TFI Eyes Open-Deck Expansion, Ramps Up Data Center Focus

TFI's corporate headquarters is in Quebec. (TFI International)

TFI International is looking to expand revenue from its open-deck fleet, tasking Scott Hoppe with leading the initiative after a tough year for the carrier’s flatbed and heavy-haul operations.

Hoppe on Jan. 20 was named chief commercial officer of TFI’s SFI truckload division. The executive joined TFI when the carrier bought Daseke, North America’s largest flatbed and heavy-haul carrier, in December 2023.

SFI operates around 8,000 tractors. TFI’s truckload segment generated more than $3 billion in total revenue during 2025.

However, TFI sees an opening to grow one of its smaller revenue streams — data centers.

TFI’s data center-related revenue totaled $43 million in 2025, growing from about $8 million in the first quarter to more than $15 million in the final three months of the year, the company said.

Image

Bédard 

“We are pleased that in Scott’s new role he will help leverage what is by any measure one of the most extensive open-deck transportation networks in North America, with multiple operating companies working seamlessly as SFI and under the TFI umbrella to support time-sensitive and complex client needs,” said CEO Alain Bédard.

“The data center industry has become a major economic driver, still in its early innings, with several owners, operators and developers already working with SFI. We see significant opportunity to further our involvement by leveraging our many inherent strengths that are perfectly suited for the multiyear build-out ahead,” Bédard added.

TFI said one of Hoppe’s early priorities will be to leverage nationwide capabilities across the open-deck, tank, logistics, dedicated, bulk, van and heavy-haul divisions to support the ongoing build-out of data centers and related electric grid projects across the U.S. and Canada.

The rest of the flatbed and heavy-haul sector found 2025 much rougher than expected.

Volume at TFI’s truckload division took a beating from tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, canceled infrastructure projects and a U.S. federal government shutdown in the third quarter of 2025, executives told analysts during the carrier’s quarterly earnings call Nov. 3.

“Steel is dead for us. We’re big in steel,” Bédard said on the call. “The overheads are killing us. Everything is slow right now. The demand is slow right now.”

The Trump administration introduced Section 232 tariffs on aluminum and steel in March and doubled the levies in June.

In addition, TFI's JHT logistics unit had 50% too many staff for its Q3 level of business as a result of the tariffs, Bédard said.

Some 30% of TFI’s specialty truckload operations’ business is with the Department of Defense. TFI’s truckload division kept staff on during the U.S. government shutdown and the ongoing downturn in truck production, Bédard said.

A quarter earlier, Bédard told analysts: “We’re most affected by the [tariff] instability in our industrial truckload base in the U.S. A lot of our customers are just waiting on the sideline to say, ‘Hey, where are we going? Where is this going to happen? Where is this going to end?’ Our miles in our specialty truckload are down like around 10%, which is not normal. It’s quiet. It’s very quiet right now.”

TFI ranks No. 4 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America, No. 3 in the truckload arena and No. 6 among LTL players.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly attributed a comment about staffing levels in TFI’s truckload division to Chief Financial Officer David Saperstein. The remark was actually made by Bédard and referred to TFI’s JHT logistics unit.