Wisconsin native Jim Filter takes the wheel at Schneider
elements in his slight tweak from what’s come before: • Growth in areas of differentiation • Building a lower-cost organization • Earning even greater customer loyalty • Disciplined M&A When it comes to the last of the four, he said during an exclusive interview: “We want to focus on those opportuni- ties where we’d be able to realize syner- gies and continue to grow the business.” “We just happen to see the most op- portunities lying within dedicated, but we’re not averse to an intermodal or lo- gistics opportunity,” he added. “But we would want the right cultural fit and the right opportunities to be able to continue to grow that business.” The carrier’s business model concen- trates on three segments: truckload; in- termodal; and logistics, including con- tract logistics, brokerage and power only. Schneider ranks No. 10 on the TRANS- PORT TOPICS Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America, No. 5 among truckload/dedicated carriers and No. 4 in the intermodal/drayage rank- ings, as well as No. 18 on the TT Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies. Differentiators Filter has already had time to shape the company, including the past four years as operating president, but he is keen to sharpen those edges. “We have a lot of differentiation in each one of the service offerings we have, and we want to make sure that we’re fo- cused on growing into those areas, as well as making sure that we’re deploying capital to those places where we have differentiation,” Filter said. Schneider’s intermodal division is al- ready implementing an initiative exem- plifying the ethos of differentiation. In November 2025, the company launched Fast Track, which combines Schneider’s truckload and intermodal ca- pabilities with strategic rail partnerships to create a network of faster intermodal lanes, and the carrier says it results in up to two days faster transit than competitors on key U.S. and Mexico lanes. “There are customers that have either their entire supply chain or parts of their supply chain. They have very high expecta- tions for service levels. And in the past, they would often avoid intermodal on those parts of their network,” Filter told TT. “What we were seeing was that we could actually provide the same level of service for intermodal that we do over the road, be- cause we do haul shipments on intermodal for automotive companies where they virtu-
By Keiron Greenhalgh Staff Reporter
When Jim Filter joined Schneider 28 years ago, it didn’t take long for him to realize he wanted to spend decades at the carrier. But back then, he never envisioned be- coming CEO. On July 1, Filter became Green Bay, Wis.-based Schneider’s top executive. The Wisconsin native is the fifth CEO of the company founded by Al Schneider in 1935 and the first Wisconsinite to hold the post since Don Schneider followed in his father’s footsteps. Filter replaced Mark Rourke, who held the CEO post since 2019 and will become executive chairman of the board. The tran- sition was announced in January. A former Marine Corps helicopter me- chanic, Filter started out at Schneider as a maintenance team leader in Green Bay. He then moved to Detroit, where he met his wife, Maria, who also worked for Schneider. Over the next couple of decades, Uni- versity of Wisconsin-Green Bay alumnus Filter worked his way up the ranks, in- cluding time spent heading the compa- ny’s Mexican operations. The Filter family moved back to Green Bay in 2012. At the time, the CEO was Chris Lofgren, the company’s first chief executive whose family name was not Schneider. Lofgren — formerly the chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce board of directors — is the Filters’ next-door neighbor. Schneider went public under Lofgren in 2017. At that time, Filter was head of the company’s intermodal division. But it is the truckload division that has seen the largest change since Schneider went public. In 2017, some 70% of its truckload business was network and 30% was dedicated, shares that have been reversed. By the end of 2025, the long-term stra- tegic metamorphosis had boosted the dedicated fleet to nearly 8,600 tractors. Acquisitions have been a driving force in the division’s transformation, with November 2024’s $390 million purchase of Baltimore-based Cowan Systems building on the acquisitions of Midwest Logistics Systems and M&M Transport Services in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Filter revealed recently that more ac- quisitions are likely sooner rather than later, but dedicated carrier acquisitions are only part of his plans for Schneider. The executive told TT there are four
On July 1, Filter became Green Bay, Wis.-based Schneider’s top executive, succeeding Mark Rourke. (Schneider)
think this industry should be,” Filter said, adding: “I don’t think you’re going to see capacity reverse itself and begin to grow until we get to that point where all the infla- tionary costs have been recovered.” Inflation is accelerating. The annual U.S. inflation rate in May was 4.2%, a three-year high, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Not unexpectedly for an industry un- dergoing its longest downturn in living memory, the economy was the top issue causing stress for trucking executives in 2025 for a third consecutive year, accord- ing to the American Transportation Re- search Institute. Stress is ever-present for a CEO as the focal point of a company. Filter said Rourke told him it can be a lonely job, but he continues to offer nuggets of ad- vice, as does Lofgren. Filter has his own prescription for working through the stress: running. “I have a training program, so it’s a differ- ent run. Every day is a little bit differ- ent,” he said. “I’ll absolutely continue to do that.”
ally need to be 100% on time,” he added. Schneider has also increased its inter- modal lanes connecting Mexico and Mid- west and Southeastern states, adding op- tions for automotive, consumer product or paper goods customers. At a time when federal initiatives on cabotage and visa enforcement are re- ducing over-the-road truckload capacity, the services are offering differentiation. Sustainable rebound Capacity cutbacks boosted rates in the first six months of 2026, and Filter sees the ongoing freight market rebound as sustainable. “What we now understand is the amount of capacity that entered the mar- ket wasn’t playing by the same set of rules as everybody else,” he said, noting that data shows carrier costs climbed about 25% since 2020 due to inflation. “Rates have not kept up with that pace of inflation. And we expect that it’s probably going to take more than just one allocation season to be able to raise rates up to the point that would equal where we really
ATD expectations high for truck sales By Keiron Greenhalgh Staff Reporter
250,000 vehicles, an increase of 12% com- pared with a forecast of 220,000 at the start of 2026, Manzi said. ATD is a division of NADA. “The business community is realizing that all of the uncertainty out there, be it the tariffs, the war, whatever it is, it’s al- most like this is kind of the new normal, and we’ve got to get on with it and move forward and maybe go out and take a big- ger risk than maybe we’re comfortable with, but we need to move forward and buy new equipment,” Manzi told Trans- port Topics in an exclusive interview. Sales were expected to increase in 2025, but tariffs introduced by the Trump
Truck dealers are growing more opti- mistic about the prospects for Class 8 truck and tractor sales in 2026 and 2027, citing a relative decrease in economic un- certainty and carriers needing to renew their fleets. American Truck Dealers’ expectations for 2026 Class 8 sales are now 227,000 vehicles, a 7.5% increase compared with 210,000 units at the start of the year, according to National Automobile Dealers Association Chief Economist Patrick Manzi. Sales in 2027 are now expected to total
July 2026, Issue 1 • Transport Topics 8
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator