Forward Air pauses intermodal sale after unit's best revenue in over three years

Forward Air is pausing the sale of its intermodal business. On a Nov. 9 call with analysts, CFO Jamie Pierson said the company is holding off on the sale it set in motion in May, because the unit's results have gone back to the steadier level the company expects from it, Trucking Dive's Larry Avila reported. The segment booked $63.5 million in third-quarter operating revenue, up from $58.3 million a year earlier, and executives said it was the segment's best performance in more than three years.

Paused is the right word. Pierson said Forward Air could reopen the process if the market comes to reflect what the company considers fair value for the business and its management team. A sale is still possible, he said, just not on the year-end timeline executives had given before. For now the stated plan is to grow the unit, which Pierson described as "back on track."

That matters most to the logistics manager whose port and rail containers ride on Forward Air drayage trucks. Over the next several quarters, they're dealing with an owner that has decided to keep and build the business, and the third-quarter numbers show fairly clearly what it's building on.

How a for-sale sign got smaller, then came down

The intermodal sale grew out of a broader review. FreightWaves finance editor Todd Maiden reported that Forward Air began a strategic review at the start of 2025 that considered selling parts or all of the company, as investor pressure built after its contested merger with Omni Logistics. On its August call, management said the possible loss of a contract logistics customer worth about 10% of annual revenue, roughly $250 million, had derailed the plan to sell the whole enterprise to private investors. The company narrowed its focus to selling intermodal and two smaller Omni Logistics businesses.

That trimmed-down package was still sizable. When Forward Air announced it in May, the three operations together accounted for about $394 million of the company's 2025 revenue, with intermodal representing about $230 million of that. In other words, intermodal was always the biggest piece of the divestiture plan, well over half of the revenue on the block.

The two smaller pieces have since gone. Forward Air said in August that it had sold the two legacy Omni businesses, and Pierson said that sale raised about $25 million. The at-risk customer has largely stayed, too. FreightWaves reported that the company signed a two-year agreement running through 2028 to keep a significant portion of the account. The deal lets the customer move some business away between November and March, but Forward Air expects revenue from the retained portion to grow and exceed what the account generated in 2025.

Put together, the pressure that pushed Forward Air toward selling has eased on several fronts at once. With the smaller units gone and the key account retained, intermodal is the one remaining piece of the original divestiture plan, and the company now says it's worth more kept than sold at today's prices.

Drayage pricing is doing the heavy lifting

Forward Air's third-quarter release credits an increase in drayage revenue per shipment for the segment's highest revenue in more than three years. The earnings call transcript, published by The Motley Fool, puts that figure at $986, up 14.1% from a year earlier. That is faster than the segment's 8.8% revenue growth, which suggests the comeback is being built on price per load more than on extra containers.

One caution on that comparison: segment revenue includes more than drayage, so the two growth rates don't line up perfectly. Forward Air describes the business as intermodal, first- and last-mile, high-value drayage to and from seaports and railheads, plus dedicated contract and Container Freight Station warehouse and handling services. Warehouse and handling work doesn't move on a per-shipment drayage rate, so a soft patch there could pull segment growth below the drayage pricing gain even if container counts held steady.

The pricing story still holds up against the company's own account. In its second-quarter release in August, Forward Air said intermodal was starting to benefit from a strong pipeline and from strategic rate increases recently put through on several accounts. On the latest call, Pierson described the drayage market as on an upswing and called the intermodal pipeline robust.

Margins improved too. FreightWaves reported an 8.2% EBITDA margin for the unit, 110 basis points better than a year ago, and operating income rose to $5.2 million from $4.1 million, a 26.4% gain according to the call transcript. Profit growing roughly three times as fast as revenue is what rate increases look like when they stick.

For a shipper, the reading is fairly direct. The owner keeping this business has already shown it will push through rate increases on several accounts and is seeing results from them. Shippers whose drayage contracts renew in the coming months could see those pricing conversations reflect the upswing Pierson described.

One strong quarter against a softer year

The turn did not start in the third quarter. Forward Air's August release said intermodal posted its best Reported EBITDA in five quarters and its best margin in six during the second quarter. Revenue barely moved then, though: $59.7 million against $59.1 million a year earlier. The jump to $63.5 million came only in the third quarter, which fits a story where profitability recovered first and the top line followed once the new rates worked through more of the book.

Over nine months, the segment still trails last year: $176.3 million in 2026 against $180.0 million in 2025, after a first half of $112.8 million versus $121.6 million. Operating income also slipped from quarter to quarter, from $6.1 million in the second quarter to $5.2 million in the third, even as revenue climbed. Neither source breaks out which costs drove that dip.

None of that cancels the turnaround. It does mean the case for keeping the unit rests heavily on one quarter plus management's view of what comes next. Pierson told analysts he has more conviction in the business now than ever, based on recent performance and near-term prospects. The fourth quarter will test that. Management expects trends similar to the third quarter but has already flagged the usual seasonality, including fewer working days.

A parent company with room to wait

Forward Air's consolidated results help explain why it can hold out for a better price. Third-quarter operating revenue reached $674 million, a record for the second quarter in a row, and operating income rose to $44 million from $15 million a year earlier, according to the company. Consolidated EBITDA, calculated under its term loan agreement, came in at $101 million against $78 million a year ago, and the trailing 12-month figure climbed to $342 million from $319 million at the end of the second quarter.

Intermodal is also the smallest of the three segments. FreightWaves reported that Expedited Freight, which includes less-than-truckload operations, grew revenue 31% to $337 million, while Omni Logistics fell 8% to $312 million. At $63.5 million, intermodal is a meaningful business for its customers but a modest share of the parent's revenue, so holding it while waiting for a better price is not a bet that strains the company.

Liquidity improved to $446 million at the end of the third quarter, a sequential improvement of $45 million compared to the second quarter, including $185 million in cash and $261 million in availability under the revolving credit facility. FreightWaves noted the asset sales helped that gain. Cash alone rose from $139 million at the end of the second quarter, while revolver availability held at $261 million.

Debt is moving the right way as well. FreightWaves put net debt at $1.6 billion, or 4.7 times trailing adjusted EBITDA of $342 million, down from 5.2 times at the end of the second quarter and below the 5.75 times covenant. The company said it was its lowest net leverage ratio since the first quarter of 2024. A company with that cushion has less reason to accept an offer it considers too low, and that fits the fair-value language Pierson used.

Investors seemed to agree, at least on the night. FWRD shares rose 7.7% in after-hours trading after the report. For drayage customers, the balance sheet points to an owner that is investing in the unit rather than running it down ahead of a handoff.

Questions for the next drayage bid

Shippers deciding how much freight to keep with the unit can turn the quarter's figures into a short list of checks. These are editorial suggestions based on the reported numbers, not company guidance:

• Ask whether the rate increases Forward Air applied to several accounts this year will reach your lanes at renewal, and how your per-shipment rate compares with the $986 average.
• Ask how the robust pipeline Pierson described affects port and rail-ramp capacity on your lanes during peak weeks.
• Track your own cost per load and on-time performance through the fourth quarter, the first seasonally slower period since the pause.

The fourth-quarter report is the next real data point. If intermodal revenue holds near $63 million through the slow season, the fair-value argument gets stronger and the for-sale sign could stay down for a while. If it slips back toward $59 million, expect the sale question to come up again.