NAST provides transportation and logistics services across North America through a network of offices in the United States,U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The primary services provided by NAST areinclude truckload and less than truckload (“LTL”) transportation brokerage services.

Global Forwarding provides transportation and logistics services through an international network of offices in North America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and South America;America and also contracts with independent agents worldwide. The primary services provided by Global Forwarding include ocean freight services, air freight services, and customs brokerage.

Robinson Fresh provides sourcing services that primarily include the buying, selling, andand/or marketing of fresh fruits, vegetables, and other value-added perishable items. Robinson Fresh sources products from around the world.

Other Surface Transportation revenues are primarily earned by our Europe Surface Transportation operating segment. Europe Surface Transportation provides transportation and logistics services, including truckload and groupage services, across Europe.

C.H. Robinson provides freight transportation and related logistics and supply chain services. Our services range from commitments on a specific shipment to much more comprehensive and integrated relationships. We execute these service commitmentsservices by investing in and retaining talented employees, developing innovative proprietary systems and processes, and utilizing a network of contracted transportation providers, including, but not limited to, contracted motor carriers, railroads, and ocean and air carriers. We make a profit that is driven by the value we provide our customers and the resulting difference between what we charge to our customers for the totality of services provided to them and what we pay to the transportation providers to handle or transport the freight.

We provide the following transportation and logistics services:

Customers communicate their freight needs, typically on an order-by-order basis, to the C.H. Robinson team responsible for their account.account, either directly or through highly automated connections established between Navisphere and the customers' transportation management system. The C.H. Robinson team then ensures that all necessary information regarding each shipment is available in Navisphere. This information is received electronically by Navisphere from the customers' system, entered by our employees into Navisphere, or by the customer through our web tools. We utilize the information from Navisphere and other available sources to select the best contracted carrier based upon factors such as their service score, equipment availability, freight rates, and other relevant factors.

Once the contracted carrier is selected, we receive the contracted carrier’s commitment to provide the transportation. During the time when a shipment is executed, we connect frequently, either electronically or manually, with the contracted carrier to track the status of the shipment to meet the unique needs of our customers.

For most of our transportation and logistics services, we are a service provider. By accepting the customer’s order, we accept certain responsibilities for transportation of the shipment from origin to destination. The carrier’s contract is with us, not the customer, and we are responsible for prompt payment of freight charges. In the cases where we have agreed to pay for claims for damage to freight while in transit, we pursue reimbursement from the contracted carrier for the claims. In our Managed Services business, we are acting as the shipper’s agent. In those cases, the carrier’s contract is typically with the customer, and we collect a fee for our services.

our services to provide a profit to us for the totality of services performed for the customer. Our services to the customer may be priced on a spot market, or transactional basis, or prearranged contractual rates. Most of our contractual rate commitments are for one year or less and allow for renegotiation. As is typical in the transportation industry, most of these contracts do not include specific volume commitments. When we enter into prearranged rate agreements for truckload services with our customers, we usually have fuel surcharge agreements that allow for fuel to primarily act as a pass-through cost, in addition to the underlying line-haul portion of the rate.

We purchase most of our truckload services from our contracted truckload carriers on a spot market, or transactional basis, even when we are working with the customer on a contractual basis. In a small number ofsome cases, we may get advance commitments from one or more contracted motor carriers to transport contracted shipments for the length of our customer contract.contract or to provide transportation services within dense transportation lanes. In those cases, where we have prearranged rates with contracted motor carriers, there is typically a calculated fuel surcharge based on a mutually agreed-upon formula.

While providing day-to-day transportation services, our employees often identify opportunities for additional logistics services as they become more familiar with our customers’ daily operations and the nuances of our customers’ supply chains. We offer a wide range of logistics services on a global basis that reduce or eliminate supply chain inefficiencies. We analyze customers’ current transportation rate structures, modes of shipping, and carrier selection. We identify opportunities to consolidate shipments for cost savings. We suggest ways to improve operating and shipping procedures and manage claims. We help customers minimize storage through crossdocking and other flow-through operations. Many of these services are provided in connection with providing the transportation services based on the nature of the customer relationship. In addition to these transportation services, we may also provide additionala wide range of value-added logistics services, such as contract warehousing,freight consolidation, customs brokerage, supply chain consulting transportation management, and other services,analysis, emission analytics, optimization, and reporting, for which we are usually paid separately.

We have broadened our relationship with many of our customers through an emphasis on integrated logistics solutions, resulting in us managingour management of a greater portion of their supply chains. We often serve our customers through specially created teams and through multiple locations. Our transportation and logistics services are provided to numerous international customers through our worldwide network.

Since we were founded in 1905, we have been in the business of sourcing fresh produce. Much of our logistics expertise can be traced to our significant experience in handling produce and other perishable commodities. Because of its perishable nature, produce must be rapidly packaged;packaged, carefully transported within tight timetables, usually in temperature controlled equipment;temperature-controlled equipment, and quickly distributed to replenish high-turnover inventories maintained by our customers. In many instances, we consolidate an individual customer’s produce orders into truckload quantities at the point of origin and arrange for transportation of the truckloads, often to multiple destinations. Our sourcing customer base includes grocery retailers, restaurants, foodservice distributors, and produce wholesalers.

Our sourcing services include inventory forecasting and replenishment, brand management, and category development services. We have various national and regional branded produce programs, including both proprietary brands and nationally licensed

We seek additional business from existing customers and pursue new customers based on our knowledge of the marketplace, our unique information advantage, and the range of logistics services that we can provide. We believe that our account management disciplines, expertise, and technology built by and for supply chain experts enable our employees to better serve our customers by combining a broad knowledge of logistics and market conditions with a deep, data-driven, understanding of the specific supply chain issues facing individual customers and certain vertical industries. With the guidance of our executive and shared services teams, offices are given significant latitude to pursue opportunities and to commit our resources to serve our customers.

The transportation services industry is highly competitive and fragmented. We compete against many logistics companies, including technology-based service companies, trucking companies, property freight brokers, carriers offering logistics services, NVOCCs, IACs, and freight forwarders. We also buy from and sell transportation services to companies that compete with us.

In our sourcing business, we compete with produce brokers, produce growers, produce marketing companies, produce wholesalers, and foodservice buying groups. We also buy from and sell produce to companies that compete with us.

We often compete with respect to price, scope of services, or a combination thereof, but believe that our most significant competitive advantages are:

facets of the transaction. Our technology and software platform is essential to serviceserve our customers and contracted carriers and to manage our business. In 2020,2022, we executed approximately 1920 million shipments for approximately 105,000100,000 customers with more than 73,000approximately 96,000 contracted carriers.

Navisphere and our other operational systems help our employees service customer orders, select the optimal mode of transportation, build and consolidate shipments, identify appropriate carriers, and manage exceptions, all based on customer-specific service parameters. Our industry-leading data estate providesand scale provide our organization with the necessary business intelligence to allow for the necessary decision support decision-making in all areas of our business.

We have committed to investing $1 billion in our technology innovation over a five-year period to bring the value of technology, data, and analytics to our customers, help solve their most complex logistics challenges, and drive the industry forward. With more than 1,000approximately 1,300 data scientists, engineers, and developers, we are continuing to invest in global talentmake smart, talent-focused investments globally in this critical area and building the next generation of tools and processes that will change how supply chains function.

The Navisphere DriverDriver™ mobile application provides contracted motor carriers’ drivers with load status automation capabilities. Drivers can elect to allow the application to automate location services and updates while in transit. Drivers can also capture and upload bill of lading documentation to initiate payment processes. The track and trace capabilities give our systems and customers frequent load status information.

We continually work on establishing contractual relationships with qualified transportation providers that also meet both ours and our customers’ service requirements to provide dependable services, favorable pricing, and available capacity during periods when demand for transportation equipment is greater than the supply. We own very little transportation equipment and do not employ the people directly involved with the delivery of our customers’ freight, so these relationships are critical to our success.

Contracted motor carriers provide access to dry vans, temperature controlled vans, flatbeds, and bulk capacity. These contracted motor carriers are of all sizes, including owner-operators of a single truck, small and mid-size fleets, private fleets, and the largest national trucking companies. Consequently, we are not dependent on any one contracted motor carrier. Our largest truck transportation provider was less than two percent of our total cost of transportation in 2020.2022. Contracted motor carriers that had fewer than 100 tractorstrucks transported approximately 7880 percent of our truckload shipments in 2020.2022. Every United StatesU.S. and Canadian motor carrier which we do business with is required to execute a contract that establishes that the motor carrier is acting as an independent contractor. At the time the contract is executed, and thereafter, through subscriptions with a third partythird-party service, we confirm that each United StatesU.S. contracted motor carrier is properly licensed and insured, has the necessary federally-issued authority to provide transportation services, and can provide the necessary level of service on a dependable basis. Our motor carrier contracts require that the contracted motor carrier issue invoices only to, and accept payment solely from, us for the shipments that they transport under their contract with us and allow us to withhold payment to satisfy previous claims or shortages. Our standard contracts do not include volume commitments, and typically the initial contract rate is modified each time we confirm an individual shipment with a contracted motor carrier.

In our NVOCC ocean transportation business, we have contracts with most of the major ocean carriers, which support a variety of service and rate needs for our customers. We negotiate annual contracts that establish the predetermined rates we agree to pay the ocean carriers. The rates are negotiated based on expected volumes from our customers in specific trade lanes. These contracts are often amended throughout the year to reflect changes in market conditions for our business, such as additional trade lanes.

We operate both as a consolidator and as a transactional IAC in the United StatesU.S. and internationally. We select air carriers and provide for local pickup and delivery of shipments. We execute our air freight services through our relationships with air carriers, through charter services, block space agreements, capacity space agreements, and transactional spot market negotiations. Through charter services, we contract part or all of an airplane to meet customer requirements. Our block space agreements and capacity space agreements are contracts for a defined time period. The contracts include fixed allocations for predetermined flights at agreed upon rates that are reviewed periodically throughout the year. The transactional negotiations afford us the ability to capture excess capacity at prevailing market rates for a specific shipment.

Our operating results have been subject to seasonal trends as a result of, or as influenced by, numerous factors, including national holidays, weather patterns, consumer demand, economic conditions, and other similar and subtle forces. Although seasonal changes in the transportation industry have not had a significant impact on our cash flow or results of operations, we expect this trend to continue, and we cannot guarantee that it will not adversely impact us in the future.

Our operations may be regulated and licensed by various federal, state, and local transportation agencies in the United StatesU.S. and similar governmental agencies in foreign countries in which we operate.

We are subject to licensing and regulation as a property freight broker and are licensed by the U.S. Department of Transportation (“DOT”) to arrange for the transportation of property by motor vehicle. The DOT prescribes qualifications for acting in this capacity, including certain surety bonding requirements. We areC.H. Robinson is also licensed under, and subject to regulation by, the Federal Maritime Commission (“FMC”) as an ocean transportation intermediary in the capacity as both a freight forwarder and a NVOCC andNVOCC; we maintain separate bonds and licenses for each. We operate as a Department of Homeland Security certified IAC, providing air freight services, subject to commercial standards set forth by the International Air Transport Association (“IATA”) and federal regulations issued by the Transportation Security Administration (“TSA”). We provideC.H. Robinson performs customs brokerage services as apursuant to its customs broker under abrokerage license issued by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and(“CBP”). As a licensed customs broker, C.H. Robinson has experience working with other authoritative governmental agencies.government agencies that maintain jurisdiction over certain customs entries. We also havehold customs trade partnership against terrorism (“C-TPAT”) certification with CBP as both a customs broker and maintain other licenses as required by law.NVOCC.

Although Congress enacted legislation in 1994 that substantially preempts the authority of states to exercise economic regulation of motor carriers and brokers of freight, some intrastate shipments for which we arrange transportation may be subject to additional licensing, registration, or permit requirements. We contractually require and rely on the motor carrier

We buy and sell fresh produce under licenses issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) as required by the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (“PACA”). Other sourcing and distribution activities may be subject to various federal and state food and drug statutes and regulations.

WeAs a publicly traded company and issuer of stock, we are subject to a variety of other U.S. and foreign lawsmaintain compliance with various anti-corruption and regulations including, but not limited to,anti-bribery statutes such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the UK Bribery Act 2010, and certain other foreign countries' equivalent statutes or programs in the countries in which we operate.

We are subject to laws and regulations in the U.S. and other similar anti-briberycountries concerning the handling of personal information, including laws that require us to notify governmental authorities and/or affected individuals of data breaches involving certain personal information. These laws and anti-corruption statutes.regulations include, for example, the European General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act. Regulatory actions or litigation seeking to impose significant penalties could be brought against us in the event of a data breach or alleged non-compliance with such laws and regulations.

As of December 31, 2020,2022, we had a total of 14,88817,399 employees 12,977in more than 38 countries, 14,678 of whom are network employees, as presented below. Our remaining employees centrally servesupport our network of officesteams in areas such as finance, information technologyAdvanced Analytics and software engineering, data scienceData Science, Communications, Customer Strategy, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Marketing, Product, and analysis, legal, marketing,Technology and human resources.Engineering. The following table illustrates our employeesemployee count by global region:

We believe the way to make progress on our DEI initiatives is by taking a shared approach to accountability. DEI metrics are logistics expertstracked and problem solvers,reviewed quarterly with senior leadership. This allows leaders to spot trends and act as an extensionneeded. Additionally, we have identified aspirational goals to be met by 2025 that focus on hiring, retention, engagement, and leadership representation for women (globally) and people of color (U.S. only). We regularly assess our progress on these goals and will set new goals in the future as we achieve our objectives. Some of our customers' teams. Our customers and contract carriers consistently citeDEI metrics are summarized below as of December 31, 2022. Additional information can be found in our people and the strong, value added relationships withannual ESG report.

We have shown our account teams as a primary reason they choosecommitment to work with us. Our innovative talent strategies support the development and empowerment of our people, enabling the success of our customers and contract carriers and helping drive our growth strategy.

Our employee turnover ratio, which is calculated as the number of employees who departed the Company in the twelve12 months ended December 31, 2020,2022, divided by the average number of employees in the twelve12 months ended December 31, 2020,2022, was 1819 percent. On average,

Despite tight labor market conditions in 2022, our turnover rate held steady. We achieved this by focusing on the top drivers of retention, including work-life balance, compensation, career growth opportunities and benefits.

We regularly survey our employees and engage in focus groups to better understand what our employees value and how we can continuously enhance their experience. Our 2022 engagement survey generated a positive engagement score of 80 percent, which is consistent with past years and is in the top third of all companies surveyed. Leadership continues to be a signature strength for C.H. Robinson. In this survey, manager effectiveness and manager relationship favorability scores surpassed the 75th percentile benchmark. The survey results indicated that employees feel supported by their managers in growing their careers, and they believe they can confide in their managers and that managers are doing a good job helping them prioritize their work. In addition, our focus on providing employees visibility to career opportunities at C.H. Robinson has increased those scores in 2021 and 2022, which is a driver of engagement for our employees and supports retention.

The foundation of our talent strategy starts with building and developing great leaders. We prioritize our leaders’ capabilities to coach and provide feedback to empower employees to grow their careers. We provide new leaders with onboarding to ensure incoming and transitioning leaders get up to speed quickly, so they are ready to lead and support their employees. Throughout their careers, leaders are provided development opportunities via our leadership development programs, which are in place for our high potential employees and next generation, and high-performing leaders. In addition, we have a team of six direct reports. Becausesponsorship program to champion the qualitygrowth of our employees is essentialof color and women employees. We also have targeted leadership development programs for women and Black leaders at various stages of their leadership careers. We evaluate leadership talent across the organization through our talent review process, which allows us to our success, wecalibrate and differentiate talent based on performance and potential across the organization. This process drives succession planning for critical roles in the organization.

As new employees join C.H. Robinson, they are highly selective in our recruiting and hiring. To support our hiring processes, we have a corporate talent acquisition team that develops a robust, diverse pipeline of qualified candidates that managers can draw from.

Throughout an employee’s career at C.H. Robinson, we develop and recognize employees by setting clear performance expectations and providing development reviews. Ongoing employeeopportunities. All employees have access to a digital learning platform that supports their ongoing development. Employees can also explore potential roles and career paths through an online resource center, where they are provided resources about performance and development, is an important componentalong with information about how they are supported and rewarded for the work they do.

The goals of our compensation programs are to: align pay for performance; reward profitable long-term growth; support company goals, business transformation, and company culture; pay market competitive compensation that attracts, retains, and motivates top talent and allows for upside opportunity to assess employee engagement, which is measured by willingnessreward that talent if the company achieves superior performance; and align the interests of management to recommend a company, intentour owners, the shareholders. Our rewards are constructed to stay, pride,support business strategy and the experienceachievement of intrinsic motivation onbusiness performance goals. We have designed short- and long-term incentives to drive the job. The 2020 survey indicated a positive engagement scorebehaviors necessary to achieve our strategic priorities. This ensures groups and individuals are rewarded for working together toward our most impactful priorities, products, and services. We are increasing compensation transparency, which helps drive the connection between pay and performance and supports our goal of 81 percent, which was consistent with benchmark companies.

Giving back to advance in a variety of career paths, including management, corporate sales, and customer and carrier account management.

C.H. Robinson is committed to reducing our environmental footprint, while helping to support sustainability efforts in 2020. We proudly support our people, our industry and for our communitiescustomers. On a regular basis, we engage with our internal and external stakeholders to identify our priority ESG topics, including environmental sustainability. Our Chief Human Resources and ESG Officer and Vice President of ESG provide annual updates to the Board of Directors and Governance Committee on our most critical ESG topics. The full results of these engagements and more information is available in our annual ESG report each year, which includes indices for the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board and Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures.

We focus our sustainability efforts in three areas: working to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions, helping customers meet their sustainability goals, and contributing to advancements in sustainability within the transportation industry. We are committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and we measure and report on our Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions in our annual ESG report. We have set a science-aligned below 2°C goal to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 carbon intensity by 2025. In 2022, we announced we were 90 percent of the way to our goal. To achieve this goal, we have focused on energy efficiencies within our operations and purchasing renewable energy credits. In addition, Robinson Fresh focuses on reducing food waste through employee match programs, grantmaking, disaster reliefinnovative technologies and reducing waste by including sustainable packaging options across our product portfolio.

As a leader in our industry, we work to advance sustainability efforts an employee hardship fund,through collaborations with non-profit and scholarship programs. In 2020, weacademic institutions, including sponsorship of research and participation in working groups focused additional giving on supporting COVID-19 relief efforts. We also support organizations focusinginnovation within the transportation industry.

Additional information about our human capital management and environmental sustainability initiatives, goals, and achievements is available in the ESG report available on socialour website; however, the ESG report is not incorporated by reference in, and racial equity.is not a part of, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Robert C. Biesterfeld, Jr.Scott P. Anderson has been a Director of the company since 2012, including as Chairman of our Board of Directors from 2020 to 2022, and was namedappointed Interim Chief Executive Officer in Mayeffective January 1, 2023. Scott was a Senior Advisor to Patterson Companies, Inc. (Nasdaq: PDCO), a medical supply company, from June 2017 to June 2019. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Patterson Companies from 2010 to 2017. In April 2013, he was elected to the additional responsibility of Chairman of the Board. Prior to becoming CEO,2006, when he held the positions of Chief Operating Officer from February 2018 to May 2019,became President of NAST from January 2016 to December 2018,Patterson Dental Supply, Inc., Scott held senior management positions in the dental unit, including Vice President, of Truckload from January 2014 to December 2015,Sales, and Vice President, Marketing. Scott became a director of SourcingPatterson in 2010. He is a past chairman of the Dental Trade Alliance and Temperature Controlled Transportation from January 2013 to December 2014, and General Manager for the U.S. West Sourcing Region for the company’s Robinson Fresh division from 2003 to 2011. He began his career with C.H. Robinson in 1999 in the Corporate Procurement and Distribution Services office. Bob serveshas served on the Boardboard of Directors fordirectors of the Transportation Intermediaries Association andOrdway Theater. Scott is a trustee of Gustavus Adolphus College, where he serves as Chairman of the Winona StateBoard. Scott earned a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University, Foundation. Bob graduatedKellogg School of Management and his bachelor’s degree from Winona State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Ben G. Campbell was named Chief Legal Officer and Secretary in January 2015. Previous positions with the company include Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary from January 2009 to December 2014 and Assistant General Counsel from February 2004 to December 2008. Ben joined C.H. Robinson in 2004. Before coming to C.H. Robinson, Ben was a partner at Rider Bennett, LLP, in Minneapolis, MN.Minnesota. He currently serves as a director on the board of Second Harvest Heartland. Ben holds a Bachelor of Science degree from St. John’s University and a Juris Doctor from William Mitchell College of Law.

Angela K. Freeman was named Chief Human Resources Officer in January 2015, and in October 2019, also became ESG Officer. Prior to her current role, she served as Vice President of Human Resources from August 2012 to December 2014. Previous positions with C.H. Robinson include Vice President of Investor Relations and Public Affairs from January 2009 to August 2012, and Director of Investor Relations, and Director of Marketing Communications. She also serves as the presidentCommunications, and President of the C.H. Robinson Worldwide Foundation. In addition to her responsibilities at C.H. Robinson, Angie currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Shyft Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SHYF) and on the Board of the University of North Dakota Alumni Association & Foundation. Prior to joining C.H. Robinson in 1998, Angie was with McDermott/O’Neill & Associates, a Boston-based public affairs firm. Angie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Dakota and a Master of Science degree from the London School of Economics.

Michael J. Short was named President of Global Freight Forwarding in May 2015. Prior to this role, Mike served as Vice President, Global Forwarding - North America. He joined C.H. Robinson through the acquisition of Phoenix International ("Phoenix"(“Phoenix”) in November 2012, and is a 21-year veteran of the global forwarding industry. Priorprior to being named President, Mike served as Vice President, Global Forwarding - North America. Prior to joining C.H. Robinson,which, he held a number of roles at Phoenix, including Regional Manager, Sales Manager, and General Manager of the St. Louis, Missouri office. He graduated from the University of Missouri in 1993 withMike holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business.Business from the University of Missouri.

Michael P. Zechmeister was named Chief Financial Officer in August 2019. Before coming to C.H. Robinson, Mike served as Chief Financial Officer of United Natural Foods, Inc., a food wholesaler, from September 2015 to August 2019. Prior to joining United

We were reincorporated in Delaware in 1997 as the successor to a business existing, in various legal forms, since 1905. Our corporate office is located at 14701 Charlson Road, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, 55347-5088, and our telephone number is (952) 937-8500. Copies of our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Proxy Statement, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are available free of charge through our website (www.chrobinson.com) as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file the material with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Information contained on our website is not part of this report.

Except for the historical information contained in this Form 10-K, the matters set forth in this document may be deemed to be forward-looking statements that represent our expectations, beliefs, intentions, or strategies concerning future events. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience or our present expectations, including, but not limited to, such factors such as changes in economic conditions, including uncertain consumer demand; changes in market demand and pressures on the pricing for our services; fuel price increases or decreases, or fuel shortages; competition and growth rates within the global logistics industry; freight levels and increasing costs and availability of truck capacity or alternative means of transporting freight; risks associated with significant disruptions in the transportation industry; changes in relationships with existing contracted truck, rail, ocean, and air carriers; changes in our customer base due to possible consolidation among our customers; risks associated with reliance on technology to operate our business; cyber-security related risks; risks associated with operations outside of the United States;U.S.; our ability to successfully integrate the operations of acquired companies with our historic operations; risks related to our search for a permanent CEO and retention of key management personnel; climate change related risks; risks associated with our indebtedness; risk associated with interest rates; risks associated with litigation, including contingent auto liability and insurance coverage; risks related to the elimination of LIBOR; risks associated with the potential impact of changes in government regulations; risks associated with the changes to income tax regulations; risks associated with the produce industry, including food safety and contamination issues; the impact of war on the economy; changes to our capital structure; changes due to catastrophic events including pandemics such as COVID-19,COVID-19; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in Item 1A, Risk Factors. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. We undertake no obligation to update these statements in light of subsequent events or developments.

The following are material factors that could affect our financial performance and could cause actual results for future periods to differ materially from our anticipated results or other expectations, including those expressed in any forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We may also refer to this disclosure to identify factors that may cause actual results to differ from those expressed in other forward-looking statements, including those made in oral presentations such as telephone conferences and webcasts open to the public.

As demonstrated by recent material and high-profile data security breaches, computer malware, viruses, computer hacking, and phishing attacks have become more prevalent, have occurred on our operating systems in the past, and may occur on our operating systems in the future. Previous attacks on our operating systems have not had a material financial impact on our operations, but we cannot guarantee that future attacks will have little to no impact on our business. Furthermore, given the interconnected nature of the supply chain and our significant presence in the industry, we believe that we may be an attractive target for such attacks. We maintainThe insurance coverage we currently have in place may not apply to a cyber liability insurance policy with coverage of $10 millionparticular loss or it may not be sufficient to help protect us against losses thatcover all liabilities to which we may result from a cyber-related security breach or similar event. The policy has a retention of $1 million per incident.be subject. A loss for which we are not adequately insured could materially affect our financial results.

Though it is difficult to determine what, if any, harm may directly result from any specific interruption or attack, a significant impact on the performance, reliability, security, and availability of our operating systems and technical infrastructure to the satisfaction of our users may harm our reputation, impair our ability to retain existing customers or attract new customers, and expose us to legal claims and government action, each of which could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.

The occurrence or consequences of any of these factors may restrict our ability to operate in the affected region and/or decrease the profitability of our operations in that region.

As we continue to expand our business internationally, we expose the company to increased risk of loss from foreign currency fluctuations, as well as longer accounts receivable payment cycles. Foreign currency fluctuations could result in currency exchange gains or losses or could affect the book value of our assets and liabilities. Furthermore, we may experience unanticipated changes to our income tax liabilities resulting from changes in geographical income mix and changing international tax legislation. We have limited control over these risks, and if we do not correctly anticipate changes in international economic and political conditions, we may not alter our business practices in time to avoid adverse effects.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (“C.H. Robinson,” “the company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is one of the world's largest global logistics platforms. Our missioncompanies in the world, with consolidated total revenues of $24.7 billion in 2022. We bring together customers, carriers, and suppliers to connect and grow supply chains. We are grounded in our customer promise to use our technology, which is to improve the world's supply chains through our people, processes, and technology by delivering exceptional value to our customers and suppliers. We provide freight transportation services and logistics solutions to companies of all sizes in a wide variety of industries. We operate through a network of offices in North America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and South America. We offer a global suite of services using tailored, market-leading technology built by and for supply chain experts. Ourexperts and powered by our information advantage, to deliver smarter solutions. These global networksolutions, combined with the expertise of supply chain experts work withour people, deliver value–from improved cost reductions and reliability to sustainability and visibility–that our customers to drive better supply chain outcomes by leveraging our experience, data, technology, and scale.carriers can rely on.

The cost of purchased transportation in the North American surface transportation market experienced significant volatility in freight volumes and costsdeclined significantly over the durationcourse of 20202022 as excess carrier capacity combined with slowing demand led to softening market conditions. This compared to extremely tight market conditions in 2021 as strong demand combined with challenges due to driver availability and supply chain disruptions drove purchased transportation costs to historic levels. Many of these challenges improved over the course of 2022, allowing routing guides to perform more efficiently, which resulted in a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact on thecomparatively soft market varied significantly depending on the severity of the restrictions in place to control the outbreak, industry, and customer size. Certain industries, such as retail, saw periods of elevated demand while other industries, especially smaller customers in those industries, experienced extended periods of demand and production well below historical levels.versus 2021. Industry freight volumes, as measured by the Cass Freight Index, declined approximately eight percentwere flat in 20202022, compared to 2019, which reflects the volatility resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Industry freight volumes compared to 2019 bottomed outa 13 percent increase in the second quarter of 2020, declining approximately 21 percent before showing growth of approximately four percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to the prior year.

The cost of purchased transportation fell significantly in the global forwarding market in the second half of 2020, to 1.82022 as global demand slowed in most trade lanes. The peak shipping season historically experienced in the fourth quartersecond half of 2020. Thiseach year, which would typically drive elevated rates and volumes, remained uncharacteristically soft. Shippers in the U.S. and Europe continue to struggle with elevated inventory levels as consumer demand has been negatively impacted by inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty. In an effort to adapt to this slowing demand, steamship lines continue to rationalize services by reducing capacity where possible with blank sailings and slow steaming. All of these factors have allowed port congestion to ease in many parts of the world. As with the North American surface transportation market, this compared to an average depthextremely tight market conditions in 2021 as strong demand combined with supply chain disruptions caused by port congestion along with equipment and labor shortages drove purchased transportation to historic levels in 2021 and the first half of tender2022. The slowdown of 1.2global demand has also had a significant impact on the air freight market. Air freight pricing and volumes have significantly declined driven by shippers maintaining higher inventory levels, declining consumer demand, and improving ocean schedule reliability eliminating ocean freight to air freight conversions. Air freight capacity continues to improve and drive rates lower in many trade lanes due to increased belly capacity as commercial flights become more frequent after being significantly reduced during 2019, which is among the lowest levels we have experienced this decade.COVID-19 pandemic.

Our 2022 surface transportation results benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic. The air freight market experienced a significant decline in capacity due to a reduction in commercial flights from COVID-19 restrictions, which resulted in sharp pricing increases. The impactdeclining cost of the COVID-19 pandemic on the ocean freight market varied significantlypurchased transportation over the course of 2020 depending on the severity of the outbreak in regions in which we operate. Many industries experienced temporary volume reductions and factory closures due to efforts to contain the spread of the virus, which initially resulted in excess capacity and decreased pricing early in 2020. In the second half of 2020, most industries had resumed production and companies began to replenish low inventory levels amidst continued market uncertainty from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As demand accelerated, it outpaced carrier capacity returning to the market, which resulted in significant pricing increases foryear, as periods where the cost of ocean freight.

Our 2020 surface transportation2022 Global Forwarding results were largely consistent with the overall market trends summarizeddiscussed above although we did experience volume increases in excess of the industry trends as measured by the Cass Freight Index. Despite industry freight volumes declining approximately eight percent in 2020, our combined North American Surface Transportation (“NAST”) truckload and LTL volumes increased approximately 5.5 percent. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on our small business customers as our customer count decreased nearly 12 percent, driven almost entirely by small and emerging market customers. Similarly, the number of active contracted transportation companies we utilized declined approximately six percent, solely with those carriers having a fleet under 100 trucks. We continued to work with our customers to meet our contractual commitments while adapting our pricing to reflect the volatile cost of transportation pricing seen since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic while also serving customers' needs in the spot market. This resulted in an increase in average truckload linehaul rates per mile, excluding fuel costs, charged to customers, although our truckload transportation costs, excluding fuel prices, increased at a faster rate resulting in adjusted gross profit margin compression.

The following summarizes select 20202022 year-over-year operating comparisons to 2019:2021:

NAST operating expenses in 2022 also included the impact of organizational changes made to the ongoing expenses from the Prime acquisition, which were partially offset by the eliminationsupport our enterprise strategy of all non-essential travel.accelerating our digital transformation and productivity initiatives. In connection with these organizational changes, we