Basics of logistics: where the money is actually made
13 October 2026Freight is a thin-margin business that looks like a fat one: the invoices are enormous and almost all of it belongs to somebody else. We priced the three doors in, and where each one actually earns.
€25,000To start, two people
17.0%Gross margin
8.0%Net margin
4 monthsFirst revenue
Logistics looks like a big business from the outside because the invoices are big. A forwarder moving forty containers a month writes half a million euros of invoices and keeps less than ninety thousand of it. Everything in this field follows from that one fact: the revenue line is somebody else's money passing through your bank account.
You are not paid for moving the box. You are paid for knowing what the box should cost, and for answering the phone when it does not arrive.