The most commonly cited figure is 72,235
There are roughly 72,235 third-party logistics businesses operating in the US (IBISWorld, 2025) — the most commonly cited industry figure and the one trade press defaults to. The count is down 1.0% from 2024 and grew at 1.3% annually over the 2020–2025 period. That figure draws from the US NAICS 4885 establishment count, so it is a broad definition: it includes brokers, freight forwarders, customs agents, and very small operators alongside what an ecommerce brand would recognize as an operating 3PL.
The narrower operator-only count is harder to pin down. Armstrong & Associates profiles 875 US 3PLs in its 2025 Who's Who in Logistics database (November 2025) — a curated registry of the largest and most notable providers — with another roughly 3,000 identified through its M&A advisory practice but not yet profiled. The true operating 3PL count is comfortably in the thousands, but there is no published industry-wide census. Estimates depend on whether you are counting establishments (NAICS), profiled companies (Armstrong), or some operationally defined subset.
- 72,235 — third-party logistics businesses in the US per IBISWorld (2025), down 1.0% from 2024 (NAICS 4885 establishments)
- 875 — US 3PLs profiled in Armstrong & Associates' 2025 Who's Who in Logistics, the curated registry of the largest and most notable providers (November 2025)
- ~3,000 additional — US 3PLs Armstrong has identified through its M&A advisory practice but has not yet profiled in Who's Who
- Thousands more — operating US 3PLs that fall below Armstrong's profiling threshold but above the noise floor of NAICS 4885 (no published census)
- $131.5 billion — US 3PL net revenues in 2024, up 1.8% from $129 billion in 2023 (Armstrong & Associates)
- $307.9 billion — total US 3PL market gross revenues in 2024, up 2.8% year-over-year (Armstrong & Associates)
- +1.3% per year — average annual growth in US 3PL business count, 2020–2025 (IBISWorld)
- $1.15–1.6 trillion — estimated global 3PL market size in 2025 (range reflects methodology variance across research firms)
How analysts count 3PLs differently
The 875-to-72,235 spread is not a contradiction. It reflects three legitimate ways of drawing the line around what counts as a 3PL — and a fourth, the actual operational count, that no public source attempts to measure directly.
| Approach | What it counts | Typical figure |
|---|---|---|
| IBISWorld / BLS NAICS 4885 | Every US business establishment classified as freight transportation arrangement — includes ~26,000 registered freight brokers, customs agents, single-truck operators, and freight forwarders without warehousing, alongside true 3PLs | 72,235 (US, 2025) |
| Armstrong & Associates (M&A-identified) | 3PLs Armstrong has surfaced through its M&A advisory practice — those it has had reason to evaluate. A known minimum, not a complete count. | ~3,875 (US, includes the 875 profiled) |
| Armstrong & Associates (Who's Who database) | The largest and most notable US 3PLs Armstrong has chosen to formally profile in its 2025 Who's Who in Logistics — a curated industry registry, not a census attempt | 875 (US, November 2025) |
| Operational reality (estimated) | The actual count of US 3PLs that both arrange freight and provide warehousing at meaningful scale — derived by subtracting broker-only registrants from NAICS data and accounting for smaller operators below Armstrong's profiling threshold | ~10,000–30,000 (US, no published census) |
The market by service type
Armstrong & Associates splits the US 3PL market into four operating segments. Together they make up the $307.9 billion gross revenue figure for 2024.
| Segment | Gross revenue 2024 | YoY change | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic Transportation Management (DTM) | $122.7B | −0.7% | Freight brokerage, managed transportation, intermodal, last-mile |
| International Transportation Management (ITM) | $79.8B | +7.9% | Ocean and air freight forwarding; growth driven by Red Sea and Suez disruption and tariff-driven re-routing |
| Value-Added Warehousing & Distribution (VAWD) | $69.7B | +2.3% | Contract warehousing, fulfillment, kitting, returns — what ecommerce 3PLs do |
| Dedicated Contract Carriage (DCC) | $31.5B | +6.0% | Customer-dedicated fleets and drivers, often multi-year contracts |
Source: Armstrong & Associates, Working through the Uncertainty — Latest Third-Party Logistics Market Results and Predictions for 2025. Segment totals sum to $303.7B; the published gross-revenue total of $307.9B includes additional categories not broken out here.
The named players and their share
The top 50 US 3PLs by revenue (Armstrong & Associates, 2024) account for a substantial portion of total market gross revenue. Amazon's logistics arm alone is larger than every other named 3PL by an order of magnitude under Armstrong's methodology, though there is industry debate over whether Amazon's primarily captive fulfillment should be counted alongside merchant-facing 3PLs.
| Rank | 3PL | 2024 revenue | Asset model |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amazon (3PL operations) | $140.1B | Asset-based (own FCs, own fleet) |
| 2 | C.H. Robinson | $16.7B | Non-asset (brokerage) |
| 3 | J.B. Hunt | $12.5B | Asset-based (intermodal + DCS) |
| 4 | UPS Supply Chain Solutions | $11.5B | Asset-based (hybrid) |
| 5 | GXO Logistics | $9.8B | Asset-based (contract warehousing) |
Source: Armstrong & Associates Top 50 US 3PLs (2024). Revenues include all four segments and are company-reported or A&A estimates.
How the count has changed
The US 3PL business count grew at an average of 1.3% per year between 2020 and 2025, but the trajectory is not linear. The 2025 establishment count is down 1.0% year-over-year per IBISWorld, reflecting industry consolidation after the 2021–2022 capacity boom. Armstrong's revenue data shows a sharper cycle: net 3PL revenues fell 12.8% in 2023 before rebounding 1.8% in 2024.
Common questions about the 3PL count
What is the most-cited 3PL count figure?
Trade press most often cites the IBISWorld / BLS NAICS 4885 establishment count — roughly 72,000 US third-party logistics businesses in 2025. For operational evaluations of 3PL partners, Armstrong & Associates' Who's Who in Logistics database (875 active US 3PLs, November 2025) is the curated registry of the largest providers, but it is not a complete census.
Why do estimates range from 875 to 72,235?
Different definitions of 3PL, with neither endpoint being a true operating-3PL census. Armstrong's 875 is a curated registry of the largest and most notable US 3PLs, not an attempt to count every operator. IBISWorld's 72,235 is the full NAICS 4885 establishment count, which includes ~26,000 registered freight brokers plus customs agents and very small operators that would not fit an operational definition of 3PL. The actual count of US 3PLs operating at meaningful scale falls between the two — likely in the tens of thousands — and is not precisely measurable from public data.
How many US 3PLs serve ecommerce brands specifically?
No published source breaks out an ecommerce-only subset. Industry estimates put the number of merchant-facing ecommerce-fulfillment 3PLs (the kind a Shopify brand would hire) in the low thousands. The Value-Added Warehousing & Distribution segment captures most of this revenue, accounting for $69.7 billion of the $307.9 billion 2024 US 3PL market.
How many 3PLs are there globally?
There is no authoritative global 3PL company count. Armstrong & Associates tracks the largest international players individually but does not publish a global establishment census. The global 3PL market size in 2025 is estimated between $1.15 trillion and $1.6 trillion depending on the research firm (the US market accounts for roughly 21% of the global total).
Has the number of 3PLs been growing or shrinking?
Slow growth over the long term. IBISWorld puts the average annual growth rate in US 3PL business count at 1.3% per year between 2020 and 2025. The 2025 count specifically is down 1.0% from 2024, reflecting industry consolidation after the post-2021 capacity expansion overshot demand.
What is the difference between an asset-based 3PL and a non-asset-based 3PL?
Asset-based 3PLs own the physical infrastructure they operate: trucks, warehouses, fulfillment centers, equipment. UPS Supply Chain Solutions, Ryder, GXO, and J.B. Hunt are asset-based. Non-asset-based 3PLs (also called freight brokers or logistics orchestrators) do not own physical assets — they manage logistics on behalf of clients through a network of carrier and warehousing partners. C.H. Robinson is the canonical non-asset example. Most large 3PLs operate hybrid models that blend both.
Is Amazon a 3PL?
Armstrong & Associates ranks Amazon at #1 by revenue in its 2024 Top 50 US 3PLs list ($140.1 billion). The classification is contested: Amazon primarily fulfills its own marketplace, with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) being the third-party-facing services. Treating Amazon as a 3PL produces a different market structure than treating it as a captive logistics operation that also sells some third-party services.
What the number actually tells you
If you are a journalist writing about industry size, the most commonly cited figure is the IBISWorld count of 72,235 US third-party logistics businesses (2025). Note the methodology when you cite it — the NAICS classification includes ~26,000 registered freight brokers plus customs agents and very small operators alongside what most people picture when they hear 3PL.
If you are an ecommerce operator evaluating a 3PL partner, the population you are realistically choosing from is in the low thousands — the Value-Added Warehousing & Distribution segment of the market, which accounted for $69.7 billion of US 3PL gross revenue in 2024. Armstrong & Associates profiles 875 of the largest and most notable US 3PLs in its Who's Who in Logistics database, with another ~3,000 known through its M&A advisory practice — and many more operating below those thresholds.
The headline number will probably keep being the IBISWorld-derived ~72,000 figure because it is easy to source and journalist-friendly. The operating reality is smaller and harder to pin down. Both are honest answers to different questions.
How we built this
Figures cited above are pulled from Armstrong & Associates' 2025 Who's Who in Logistics 3PL Guide announcement, Armstrong's Working through the Uncertainty 2025 market results report, IBISWorld's Third-Party Logistics in the US Number of Businesses Statistics page (NAICS 4885), and the Armstrong & Associates Top 50 US 3PL Providers list for 2024 (as reported in Logistics Management and Supply Chain 24/7). Where IBISWorld and Armstrong figures disagree, both are reported with the methodological reason rather than averaged. The 10,000–30,000 estimated operating-3PL range is derived by subtracting the ~26,000 FMCSA-registered broker-only entities from the IBISWorld establishment count and accounting for non-asset orchestrators and smaller operators that fall below Armstrong's profiling threshold.
- Armstrong's Who's Who 3PL Guide Tops 875 3PLs — EIN Presswire, November 2025
- Third-Party Logistics in the US Number of Businesses Statistics — IBISWorld, 2025
- U.S. 3PL Market Rebounded in 2024 (Armstrong & Associates report) — Logistics Management
- Working through the Uncertainty — Armstrong's Latest 3PL Market Results and Predictions for 2025 — Armstrong & Associates
- A&A's Top 50 U.S. Third-Party Logistics Providers (3PLs) List — Armstrong & Associates
- Ranking the Top 50 Third-Party Logistics Providers of 2024 — Supply Chain 24/7
- Global 3PL Market Size Estimates — Armstrong & Associates
- Types of 3PLs Defined (Asset, Non-Asset, etc.) — PLS Logistics
- How Many 3PLs Are There? 2026 Industry Statistics & Data — Red Stag Fulfillment (secondary roundup; same data source set)