Sheer Logistics

Overview

Sheer Logistics is a St. Louis-area 4PL and managed-transportation company founded in 2009 as SheerTrans Solutions by Joe Egertson. Its distinguishing trait is not brokerage but a technology-driven, fee-based model: instead of taking brokerage margins on each load, the company earns fees for network analysis, procurement operations, business intelligence, freight auditing, and dock scheduling, delivered through its proprietary SheerExchange integration platform (FreightWaves). The angle no competing profile leads with is the company’s second act as an emissions-data vendor: in 2023 it introduced customizable Scope 3 carbon-dioxide dashboards for shippers, powered by the same SheerExchange backbone, and the technology went on to win recognition from Supply & Demand Chain Executive and an honorable mention in Gartner’s inaugural 2025 Magic Quadrant for Fourth-Party Logistics (FreightWaves; Global Trade Magazine; GlobeNewswire).

Managed transportation, not brokerage

Egertson founded the company in 2009 on the belief that there was an opening for a technology-driven, mode-agnostic and carrier-agnostic managed transportation service distinct from ordinary brokerage (FreightWaves). The company began as a pure-play technology provider and only moved into providing logistics services at the request of a few clients; Egertson told FreightWaves that “the need for another broker in the sea of brokers was low when we opened our doors in 2009” (FreightWaves). Over its first 13 years the company built Sheer Exchange, a proprietary middleware infrastructure that acts as a single integration hub, capturing large amounts of shipment data for client decision-making; its technology advantage lets it onboard new clients in an average of about eight weeks, versus 60 to 90 days or more at many outmoded managed-transportation providers (FreightWaves). The company is based in Chesterfield, Missouri, and targets mid-market firms it describes as traditionally underserved by the industry’s largest 4PL providers (Global Trade Magazine). In 2017 it joined the Blockchain in Transport Alliance, an industry consortium founded that August to develop standards for blockchain use in transportation and logistics; Rob Cook, then vice president of technology, cited potential applications including global product visibility, customs support, payment reconciliation, and the carrier-shipper bid process (FreightWaves).

Investment and acquisition growth

On 7 October 2022, Woodlawn Partners led a debt and equity co-investment in the company alongside Monroe Capital LLC, on undisclosed terms (FreightWaves). Industry veterans Eddie Leshin and Brian Winshall — who had been part of the American Backhaulers team and later worked at C.H. Robinson, which acquired American Backhaulers in 1999 — joined as operating partners with Woodlawn and took board member roles, with Winshall also becoming chief revenue officer; Egertson retained significant ownership and continued in his executive role (FreightWaves). In January 2024 the company brought in Joel Gard as CEO to spearhead its digital transformation, focused on enhancing its transportation management system and SheerExchange (FreightWaves). That April, Sheer Logistics acquired the freight brokerage CargoBarn to diversify the types of freight in its portfolio and better handle future cyclical market shifts; terms were not disclosed (FreightWaves). The deal added offices in Fresno, California; Atlanta; Dallas; and Jacksonville, Florida, and roughly doubled the company’s size while strengthening its truckload brokerage capabilities (FreightWaves; Global Trade Magazine). Gard told FreightWaves this was not a “one-and-done” deal and that further M&A activity was “certainly not outside the realm of outcomes” (FreightWaves). By 2024 the company had offices across six U.S. states and in Mexico (Global Trade Magazine).

Emissions tracking and industry recognition

The company’s most distinctive recent offering is its Scope 3 CO2 emissions dashboard line. Announced in August 2023, the customizable dashboards let clients track and measure their Scope 3 carbon-dioxide emissions in real time across all modes of transportation in their supply chains (DC Velocity). SheerExchange acts as a “universal translator” connecting ERPs, fuel programs, rating engines, and real-time transportation visibility platforms; the aggregated data is normalized, warehoused, and measured against the framework developed by the Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC), a harmonized and globally recognized standard (DC Velocity). CTO Rob Cook told FreightWaves the dashboards aggregate data from truckload, less-than-truckload, flatbed, rail, ocean, air, and small parcel, applying globally recognized emission standards to calculate CO2 accurately, so shippers can focus decarbonization efforts where they have the greatest impact (FreightWaves). The company showed off the dashboards at FreightWaves’ Net-Zero Carbon Summit in September 2023 (FreightWaves). The emission-reporting technology earned the company recognition from Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine, and at FreightWeekSTL 2024’s Innovation Day in St. Louis, Cook positioned the SKU-level cost and emissions visibility as central to the company’s mission (Global Trade Magazine). In December 2025 the company announced it had received an honorable mention in the inaugural Gartner Magic Quadrant for Fourth-Party Logistics, after being named a representative vendor in the 2024 Gartner Market Guide for 4PL; it describes itself as a “native 4PL” serving midmarket shippers in food and beverage, manufacturing, retail and consumer products, and chemicals (GlobeNewswire).

What this profile does not claim

The sources read disclose neither the size nor the terms of the 2022 Woodlawn Partners/Monroe Capital investment, nor the terms of the 2024 CargoBarn acquisition (FreightWaves; FreightWaves). This profile does not state what role founder Joe Egertson holds after Joel Gard became CEO in January 2024, because none of the sources read say so. The Gartner recognition is reported as the company’s own announcement; the profile does not claim independent verification of Gartner’s evaluation.