Why Echo’s ITS Deal Changes the 3PL Playbook

Echo Global Logistics did not acquire ITS Logistics to chase short-term freight cycles or simply add revenue. The transaction materially changes how Echo participates in freight execution.

For most of its history, Echo Global Logistics has operated as a technology-enabled freight broker. Pricing, capacity sourcing, shipment management, and exception handling ran through proprietary software layered on top of third-party carriers, consistent with the company’s long-standing asset-light model. The approach scaled efficiently and supported more than two dozen acquisitions over two decades. It also left Echo dependent on partners for the most operationally complex parts of freight, including trailer pools, drayage, and dedicated capacity.

The acquisition of ITS Logistics changes that structure. With the deal, Echo gains direct exposure to physical execution systems that generate first-party operational data that is difficult to replicate through brokerage alone, as outlined in the transaction announcement. In a freight market where volatility has highlighted the limits of purely asset-light models, that distinction is significant.

Why Execution Beats Orchestration

Before the acquisition, Echo offered drop trailer and drayage services, but those capabilities were delivered through carrier networks and managed partner programs rather than owned infrastructure. Echo controlled access, pricing, and visibility, but it did not operate large proprietary trailer pools or port drayage networks. That approach is typical of large brokers built on low-capital, non-asset models.

ITS operates differently. Founded in 1999 as an asset-based provider, the company built its business around services that require direct operational control. Its DropFleet program supports drop trailer and trailer pool operations across dedicated lanes. ITS also operates intermodal and drayage services across major U.S. ports and rail ramps, alongside dedicated fleet services and a national warehousing footprint.

Those operations generate continuous execution data, including trailer dwell time, yard velocity, detention patterns, lane reliability, and port congestion dynamics. Echo historically accessed portions of this information indirectly through carrier relationships and shipment events. Ownership and operation of execution assets, however, produces first-party data at a different level of granularity and frequency.

That reframes Echo’s long-standing investment in automation, machine learning, and AI. Public disclosures show Echo using algorithmic systems for pricing, carrier selection, automated negotiation, and fraud prevention. These tools optimize decisions around execution. They do not control execution itself.

By acquiring ITS, Echo brings execution under direct operational control. That creates the potential for operational outcomes to inform pricing, planning, and exception management in ways that are difficult to achieve in a purely brokered environment. Echo has not disclosed timelines for platform integration or whether ITS operational data will be directly incorporated into its existing models.

The High Cost of Catching Up

The strategic impact of the deal becomes clearer when viewed against the broader brokerage landscape.

Several large brokers and digital freight platforms were built explicitly as asset-light businesses. RXO describes itself as a pure-play, asset-light freight brokerage following its 2022 spinout from XPO, emphasizing technology and carrier relationships rather than owned equipment. Convoy was founded as a digital freight network designed to match shippers and carriers without owning assets, a model outlined in multiple FreightWaves profiles of the company’s operating strategy. Uber Freight similarly launched as an asset-light extension of Uber’s marketplace model, prioritizing software, pricing algorithms, and network density over physical execution.

In recent years, some of these platforms have expanded into dedicated and power-only services. Uber Freight’s Powerloop offering provides trailer pools and drop-and-hook capacity, but the company positions it as a managed service layered on top of its carrier network rather than as a nationwide owned fleet. These additions broaden service offerings, but they do not resemble legacy, asset-heavy execution networks built over decades.

C.H. Robinson occupies a middle ground. The company has long emphasized its non-asset-based operating model in public filings, while offering drayage and drop-trailer services through managed programs and contracted carrier capacity. Robinson has also invested in trailer-pool visibility and management technology, including digital tools for tracking pooled equipment, rather than acquiring large asset-anchored execution platforms.

The contrast case is J.B. Hunt, which already operates large-scale execution assets. J.B. Hunt runs one of North America’s largest dedicated contract services fleets and one of the largest intermodal container networks, with thousands of company-owned containers and long-term rail partnerships. The company’s drayage and intermodal operations generate execution data directly through owned and controlled assets. Echo did not have that level of execution ownership at scale prior to the ITS acquisition.

Building execution infrastructure organically is slow and capital-intensive. Trailer pools require owned or long-term-leased equipment, yard space, maintenance operations, and local staffing. Drayage requires port access, regulatory compliance, and density in specific geographies. Dedicated fleets depend on multi-year customer commitments and operational discipline. Industry reporting consistently frames these capabilities as infrastructure investments rather than software deployments.

That is why the Echo-ITS transaction matters beyond deal size. Acquiring an established execution platform compresses years of operational build-out into a single transaction and raises the competitive bar for brokers that remain purely asset-light. Firms that lack execution ownership can continue to optimize brokerage margins, or they can pursue acquisitions that add physical operations. What they cannot easily do is replicate the first-party data produced by owned execution through partnerships alone.

ITS will continue operating with its existing leadership and customer-facing structure following the acquisition, according to the transaction announcement.