Chemical manufacturer Oxea has handed Uber Freight day-to-day control of its transportation operations across truckload, rail and ocean, consolidating logistics spanning the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe under a single managed network.

The deal, announced in a Sept. 15 press release, goes beyond conventional outsourced transportation management. Uber Freight will run Oxea's logistics network end to end rather than managing transportation region by region — the model Oxea previously used.

For Uber Freight, the contract is a significant win: a global shipper with operations on two continents committing its entire multimodal portfolio to one control tower. Neither company disclosed contract value or volumes.

Chemical logistics carries requirements that freight forwarding for general cargo does not. Moving Oxea's products demands specialized equipment and handling, extensive documentation, and tight coordination among plants, carriers and customers, according to the release. Managing those components as one network gives Uber Freight a clearer view of activity across Oxea's footprint and lets it adjust operations as conditions change.

The commercial logic for Oxea centers on speed. The company wants to anticipate problems earlier and respond faster than it could under regional management, Oxea Chief Supply Chain Officer Scott Farmer said in the release.

"What matters is the impact: a clearer, earlier view of our global network, faster identification of potential disruptions, and more reliable, proactive information for customers," Bret Bement, VP of supply chain management at Oxea, said in an email.

Service reliability and emissions

Oxea expects the arrangement to deliver more reliable and predictable service. By flagging disruptions early and coordinating transportation across regions and modes, Uber Freight aims to lift on-time performance and strengthen proactive communication with Oxea's customers. Efficient routing also offers a path to cutting Oxea's carbon emissions, according to the press release.

For carriers serving Oxea lanes in North America and Europe, the shift means dealing with a single shipper-side network operator rather than regional arrangements — a consolidation that typically concentrates freight allocation decisions in one buyer.

"We bring technology, data and logistics expertise together to run the operation, identify issues earlier and keep improving how the network performs," Uber Freight Chief Commercial Officer D'Andrae Larry said. "That lets OXEA stay focused on its business and its customers."

Farmer framed the outsourcing decision as a division-of-labor play: "Our philosophy is simple: put the work where the expertise is. We chose Uber Freight because they bring technology and logistics expertise together with a strong commitment to continuous improvement, helping us build an operation that gets better over time."

The technology stack behind the deal

Neither company shared detailed specifications of the data and technology supporting the partnership. But Uber Freight's existing toolset indicates what Oxea will likely draw on.

The logistics operator markets its own transportation management system, which integrates with a customer's enterprise resource planning platform. Together, the systems provide real-time shipment visibility, access to Uber Freight's public tracking portal, and carrier performance dashboards.

Uber Freight also runs an AI logistics platform trained on data from more than 20 million delivered shipments. Customers can pose industry-specific questions and receive real-time answers tailored to their supply chain needs.

For forwarders and third-party logistics providers competing in the chemical sector, the deal signals where the bar now sits: shippers increasingly expect a single partner to combine multimodal execution across continents with a data platform capable of early disruption detection. Oxea's move suggests mid-market chemical producers are willing to hand over full network control to achieve that visibility — a trend likely to keep pressure on regional 3PL arrangements as managed-network contracts consolidate freight spend with fewer, larger operators.