How we score the field

This audit evaluates how each carrier competes for truckload shippers. Not how big it is, but how it positions, presents, and converts. Scale and ad-spend figures appear as supporting evidence. They never drive a score.

The cohort. Averitt is scored as the benchmark against six competitors selected with Roux: J.B. Hunt, Schneider, Werner, Landstar, Western Express, and Big G.

This section evaluates how each third-party logistics provider competes for distribution and fulfillment customers: warehousing, order fulfillment, e-commerce fulfillment, port-side drayage and transload, cross-docking, dedicated warehousing, and warehouse-management technology. Not how big it is, but how it positions, presents, and converts. Scale and ad-spend figures appear as supporting evidence. They never drive a score.

The same five lenses, the same scale. Positioning, Service Architecture, Inbound & Content, Conversion, and Audience, each scored 1 to 5 on an absolute standard (Behind 1 to 2, At-par 3, Competitive 4, Leader 5) against fixed definitions, not graded on a curve against the other providers. The rubric wording was generalized in August 2026 so the same anchors score any service line; no anchor changed meaning. Truckload was scored under rubric v1.2 (finalized June 11, 2026). Distribution & Fulfillment was scored under rubric v1.3 (finalized and verified August 22, 2026).

The cohort. Averitt's Distribution & Fulfillment line is the benchmark, scored first, against seven competitors selected with Roux: GXO, DHL Supply Chain (the contract-logistics division only), Ryder Supply Chain Solutions, STG Logistics, NFI, Penske Logistics, and Saddle Creek. Every competitor's service labels were normalized into Averitt's seven D&F buckets before any comparison, because "distribution and fulfillment" is an aggregate that the field names differently (contract logistics, warehousing and storage, pick/pack/ship, omnichannel fulfillment).

Nine source lanes. Each provider was read across the same nine public lanes: its live website (comprehensive site map, US-English pages only, every service, industry, location, resource and contact surface), paid-search ad history, the LinkedIn, Meta and Google ad libraries, LinkedIn organic posts, YouTube (captions pulled verbatim, strictly tagged to this service line), search-engine and authority indexes, and news. Counts from these lanes corroborate evidence; they never set a score.

Scale mismatch, handled honestly. GXO, DHL Supply Chain, Ryder, NFI and Penske Logistics are multi-billion national or global providers; Saddle Creek is the regional peer; STG is a port-to-door specialist. Absolute scoring means a regional provider is not curved up and a national is not curved down. Each provider carries a model-context note that explains its business model and never raises a tier.

The footprint rule. Averitt's D&F network covers 14 states (AL, AR, FL, GA, IL, KY, MS, NC, OH, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA), taken from its own location selector. A competitor location inside those states is in-footprint, a competitor; anywhere else is out-of-footprint, an opportunity signal. Averitt also operates facilities in Shreveport, LA and Puerto Rico, outside the 14-state selector; they are footnoted, not added to the rule. Where a competitor publishes machine-readable location pages (Saddle Creek, Ryder, STG) the flag is exact. Where it does not (GXO, DHL Supply Chain, NFI, Penske Logistics), presence was established from public sources — annual reports, company press releases, the company's own site pages, trade press — with a source, a date and a confidence grade per site. Those are named samples, never the network, and the dashboard always shows them next to the provider's stated network size. Penske Logistics publishes nothing and its only in-footprint evidence is dated; its footprint is effectively unverifiable from public sources.

Recruiting is context, not content. Driver and warehouse recruiting messaging was captured and classified, but it informs only the Audience lens, as the customer-versus-recruit framing on customer surfaces. It is never scored content. "Customer surfaces" means the website, applied uniformly across the cohort.

Verified, not assumed. Averitt's benchmark pages were re-captured live on August 22, 2026 and compared line by line with the May capture; every cited quote survives on the live pages, no lens changed, and the changes found (a new 58-page market directory, revised port-side proof counters) were recorded as dated timing evidence. Ad-copy classifications were re-read at the row level where the mechanical classifier looked wrong (Penske Logistics' paid social), and the honest figure is stated in the record. Division scoping was verified by entity: DHL Supply Chain's domain-level metrics are dominated by other DHL divisions and Ryder's by truck rental, so both were read as confidence-only; search ads returned for Penske Logistics' domain belonged to a different Penske entity and were excluded. A zero reading in any paid lane was treated as a coverage limitation until a second lane corroborated it.

What a score means. A score is a map, not a destination. In this field, four competitors tie Averitt at 22, DHL Supply Chain sits one point above, and the value is in where the field separates: conversion, quantified proof, and an unclaimed mid-market position.