C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (“C.H. Robinson,” “the company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is one of the largest third party logistics companies in the world with 2009 consolidated total revenues of $7.6 billion. We provide freight transportation services and logistics solutions to companies of all sizes, in a wide variety of industries. During 2009 we handled approximately 7.5 million shipments for more than 35,000 customers. We operate through a network of 235 offices, which we call branches, in North America, Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, and the Middle East. We have developed global multimodal transportation and distribution networks to provide logistics services worldwide. As a result, we have the capability of facilitating most aspects of the supply chain on behalf of our customers.
We do not own the transportation equipment that is used to transport our customers’ freight. Through our contractual relationships with approximately 47,000 transportation companies, including motor carriers, railroads (primarily intermodal service providers), air freight and ocean carriers, we select and hire the appropriate transportation to meet our customers’ freight needs. Because we rely on subcontractors to transport freight, we can be flexible and focus on seeking solutions that work for our customers, rather than focusing on asset utilization. As an integral part of our transportation services, we provide a wide range of value-added logistics services, such as supply chain analysis, freight consolidation, core carrier program management, and information reporting.
In addition to multimodal transportation services, we have two other services: fresh produce sourcing and fee-based information services.
Our Sourcing business is the buying, selling, and marketing of fresh produce. It was our original business when we were founded in 1905. Much of our logistics expertise can be traced to our significant experience in handling produce and perishable commodities. We purchase fresh produce through our network of independent produce suppliers. Our customers include regional and national grocery retailers and restaurants, produce wholesalers, and foodservice distributors. In many cases, we also arrange the transport of the fresh produce we sell through our contractual relationships with owners of specialized transportation equipment. We have developed our own brands of produce including The Fresh 1® and OurWorld® Organics, and we also have entered into licensing agreements to distribute produce under other national brand names. The produce for these brands is sourced through a preferred grower network and packed to order through contract packing agreements. We have instituted quality assurance and monitoring procedures as part of our Sourcing business.
Information Services is comprised of a C.H. Robinson subsidiary, T-Chek Systems, Inc., (T-Chek). T-Chek is a business-to-business provider of spend management and payment processing services. T-Chek’s customers are primarily motor carriers and truck stop chains. T-Chek’s platform supports open and closed loop networks that facilitate a variety of funds transfer, vendor payments, fuel purchasing, and online expense management.
Our business model has been the main driver of our historical results and has positioned us for continued growth. One of our competitive advantages is our branch network of 235 offices, staffed by approximately 5,800 salespeople. These branch employees are in close proximity to both customers and transportation providers, which gives them broad knowledge of their local markets and enables them to respond quickly to customers’ and transportation providers’ changing needs. Branch employees act as a team in their sales efforts, customer service, and operations. Approximately 32 percent of our truckload shipments are shared transactions between branches. Our branches work together to complete transactions and collectively meet the needs of our customers. For large multi-location customers, we often coordinate our efforts in one branch and rely on multiple branch locations to deliver specific geographic or modal needs. Our methodology of providing services is very similar across all branches. Our North American branches have a common technology platform that they use to match customer needs with supplier capabilities, to collaborate with other branch locations, and to utilize centralized support resources to complete all facets of the transaction. A significant portion of our branch employees’ compensation is performance-oriented, based on the profitability of their branch and their contributions to the success of the branch. We believe this makes our sales employees more service-oriented, focused, and creative.
We are a service company. We act primarily to add value and expertise in the procurement and execution of transportation and logistics, including sourcing of produce products for our customers. Our total revenues represent the total dollar value of services and goods we sell to our customers. Our net revenues are our total revenues less purchased transportation and related services, including contracted motor carrier, rail, ocean, air, and other costs, and the purchase price and services related to the products we source. Our net revenues are the primary indicator of our ability to source, add value, and sell services and products that are provided by third parties, and we consider them to be our primary performance measurement. Accordingly, the discussion of our results of operations focuses on the changes in our net revenues.
Historically, we have grown primarily through internal growth, by expanding current offices, opening new branch offices, and hiring additional salespeople. We have augmented our growth through selective acquisitions. On June 12, 2009, we acquired the operating subsidiaries of Walker Logistics Overseas, Ltd. (“Walker”). Walker was a leading international freight forwarder headquartered in London, England. Walker was a global, fully integrated import and export door-to-door provider specializing in air freight, ocean freight warehousing, courier, and logistics solutions. Its customers were primarily in electronics, telecommunications, medical, sporting goods, and military industries. The majority of their revenues were from air and ocean freight.
On July 7, 2009, we acquired certain assets of International Trade & Commerce, Inc. (“ITC”). ITC was a United States customs brokerage company specializing in warehousing, distribution, and cross-border services between the United States and Mexico. ITC was headquartered in Laredo, Texas, and had approximately 40 employees and staff. ITC provided a broad range of services facilitating customers’ international customs brokerage needs across all modes of transportation. ITC strengthened our ability to provide customers a seamless cross-border service package across the United States and Mexico border.
On September 14, 2009, we acquired certain assets of Rosemont Farms Corporation, Inc., a produce marketing company, and an affiliated company Quality Logistics, LLC (together referred to as “Rosemont”), a transportation provider that focused on produce transportation. Rosemont was headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, and had approximately 100 employees. Rosemont offered produce and logistics solutions to retail and foodservice customers.
Multimodal Transportation and Logistics Services
C.H. Robinson provides freight transportation and related logistics and supply-chain services. Our services range from commitments on a specific shipment to much more comprehensive and integrated relationships. We execute these service commitments by hiring and training people, developing proprietary systems and technology processes, and utilizing our network of subcontracted transportation providers, including contract motor carriers, railroads, air freight carriers, and ocean carriers. We make a profit on the difference between what we charge to our customers for the totality of services provided to them and what we pay to the transportation provider to handle or transport the freight. While industry definitions vary, given our extensive subcontracting to create a flexible network of solutions, we are generally referred to in the industry as a third-party logistics company.
We provide all of the following transportation and logistics services:
•Truckload — Through our contracts with motor carriers, we have access to dry vans, temperature controlled vans, and flatbeds. We also offer time-definite and expedited truck transportation. In many instances, we will consolidate partial shipments for several customers into full truckloads.
•Less Than Truckload (“LTL”) — LTL transportation involves the shipment of small packages and single or multiple pallets of freight, up to and including full trailer load freight. We focus on shipments of a single pallet or larger, although we handle any size shipment. Through our contracts with motor carriers and our operating system, we consolidate freight and freight information to provide our customers with a single source of information on their freight.
•Intermodal — Our intermodal transportation service is the shipment of freight in trailers or containers, by a combination of truck and rail. We have intermodal marketing agreements with container owners, stacktrain operators, and all Class 1 railroads in North America, and we arrange local pickup and delivery (known as drayage) through local contracted motor carriers.
•Ocean — We consolidate shipments, determine routing, select ocean carriers, contract for ocean shipments, provide for local pickup and delivery of shipments, and arrange for customs clearance of shipments, including the payment of duties.
•Air — We provide door-to-door service as a full-service international and domestic air freight forwarder.
•Other Logistics Services — We provide fee-based transportation management services, customs brokerage, warehousing services, and other services.
Customers communicate their freight needs, typically on a shipment-by-shipment basis, to the branch salesperson responsible for their account. Customers communicate with us by means of telephone, fax, internet, email, or Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). The branch employee ensures that all appropriate information about each shipment is entered into our proprietary operating system. With the help of information provided by the operating system, the salesperson then selects a contracted carrier or carriers, based upon his or her knowledge of the carrier’s service capability, equipment availability, freight rates, and other relevant factors. Based on the information he or she has about the market and rates, the salesperson may either determine an appropriate price at that point or wait to communicate with a contracted carrier directly before setting a price. In many cases, employees from different branch offices collaborate to hire the appropriate contracted carrier for our customer’s freight, and the branch offices agree to an internal profit split.
Once the contracted carrier is selected, the salesperson communicates with the contract carrier to agree on the price for the transportation and the contract carrier’s commitment to provide the transportation. We are in contact with the contract carrier through numerous means of communication (including EDI, our proprietary website CHRWTrucks® (www.chrwtrucks.com), email, fax, and telephone) to meet our customers’ requirements as well as track the status of the shipment from origin to delivery.
For most of our transportation and logistics services, we are a service provider. By accepting the customer’s order, we accept certain responsibilities for transportation of the shipment from origin to destination. The carrier’s contract is with us, not the customer, and we are responsible for prompt payment of freight charges. In the cases where we have agreed (either contractually or otherwise) to pay for claims for damage to freight while in transit, we pursue reimbursement from the contracted carrier for the claims. In our transportation management business, we are acting as a shipper’s agent. In those cases, the carrier’s contract is with the customer, and we collect a fee for our services.
As a result of our logistics capabilities, some of our customers have us handle all, or a substantial portion, of their freight transportation requirements to or from a particular manufacturing facility or distribution center. Our branch employees price our services to provide a profit to us for the totality of services performed for the customer. In some cases, our services to the customer are priced on a spot market, or transactional, basis. In a number of instances, we have contracts with the customer in which we agree to handle an estimated number of shipments usually to specified destinations, such as from the customer’s plant to a distribution center. Our commitments to handle the shipments are usually at specific rates. Most of our rate commitments are for one year or less and therefore allow for renegotiation. As is typical in the transportation industry, most of these contracts do not include specific volume commitments. When we enter into prearranged rate agreements for truckload services with our customers, we have fuel surcharge agreements in addition to the underlying line-haul portion of the rate.
The majority of our truckload freight is priced to our contract carriers on a spot market, or transactional, basis, even when we are working with the customer on a contractual basis. When we enter into spot transactions with contract motor carriers, we generally negotiate a mutually-agreed upon total market rate that includes all costs, including any applicable fuel expense. However, if requested by the contract carrier, we will estimate and report fuel separately. In a small number of cases, we may get advance commitments from one or more contract carriers to transport contracted shipments for the length of our customer contract. In those cases, where we have prearranged rates with contract carriers, there is a calculated fuel surcharge based on a mutually-agreed-upon formula.
In the course of providing day-to-day transportation services, our branch employees often identify opportunities for additional logistics services as they become more familiar with our customer’s daily operations and the nuances of its supply chain. We offer a wide range of logistics services on a worldwide basis that reduce or eliminate supply chain inefficiencies. We will analyze the customer’s current transportation rate structures, modes of shipping, and carrier selection. We can evaluate a customer’s core carrier program by establishing a program to measure and monitor key quality standards for those core carriers. We can identify opportunities to consolidate shipments for cost savings. We will suggest ways to improve operating and shipping procedures and manage claims. We can help customers minimize storage through cross-docking and other flow-through operations. We may also examine the customer’s warehousing and dock procedures. Many of these services are bundled with underlying transportation services and are not typically priced separately. They are usually included as a part of the cost of transportation services provided by us, based on the nature of the customer relationship. In addition to these transportation services, we may supply sourcing, contract warehousing, consulting, fee-based transportation management, and other services, for which we are usually paid separately.
As we have emphasized integrated logistics solutions, our relationships with many customers have broadened, and we have become key providers to our customers, responsible for helping them manage a greater portion of their supply chain. We may serve our customers through specially created teams and through several branches. Our multimodal transportation services are provided to numerous international customers through our worldwide branch network. See Note 1 in Item 8 for an allocation of our total revenues from domestic and foreign customers for the years ended December 31, 2009, 2008, and 2007 and our long-lived assets as of December 31, 2009, and 2008 in the United States and in foreign locations.
Employees
As of December 31, 2009, we had a total of 7,347 employees, 6,377 of whom were located in our branch offices. Services such as accounting, information technology, legal, marketing, human resource support, credit and claims management, and carrier services are supported centrally.