can give the company purchasing scale with carriers and enables it to charge for the transport arrangement and ancillary work such as documentation, pickup, packing, crating and insurance.

It also earns handling fees when a customer contracts directly with an ocean carrier and uses Expeditors as its agent. Customs brokerage pricing reflects the complexity and scope of the work and the number of declarations filed. Warehousing, distribution, ground transport, consulting and order-management services add fees beyond the core freight transaction; consulting fees are based on hourly rates and project bids.

In 2025, airfreight represented approximately 36% of revenue, ocean freight and ocean services approximately 25%, and customs brokerage and other services approximately 39%. Gross revenue and directly related transportation expense are mainly driven by shipment volume, customer sell rates and carrier buy rates. Revenue increased 4% in 2025, as increased customs brokerage and other-services and airfreight revenue were partly offset by lower ocean revenue.

Customers and how it sells

Expeditors serves a diversified group of customers that vary by size, industry and location. Its target buyers are logistics and supply-chain professionals within customer organizations, while dedicated account-management staff work with existing customers on operations and new business opportunities. No single customer accounts for five percent or more of revenue.

The goods it handles reflect trade flows between particular origins and destinations. The company cites technology; cloud and data-center services; hyperscalers; semiconductors; personal computers and compute hardware; healthcare; automotive; aviation; aerospace; retail; and high fashion among the industries represented. Industry vertical teams work with regional and district resources to tailor services for those sectors.

The company operates in over 60 countries through five areas of responsibility: the Americas, North Asia, South Asia, Europe, and Middle East, Africa and India. It has 172 district offices: 70 in the Americas, 17 in North Asia, 16 in South Asia, 45 in Europe, and 24 in Middle East, Africa and India. It also uses branch offices and 35 relationships with independent agents where it does not have its own offices. North Asia was its largest export-oriented region and accounted for 25% of 2025 revenue. Expeditors had 19,800 employees in FY2025.

Suppliers and costs

Expeditors depends on airlines, ocean shipping lines, ground transportation providers, independent agents and governmental agencies to deliver its services. It does not own or operate transportation assets, so it buys cargo capacity and transport services from direct carriers. There is no sole supplier identified.

Directly related transportation and other expenses include the rates paid to carriers for customer freight. Air and ocean pricing is negotiated through annual and ongoing contracts with carrier partners. The company uses both fixed pricing for part of forecast commitments and spot-market pricing, generally negotiated regionally and locally. Carrier capacity, sailing changes, seasonal demand and disruptions can change both buy rates and customer sell rates.

Other operating requirements include personnel, offices and warehouses, technology, compliance programs, and lease commitments. The company had fixed lease-payment obligations of $733 million at December 31, 2025, including $139 million payable within 12 months. It also had $192 million of purchase obligations, principally for guaranteed carrier space, equipment, facilities, software and technology-related projects.

Competitive position

The global logistics-services industry is intensely competitive. Expeditors competes with niche providers, regional and local firms, larger multinational logistics businesses, some air and ocean carriers expanding into onshore services, and technology-based entrants seeking to compete globally. No individual competing company is named. Competition centers on price and service quality, including reliability, responsiveness, expertise, convenience and operational scope. Larger customers commonly use multiple logistics providers.

Expeditors supports customers with digital tools for quoting, booking, freight tracing and tracking, reporting, analytics and solution modeling. Its order-management and customs-brokerage products can be connected through EDI, APIs, web applications and mobile applications. The company runs transportation, customs brokerage and accounting systems on a common hardware platform across its districts, while small and middle-tier competitors generally lack resources to develop and integrate comparable customized systems.

Our reading: Its global office network, common operating platform and ability to combine transport, customs and destination services are a meaningful moat because customers can require coordinated cross-border execution and data visibility across multiple locations.

Our reading: This moat is limited by customers’ use of multiple providers, carrier entry into related services, aggressive competition on price and the presence of larger competitors with greater resources.

Growth opportunities

Expeditors’ strategy is long-term, sustainable and profitable growth through selected markets, targeted customers and broader marketing of its services. It generally favors organic expansion over acquisitions and plans to open offices when that supports global customers or local markets. When it has acquired businesses, the stated purpose has generally been technology or specialized industry expertise that can be used across the network.

Its stated initiatives include building baseline air, ocean and customs strategies for districts and regions; expanding services into and out of Europe, with emphasis on defined markets; and growing customs brokerage across Asia through talent, processes and tools. The company also seeks to expand work with existing customers through account management and tailored solutions across transportation, customs clearance, warehousing, distribution and order management.

Technology is another area of investment. The company is upgrading core operating and accounting systems and is investing in artificial-intelligence solutions, particularly for customs brokerage and compliance because of their complexity. It expects productivity benefits and aims to increase customer value and operational effectiveness, while stating that it does not anticipate changing customer-facing functions with AI solutions.

During 2025, demand for customs brokerage increased as trade conditions made declarations more complex. Airfreight, road freight, and warehousing and distribution also benefited from demand from technology customers investing in AI infrastructure.

Structural risks

• International trade exposure: The company primarily serves customers engaged in international commerce, so tariffs, quotas, trade barriers, foreign-exchange changes, wars, strikes, civil unrest, terrorism and changes in consumer attitudes can expand or contract its markets.

• Tariff and regulatory uncertainty: Changes in governmental policies, customs, trade and security regulations can alter trade flows and make declarations more complex. The company cannot predict how tariff and trade-restriction changes will affect its business.

• Carrier reliance and pricing volatility: Service delivery depends on airlines, ocean carriers and ground providers. Changes in their financial stability, capacity, allotments, schedules and pricing can affect operations and profitability.

• Competitive pressure: The industry includes large, niche, regional, local and technology-based competitors. Price and service quality remain principal competitive factors, and some competitors have more resources.

• Personnel dependence: The business is service based and depends on hiring, developing and retaining knowledgeable personnel, including district management responsible for local sales, operations and service execution.

• Compliance and legal exposure: The company operates in a complex regulatory environment. Failure to comply or adapt can result in penalties or other business impacts, while investigations and litigation can consume management time and create legal costs, fines, penalties or damages.

Bottom line

Our reading

Our reading: Expeditors is an asset-light international logistics intermediary whose core role is to purchase carrier capacity, coordinate shipments and provide customs and destination services rather than operate aircraft or ships.

Our reading: Its operating model depends on global coordination, carrier relationships and specialized customs expertise, while revenue and margins remain exposed to freight demand, carrier capacity and changing trade rules. Its network, common technology platform and diversified customer base support the model, but customers’ use of multiple providers and intense price-and-service competition constrain differentiation.