Gold Star Transportation

What Gold Star Transportation does

Gold Star Transportation, Inc. is a privately held third-party logistics (3PL) freight brokerage firm founded in 1982 by Jerry Erding (CEO) and Rayla Erding (President and majority owner). The company is certified as a woman-owned business and is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, with a second office in Burnsville, Minnesota, serving shippers across the United States and Canada. Its core function is to negotiate freight rates between shippers and a network of vetted carriers, earning commissions on each matched load across truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL), rail, and intermodal modes, with trailer options including van, flatbed, tanker, and reefer.

The company's technology stack is built on McLeod Software's Transportation Management System, which powers the customer and carrier self-service portals and supports EDI and flat file interfacing with partner systems. Distinct productized service modules include freight matching, carrier vetting (safety ratings, FMCSA compliance, reputation), rate negotiation, booking and scheduling, real-time tracking and monitoring, consultation, and specialized handling for refrigerated, oversized, and hazardous materials freight. An AI-powered rate forecasting capability analyzes historical shipping and market data to recommend optimal pricing. The firm also operates a Factoring Company Portal that handles carrier payments, invoice uploads, and settlement tracking.

Gold Star's go-to-market is sales-led and relationship-driven, combining direct phone outreach (toll-free lines at both offices), a website quote intake form, and customer/carrier login portals. Pricing is quote-based and transactional, varying by commodity, weight, dimensions, distance, trailer type, and service level, with AI-assisted rate forecasting used to inform competitive pricing. The customer base is horizontally segmented across businesses and manufacturers needing freight movement, carriers and trucking companies seeking consistent load opportunities, and factoring companies managing carrier accounts receivable — implying a distributed mid-market book rather than anchor-account dependency. No external investors, private equity involvement, or parent company affiliations have been disclosed.

Name

Gold Star Transportation

Legal name

Gold Star Transportation, Inc.

Website

https://goldstartransportation.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1982

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Gold Star Transportation is a privately held US freight brokerage founded in 1982 that arranges truckload, LTL, rail, and intermodal shipments between shippers and vetted carriers across the US and Canada, operating on McLeod Software's TMS with AI-assisted rate forecasting.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Overland Park

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Freight Brokerage Commissions: Gold Star Transportation acts as a freight broker, arranging transportation services between shippers and carriers. The company earns commissions through negotiating competitive rates with both customers and truck lines, taking a percentage or flat fee for matching freight with capacity and managing the logistics from pickup to delivery.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Gold Star Transportation is a third-party logistics (3PL) freight brokerage that matches shippers of full-truckload, less-than-truckload, refrigerated, oversize, and hazmat freight with vetted motor carriers across the United States and Canada. The company negotiates rates, books and schedules loads, tracks shipments in real time, and provides consulting on routing and capacity, serving businesses, manufacturers, and carriers. It also operates a dedicated factoring-company portal for its carrier network.

Product overview

Gold Star Transportation operates as a third-party logistics (3PL) freight brokerage firm offering a unified service portfolio centered around their McLeod Software-powered Transportation Management System (TMS) platform. The core offering consists of seven interconnected service modules: Freight Matching, Carrier Vetting, Negotiation, Booking and Scheduling, Tracking and Monitoring, Consultation and Expertise, and Specialized Services. These modules work together as an integrated logistics solution—the TMS platform serves as the central hub enabling real-time visibility and operations, while the service modules provide specialized functions from carrier selection through final delivery. Additional capabilities include a Factoring Company Portal for payment management and AI-Powered Rate Forecasting for intelligent pricing. The company supports multiple shipping modes including truckload, LTL, and rail, with specialized handling for refrigerated, oversized, and hazardous freight.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Freight Brokerage Services End-to-end third-party freight brokerage for U.S. and Canadian shippers, encompassing carrier matching, carrier vetting, rate negotiation, booking and scheduling, and real-time tracking of full-truckload and less-than-truckload freight. Sold to businesses, manufacturers, and industrial shippers that want to outsource transportation procurement rather than run a private fleet.
• Specialized Transportation Services
• Factoring Company Portal A dedicated online portal offered by Gold Star to factoring companies that work with the carrier base Gold Star serves, supporting carrier payment and settlement workflows tied to its brokerage operations. Targeted at factoring partners and the motor carriers in Gold Star's network.

Quantifiable outcome

• Trusted by carriers with approximately 30-day payment schedule
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability3 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• McLeod SoftwarecoreTechnology or IntegrationGold Star Transportation uses McLeod Software as its Transportation Management System (TMS) platform. The McLeod-powered portal enables customers to track shipments, manage settlements, and access real-time data. Carriers use the platform for load board access, document uploads, and payment tracking. This is a critical technology partnership enabling the company's service delivery and customer/carrier self-service capabilities.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Worldwide Express / GlobalTranz: Mid-market freight brokerage and logistics provider combining truckload, LTL, and parcel services with technology-enabled quoting and tracking. Closest analogue in size and customer segment—small-to-mid enterprise shippers—with a comparable non-asset model.
• Hub Group: Intermodal and logistics solutions provider offering truck brokerage, dedicated, and final-mile alongside intermodal. Comparable mode mix (rail/intermodal plus truck), and similar reliance on McLeod-era TMS-style operations for shipper-facing services.
• Landstar System: Asset-light transportation services company using a BCO (business capacity owner) agent network to arrange truckload and intermodal freight. Mirrors Gold Star's model of brokering capacity rather than operating trucks, with similar reliance on carrier relationships and freight cycle exposure.
• Echo Global Logistics: Asset-light, tech-enabled 3PL freight broker arranging truckload, LTL, and intermodal capacity for shippers nationwide. Closest direct peer in business model—a non-asset broker leveraging TMS/AI pricing rather than owned trucks—differing mainly in scale and VC/PE backing.
• Coyote Logistics (RXO): Non-asset freight brokerage acquired by RXO, offering truckload, LTL, and intermodal arrangement with digital tools and carrier network management. Operates the same core service stack as Gold Star—freight matching, carrier vetting, and rate negotiation—at significantly larger scale.

Regional players

• A. Duie Pyle: Family-owned regional 3PL offering LTL, truckload, warehousing, and logistics along the East Coast and Midwest. Structurally similar privately held, family-operated 3PL with multi-generational management; offers a template for Gold Star's growth path and succession considerations.

Broad incumbents

• ArcBest: Multi-mode logistics and asset-based freight provider (ABF Freight asset plus brokerage through Panther and MoLo). Overlaps with Gold Star's TL/LTL/intermodal brokerage offering as part of a broader portfolio that also includes owned LTL capacity.
• NFI Industries: Diversified 3PL offering dedicated transportation, warehousing, and brokerage across North America. Overlaps with Gold Star on freight arrangement and specialized services but operates at substantially larger scale with owned assets and integrated supply chain solutions.
• C.H. Robinson Worldwide: Largest US non-asset freight broker with global NA of North American Surface Transportation and global forwarding. Competes head-to-head on truckload and intermodal freight but with proprietary Navisphere platform and significantly broader scale and capital base.

Emerging players

• Uber Freight: Digital-first freight broker and managed transportation platform with significant capital backing and shipper-direct technology. Not a direct competitor on every lane, but the most credible threat to disintermediating traditional brokers like Gold Star via shipper self-service tools and transparent pricing.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Gold Star Transportation