Largest Courier Companies by Revenue, Earnings, and Operating Margin
This is a comparison of the largest courier companies in the world. The metrics gathered distribute these companies by annual revenue as of 2025, quarterly earnings, and operating margin- a key KPI in logistics.
In a section further into this article, we look at the implications of these companies on Climate Change, and show data-linked insights on sustainability in logistics.
What we want you to take away from this article is to think of how much revenue these companies are making, their earnings, and the capacity for them to act towards adopting sustainable measures.
Revenue
DHL Group (Deutsche Post) has the highest revenue of any courier company in the world with $92.44 billion, closely followed by United Parcel Service (UPS) at $90.31 billion and FedEx at $87.92 billion.
These three logistics behemoths represent the traditional powerhouses of global shipping, collectively generating over $270 billion in annual revenue.
Earnings
When we pivot from revenue to actual earnings, the landscape shifts dramatically.
United Parcel Service (UPS) emerges as the leader with $7.22 billion in earnings, despite generating less revenue than DHL. This immediately signals superior operational efficiency and cost management—UPS is quite simply better at converting revenue into actual profit.
DHL, despite its revenue supremacy, trails with $6.87 billion in earnings, while FedEx lands at $6.23 billion.
The gap between revenue leadership and earnings leadership tells us everything we need to know about operational excellence in this industry.
UPS’s ability to generate higher profits on lower revenue suggests either superior pricing power, more efficient operations, or a better service mix focused on higher-margin offerings.
This is the hallmark of a mature, well-optimized business model.
Operating Margins
Singapore Post, with merely $0.99 billion in revenue, operates with an astounding 30.27% operating margin. To put this in perspective, this small postal service is more operationally efficient than every major global player, including:
- UPS (7.99% margin)
- DHL (7.44% margin)
- FedEx (6.65% margin)
ZTO Express, a Chinese logistics company, exemplifies a similar metric.
With $6.44 billion in revenue, it generates $1.59 billion in earnings while maintaining a robust 24.79% operating margin—second only to Singapore Post.
Loss Making Courier Companies
Companies like Bpost and Pitney Bowes are showing negative operating margins (-2.45% and -0.3% respectively), indicating fundamental operational or strategic challenges.
Analyzing Asian Courier Companies
As mentioned in an earlier section, several Asian companies appear in the high-efficiency category:
- Singapore Post (30.27% margin)
- ZTO Express (24.79% margin)
- Japan Post Holdings (6.65% margin)
This pattern suggests that Asian logistics companies may have developed more efficient operational models, possibly due to:
- Higher population density enabling more efficient route optimization
- Advanced technology integration
- Different labor cost structures
- More streamlined regulatory environments
That being said, a lot of ongoing investments are being made in the following spaces as courier companies try to decarbonize and de-risk their supply chains:
- Optimizing last-mile delivery through technology
- Maintaining disciplined pricing strategies
- Focusing on high-margin service offerings
- Leveraging data analytics for constant route optimization
- Balancing growth with profitability throughout the business cycle.
Sustainability in Shipping
The shipping industry—which carries over 80% of the world’s traded goods that courier companies ultimately deliver—faces an unprecedented challenge.
The European Union is demanding an 80% drop in shipping fuels’ greenhouse gas intensity by 2050, while the International Maritime Organization pushes for zero emissions.
The estimated cost of decarbonization? A staggering $1-3 trillion industry-wide transformation.
This is due to the fact that emissions associated with international shipping are significant to the extent that if it were a country, it would be among the top 10 CO2 emitters (see visual below).
Transitioning away from fossil fuels
Fossil fuel based sources of shipping are more cost effective than biofuels and synthetic fuels. Transitioning away from fossil fuels would lead to a rise in shipping costs due to expensive alternative fuels (green methanol costs 340% more than traditional fuel oil), efficient operators with healthy margins can weather the storm while competitors get squeezed.
Companies with the highest operating margins like Singapore Post may actually be best positioned to absorb the inevitable cost increases from maritime decarbonization.
DHL, UPS, and FedEx, despite their current revenue leadership, may find their global networks becoming liabilities rather than assets.
As the maritime industry transitions to alternative fuels, port infrastructure becomes critical.
Ships running on hydrogen, methanol, or ammonia can only refuel at ports with the appropriate infrastructure—currently very limited.
This creates a strategic advantage for regionally-focused companies like Singapore Post and ZTO Express.
Their concentrated geographic footprints may prove more resilient to supply chain disruptions during the maritime transition period.
Final Considerations
The courier industry is being redefined not by those who can move the most packages, but by those who can move them most profitably while preparing for the most expensive environmental transition in maritime history.
The traditional metrics of industry leadership—revenue and market share—are proving insufficient in the modern courier landscape.
True leadership now belongs to companies that can generate sustainable profits while preparing for an environmental transformation that will reshape global logistics.