Largest shipping companies: parcel carriers, freight forwarders and ocean lines ranked by revenue

This list is for companies that sell to shipping and logistics businesses (fleet and warehouse technology, fuel, equipment, staffing, insurance) and for shippers comparing carriers. Every figure comes from the company's own annual report: a 10-K or 20-F on SEC EDGAR, the Postal Service's 10-K, or Evergreen Marine's annual report. Non-dollar figures are converted at the Federal Reserve's 2025 average rate.

The largest parcel, express and freight shipping companies

Revenue is total revenue as reported ("consolidated revenue" for FedEx, "total operating revenue" for USPS). Employees are as each report states them at fiscal year-end.

• FedEx completed the spin-off of FedEx Freight on 1 June 2026, the day after its fiscal year ended, and kept 19.9% of FedEx Freight's shares. So its $94.72 billion still includes the freight business; future years won't.
• UPS's 10-K says its "strategy includes planned volume declines from our largest customer, Amazon.com, Inc.", which was 10.6% of 2025 revenue. Average daily package volume fell 7.0% to 20.8 million, while revenue per piece rose 6.6% to $14.50.
• USPS reported $32.58 billion of shipping and packages revenue on 6.84 billion pieces, and a net loss of $9.0 billion for the year.
• DHL Group (Germany) is the other parcel and express giant; it doesn't file with the SEC and its investor site didn't respond to our request on 30 October 2026, so it isn't ranked.

The largest ocean shipping companies we could verify

Revenue is the top line of each 2025 income statement: "operating revenue" for Evergreen, "total revenues and other operating income" for Frontline, "voyage revenues" for Star Bulk, "vessel revenue" for Scorpio Tankers, "shipping revenues" for International Seaways and "time charter revenue" for Global Ship Lease. Evergreen's figure is from the five-year comparison in its 2025 annual report, converted at the Federal Reserve's 2025 average of NT$31.1663 per dollar. Headquarters are the principal offices in each filing.

The container lines we couldn't verify. The lines that top fleet-capacity rankings, including MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM, COSCO and Hapag-Lloyd, are private or listed outside the US and don't file with the SEC. On 30 October 2026 the investor sites of Maersk, MSC, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM refused our requests or returned no figures, so we haven't put numbers on them. COSCO Shipping Holdings' own website gives its self-operated fleet as about 3.66 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units), without a date. For capacity rankings, Alphaliner's public Top 100 is the source most of the top results use; check it directly, because it changes as ships are delivered.

What the rankings show

Parcel carriers are the giants. FedEx, UPS and USPS together reported about $264 billion of revenue (our calculation), many times the largest container line we could verify. They also employ far more people: about 1.5 million between them.

Volume is falling while price rises. UPS carried 7.0% fewer packages a day in 2025 but earned 6.6% more per piece, and USPS's shipping and packages volume fell from 7.25 billion to 6.84 billion pieces while revenue rose slightly. Both are choosing more profitable parcels over more parcels.

Ocean freight had a down year. Evergreen's and ZIM's revenue each fell about 18%, and tanker and bulk owners fell between 9% and 25%, while two containership lessors that charter ships to the lines, Danaos and Global Ship Lease, grew.

Ship owners are tiny employers. Scorpio Tankers reported $938.2 million of vessel revenue with 24 shore-based employees, and Frontline $1.97 billion with 85 office staff; the crews are employed through ship managers or counted separately. If you sell per seat, a ship owner is a very small account; if you sell per vessel or per voyage, it's a large one.

The US industry is small in deep-sea shipping. County Business Patterns counted 333 deep sea freight establishments in the US in 2023, with 6,574 employees, against 10,859 courier and express delivery establishments with 1.04 million employees and 21,873 freight arrangement (forwarding and brokerage) establishments with 324,765.

How we built the list

1. Two lists. Parcel, express and freight logistics companies, and ocean carriers and ship owners. They sell different services and are measured differently, so we don't rank them against each other.
2. What's counted. Total revenue as reported for the latest fiscal year with an annual report published by 30 October 2026. Freight brokers and forwarders such as C.H. Robinson record the cost of the freight they buy inside revenue, so their revenue is large relative to their staff.
3. Currencies. Evergreen reports in New Taiwan dollars; we show the reported figure and convert it at the 2025 annual average.
4. Checking. We started from the SEC's structured financial data and matched every figure to the filing. Costamare's income statement, for example, lists the oldest year first, and its 2025 figure ($877.9 million) covers continuing operations only, after the dry bulk spin-off.
5. What's missing. Companies that don't file with the SEC and whose own reports we couldn't open, which includes most of the largest container lines. Fleet capacity, the measure most container rankings use, isn't in this table.

Selling to the largest shipping companies

Shipping companies buy around their networks: hubs and sorting centers for parcel carriers, ships and terminals for ocean carriers, and technology and people for brokers. This is general guidance; practice varies by company.

Find the real buyer at a ship owner. Many owners employ only a few dozen people ashore; technical decisions are often made by a ship manager (in-house or contracted) on behalf of the fleet. Ask who manages the vessels before you pitch.

Follow the network changes. UPS's 10-K says it has reduced, and continues to reduce, the number of its facilities, vehicles, aircraft and workforce as Amazon volume declines. Network changes mean new automation, consolidation and resale projects, and vendors who can help close or convert sites. For reaching the right operations leader, see how to find decision makers.

Worked example

Illustrative example. Hullwise (hullwise.example) sells hull-cleaning robots that cut fuel use, priced at $60,000 per vessel per year, and wants its first ship-owner customers.

1. Size by fleet, not staff. A tanker owner with 24 shore staff can still run dozens of ships. Hullwise ranks owners by vessel count from their 20-Fs and starts with those operating 40 or more ships.
2. Size the deal. A pilot on 5 vessels is 5 x $60,000 = $300,000 a year; a 40-ship fleet is $2.4 million.
3. Show the payback. Suppose a product tanker burns 25 tonnes of fuel a day for 300 sea days a year at $600 a tonne: $4.5 million of fuel. A 3% saving is $135,000 a year, more than twice the $60,000 price (illustrative figures).
4. Find the buyer. The technical director or fleet manager decides, often at the ship manager, with the chief financial officer approving a fleet-wide rollout.

At volume, finding who manages each fleet and what they're investing in is the slow part; Bebop researches each account in the list and drafts the outreach.

Next step: see the road side of freight on our list of the largest trucking companies.