Logistics companies in New York City: forwarders by JFK, warehouses across the river

This report is for importers and brands choosing a forwarder, customs broker or 3PL in New York, people researching the city's logistics employers, and B2B sellers whose customers are logistics firms.

The five boroughs in Census data

US Census Bureau County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023 counts two NAICS codes for this report, 4885 (Freight Transportation Arrangement) and 493 (Warehousing and Storage), across Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens and Richmond counties.

The Census Bureau published an employee total but flagged it as high-noise (the noise it adds to protect businesses changed some borough figures behind it by 5% or more), so we don't repeat it. Size classes above 1 to 4 aren't published for the five boroughs combined. Split by industry, the same file is clearer:

Average pay is our calculation. Freight arrangement (forwarders, customs brokers, freight brokers and logistics managers) is 81% of the city's logistics locations: New York is an office market first.

Borough by borough

All-logistics employee counts are 5,337 for Queens and 2,432 for Manhattan; the other three boroughs' totals are not reported (high-noise figures). Queens holds 62% of the city's freight arrangement offices, paying an average $73,842. Manhattan's 100 offices pay $157,574, which suggests head office and sales work rather than freight handling.

Most warehouses are outside the city

The New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ Metro Area (CBSA 35620) shows where the buildings are:

The city has 39% of the metro's freight arrangement offices but 17% of its warehouses, and Middlesex County alone has more warehouses than the five boroughs, averaging 68 employees each. Nassau County, next to JFK's home borough of Queens, has 316 offices. CBP counts establishments with paid employees, not companies, and leaves out the self-employed; carriers are covered in trucking companies in New York City and trucking companies in New Jersey.

Port and airport freight

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reports 8,897,531 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) through the port in 2025, up 2.3% from 2024, and 680,364 rail lifts. Through August 2026, volume was 1.1% below the same months of 2025.

JFK handled 1,560,152 short tons of revenue freight in 2025, 73% of it international, down 6.6% from 1,670,715 tons in 2024. The Port Authority says nearly 44,800 people work at the airport, which has nearly four million square feet of cargo warehouse and office space, and the whole cargo area is a Foreign-Trade Zone. That helps explain why forwarders and customs brokers cluster in Queens and Nassau.

The license to check, by type of firm

FMCSA's registers (the legacy file frozen at 14 May 2026 plus the newer Motus file, combined on 30 October 2026, one count per USDOT number) list 254 active brokers and 31 FMCSA freight forwarders with city business addresses: 89 brokers in Brooklyn, 75 in Queens, 66 in Manhattan, 14 in the Bronx and 10 on Staten Island. For an ocean forwarder, ask for the FMC license number and confirm it with the Commission.

Listed companies with a city headquarters

EDGAR matches eight companies in the transport codes to the city. Four, checked against their latest filings, are relevant:

The other four don't fit: Lindblad Expeditions is a travel company, Saker Aviation an aviation services firm, and BingEx and Maitong Sunshine give Beijing addresses. The city's forwarders and 3PLs mostly don't file with the SEC.

Choosing a New York logistics provider

1. Split the job in two. Same-day and next-day delivery inside the city calls for a provider with space in the boroughs; storage and pick-and-pack at volume usually means New Jersey.
2. Match the license to the mode, using the table above, and ask who files your customs entries: if the forwarder subcontracts clearance, check that broker too.
3. Price the drayage. Ask what moving a container from the port terminal to the warehouse costs, including waiting time and chassis charges, before you compare quotes.
4. Start with one trade lane. Give the new provider a single origin or product line and compare its paperwork accuracy and transit times with your current one.

Selling to New York City logistics firms

Small forwarders decide fast and buy what saves a licensed person's time. Customs brokers' fixed compliance calendar gives training and software sellers a natural reason to call.

Illustrative example. The seller, price and win rate are invented; the counts are from Census data.

Harborline Learning (harborline.example) sells continuing education for licensed customs brokers. Queens and Nassau have 377 freight arrangement offices with five or more employees (205 and 172). If a quarter employ licensed brokers, that's 94 firms; winning 20 at $2,400 a year is $48,000 a year. It starts with firms advertising for licensed customs brokers. Bebop can build that list from a plain description and draft the opener.

Subject: Continuing education credits at [company]

Hi [first name],

Your licensed brokers each need 36 continuing education credits every three years, and the tracking usually lands on one person.

We run courses online and keep a credit log per broker, ready for the status report. Would the course list be useful?

[Your name]

New York sources

Next step: for a metro where brokers and big warehouses sit closer together, read the report on logistics companies in Chicago.