About Louis Amo
Louis Amo, President of Truck Brokerage at RXO, was referenced in a September 2024 interview with RXO CEO Drew Wilkerson on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." Wilkerson discussed the freight cycle, stating the company is in a "soft part" and expressed confidence in RXO's ability to perform in any market cycle. He noted that the for-hire truckload market is over $400 billion, and while RXO grew three times faster than the truck brokerage market from 2013 to 2021, it holds only 4% of the overall market, indicating room for growth.
Wilkerson also addressed customer inventory levels heading into peak season, describing mixed signals from customers about whether it will be a strong or muted peak season, with consumer demand as the biggest unknown. He mentioned that RXO, as the largest manager of ground expedite shipments, is affected by automotive plant activity. On technology, Wilkerson said AI is not new to RXO, having invested in it for over a decade to improve productivity and help customers with logistics decisions. He predicted driverless trucks would first appear on shorter hauls due to better road familiarity.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Louis Amo's recent appearances.
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Transcript (18 segments)
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Sarah0:01
November. It's been a busy time for the freight train as they look ahead to the holiday shipping season and the implications of AI. Joining us is RXO CEO Drew Wilkerson. Welcome back and good to see you.
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Drew Wilkerson0:13
Thank you for having me, Sarah. Great to be here.
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Sarah0:16
Where are we in the freight cycle right now?
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Drew Wilkerson0:22
We're in a soft part of the freight cycle. A lot of people would not want to spin off in a soft part of the freight cycle. We're getting to show not only can we perform in an upturn but in a downturn. Despite the growth.
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Sarah0:41
How much room is there to grow market share?
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Drew Wilkerson0:44
We've got an enormous market. This is over a $400 billion for-hire truckload market. And while from 2013 to 2021, we grew three times faster than the truck brokerage market, we only have 4% of the overall truck brokerage market. So we have a lot of room for growth over the next several years.
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Sarah1:03
What do you think, restocking or at least peak season looks like in the next couple of months here?
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Drew Wilkerson1:07
Our customers are telling us that their inventory levels are in a good position heading into peak season. But we're hearing different things from different customers. Some customers are telling us that they're going to have a peak season, some customers are telling us it's going to be a muted peak season. The biggest unknown is what's going to happen with consumer demand. And we'll really find that out over the next few weeks how strong of a peak season or a muted peak season we have.
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Sarah1:32
Is the auto strike affecting you?
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Drew Wilkerson1:34
We're the largest manager of ground expedite shipments, and ground expedite shipments are built largely off of automotive customers. Anytime the plants are going up or down, it can have an impact on the business one way or another.
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Sarah1:47
But clearly a temporary issue. You describe yourselves as a tech-enabled freight broker. So in this world, where everything is moving toward AI, how are you thinking about how much of a game changer that could be on logistics and shipping?
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Drew Wilkerson2:00
AI is nothing new to us. We've been investing in AI for over a decade. It's how we built the system. It allows us to increase our employees' productivity. On the customer side, our systems will tell them what day of the week they should ship something. We've helped some of our customers decide where they're going to place warehouses to best route their transportation.
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Sarah2:29
In recent years, we've talked about driverless and the future and the promise of long-haul driverless trucking. Now you've got this GM Cruise thing in California. Has that done some damage to the long-term aspirations?
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Drew Wilkerson2:44
I've been hearing about this for as long as I've been hearing about this. The first place you'll see it is probably on shorter haul, where they can route it easier.
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Sarah2:56
Why short as opposed to long?
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Drew Wilkerson2:57
Because they're going to know the roads better and be able to route it there. If you think long hauls, there's a lot of back roads and unknowns as they go there.
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Sarah3:08
Do you expect to see a recession?
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Drew Wilkerson3:10
For us, we have to be prepared for anything. This is, as I said earlier, we're confident in our ability to perform in any market cycle and be able to go out.
