Chief Executive Officer & Director, XPO INC
XPO CEO: U.S. economy ‘seeing signs of improvement’
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XPO CEO Mario Harik joins Yahoo Finance Live to break down fourth-quarter earnings, consumer demand, buying patterns and trends, revenue growth, and the outlook for XPO.
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About Mario Harik
Mario Harik, chairman and CEO of XPO, delivered the 44th annual William A. Patterson Distinguished Transportation Lecture at Northwestern University on May 13, 2026. During the fireside chat, Harik discussed the company's use of artificial intelligence to improve service quality, describing a pilot program in which AI analyzes photos of loaded trailers to verify proper use of straps, safe stack bars, and airbags. He noted that the system can prevent a trailer from being marked as ready for dispatch if it does not meet standards. Harik also addressed industry challenges, including a three-year freight recession and a shortage of truck drivers, and said that XPO operates driver training schools at 130 terminals to address the labor gap. In a separate interview published in April 2026, Harik described his background as a software engineer and his approach to management, emphasizing data-driven decision-making and the importance of building cohesive teams. He stated that a CEO's primary goals are defining strategy and creating shareholder value, and he highlighted capital allocation and team composition as critical factors for success. Harik said that success for him involves helping others realize their full potential while also achieving personal emotional fulfillment.
Transcript (10 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Interviewer0:04
Earnings at XPO provided an upbeat outlook for the current state of the industrial economy, with shipping volumes up about one and a half percent and revenue up 33 percent year over year. There was some concern over pricing. XPO CEO Mario Harik joins us now for his outlook on 2023. Mario, it's good to see you. First of all, for folks who are not familiar, XPO concentrates on less-than-truckload logistics, in other words, kind of putting different loads together to make a full truckload. So just give us a big picture view first of all on what you're seeing in terms of demand and what it tells us about the economy and what's going on around the country.
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Mario Harik0:41
Thank you, Judy. Thanks so much for having me on. So when we look at the fourth quarter, we actually grew tonnage or volume in what was a soft economy. However, that was not the case for the industry as a whole. The industry has seen a slowdown in tonnage in the fourth quarter. However, looking here at the month of January that just passed, we are seeing strength in terms of demand. It's still softer than what it was last year, however it strengthened from what we saw in the back half of the fourth quarter. As we had at the beginning of the year, now if you take a step back for 2023, I'm cautiously optimistic. I will see what the freight markets do as we go along through the course of the year, but we are seeing signs of improvement from both retail and industry customers.
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Interviewer1:26
Within those customers, what are some of the profiles of those customers that you're seeing added on for those net new customers and additions to the network?
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Mario Harik1:36
Yeah, so when we look at our customers today, two-thirds of the customers are industrial customers and then the balance is our retail slash consumer type customers. In terms of the customers we are onboarding, we are onboarding an equal amount of customers in the existing mix that we have. Now, the feedback within these verticals, what we are hearing starting with the retail side: we had seen a sequential decline of freight demands for retailers in the fourth quarter as they were working through their inventories that were built up over time. Now looking at 2023, the feedback that we get from retailers is that they are going to get back to more normal seasonal buying patterns through the course of the year. For industrial companies, it's mixed. For auto companies, they had pent-up demands last year and the supply chain is easing, so they're seeing more strength. Same thing with short cycle manufacturing that is outlining robust 2023, as well as machinery customers are seeing more strength than the other parts of the industrial economy.
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Interviewer2:31
Mario, March is a very important month for your business. What are you hearing from clients in terms of demand as you look out to that month?
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Mario Harik2:39
Again, it's been mixed. What we are hearing from retailers is better than what they saw in the fourth quarter, but it does vary by retailer and how much progress they have made through working through their inventories. On the industrial side, again for auto customers we're seeing quite a bit of strength, same thing with short cycle manufacturing we're seeing quite a bit of strength. Now for us specifically though, we're excited about winning more business in the fourth quarter. We onboarded a record amount of new business and we are seeing that in our numbers in terms of profitable tonnage that we onboarded in the fourth quarter and the third quarter. That is being a tailwind for us in volumes in the first quarter as well.
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Interviewer3:16
Mario, we've been talking all about the US, of course, us being a little US centric. But let's talk about Europe too, because that's a big segment of your business, a little less than half. What are you seeing over there, considering that economic growth there has even more concerns around that than there is here?
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Mario Harik3:33
So in the fourth quarter for us in Europe, we grew revenue on a constant currency basis by nine percent and we grew our adjusted EBITDA by 10 on a constant currency basis. Now with this mix, we are seeing organic growth. We are seeing strength in pricing as well. Specifically, the UK and Spain are seeing strength from that perspective, but France is seeing a bit more softness here early in the year.
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Interviewer3:58
Mario, great to see you. Thanks for being here. Mario Harik, CEO of XPO. Thank you.
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Mario Harik4:03
Thanks so much for having me.