2023 In the Rearview Mirror

Every year is vastly different in the world of brokerage and transportation. Anyone close to the industry knows 2023 was challenging for many reasons. Market conditions were advantageous for so long that many convinced themselves the good times would last forever, which is never the case.?

This industry is driven by supply and demand. Durable goods spending increased during the pandemic, driving rates up due to a lack of supply and the sector benefited. As rates stayed elevated for an extended period, massive new supply entered the market. Then, as demand normalized and supply remained high, it triggered the correction we all felt in 2023 and into 2024.

I am a big believer that the industry Arrive competes in is so large and fragmented that the best companies can grow and take market share no matter the freight market conditions. In previous freight cycles, Arrive never went down year-over-year in loads, revenue or margin. 2023 was different. We grew our volume and market share, but the headwinds of over 30% decline in revenue and margin per load were too great to offset when shipping over a million truckloads a year as Arrive does today.

I will also be the first to admit we moved too slowly to undo company-wide changes implemented during the pandemic.? We made changes to support our exponential growth from 2020-2022. A significant percentage of our employees have been hired since 2020, and many started in a remote environment.? Their hiring, training, mentoring, engagement, internal networking and relationship building, technology, compensation, communication, and operational support - just about everything - was completely different during this 36-month period.? Those decisions were made with the best intentions for our team, customers, and carriers; but as time passed and the landscape returned to normal, we experienced unintended consequences.

It became clear that we were overdue to reset and get back to our roots. In our first six years of business Arrive grew from $0 to $800M showcasing we are capable of being the top organic growth organization in the brokerage industry. We built the best sales engine, created an unbelievable culture of teamwork, work ethic, service and focused on keeping things simple. After all, it’s a freight brokerage, why make it complicated? The organization and all of our team members faced a massive market headwind coupled with a lot of changes to get back to the state of simplicity.

I refuse to let myself or our team ever get complacent. We can always be better. That is the mindset shared across leadership and although I touched on our path forward, there are things I am very proud our team accomplished in 2023 and want to share despite the challenges.

• Carrier Service Awards: We won 15 carrier service awards in 2023 — an unbelievable accomplishment in any market, but especially during the last 12 months when every shipper had service under the microscope. It is a testament to our ability to unite the team around a shared goal of delivering best-in-class service, which is essential to Arrive’s long-term success.
• Technology: There were major changes in our tech department, ultimately leading us to build new systems and processes capable of delivering value to the entire company and our partners. All the table stakes are done and our foundation has been set. 2024 is going to be a massive year to build on top of that foundation with amazing features that continue to drive value for our employees and partners further accelerating Arrive’s growth and value prop.
• Hiring, Training, Engaging: We did a major internal process review and made key changes to how we recruit, train and engage new team members. We returned to our tried and true methods and saw early attrition (first six months) drop by over 50% in our 2023 RevGen cohort.
• Team: This group has been loyal and relentlessly committed to Arrive's success amid significant change in the last few years. They are hungry to win. They want consistency and to know where we are going. We are laser-focused on giving them that this year and beyond.??

I am proud of our 2023 accomplishments and excited about what is possible in 2024. It will be a year of heads-down execution across the business as we continue strengthening the winning environment that makes Arrive special. Our primary goal is to eliminate anything that is not working to create space for more of what matters: More customers. More carriers. More loads. More locations. More team members and ultimately more opportunities for everyone to thrive.?

And we will not just be doing more, we will be doing it better: Better procurement and pricing. Better service. Better execution. Better tech. Better customer experience. Better training and mentoring. The list goes on, but you get the point.

Implementing changes at a business of our scale does not happen overnight —which is why last year’s commitment to getting back to basics was essential. Today we are laser focused on following through and completing what we set out to do. Delivering a best-in-class experience for our shippers and carriers means every Arrive team member must be customer-obsessed and relentlessly pursue perfection every day. I believe in our strategy and know this team has what it takes to execute as we work to achieve our multi-year goals.

From our team to yours, here’s to a successful year ahead!