This year has been a hot one for mergers and acquisitions among trucking fleets, particularly among CCJs’s Top 250 for-hire carriers. Deals among carriers of all sizes have popped up throughout the year, but there has been a substantial uptick early and mid-year among the country’s largest.
Fleets and investment groups entered January with checkbooks in hand, and to date 20 Top 250 fleets have struck 18 deals this year.
Ringing in the new year
Jackson, Tennessee-based Milan Supply Chain Solutions (No. 145) and its subsidiary J&B Services, based in Pontotoc, Mississippi, were acquired and merged to form a new dry van truckload carrier, Ascend. Ascend acquired Greenville, South Carolina-based Dedicated Transport Solutions just a few weeks later. Bison Transport (No. 52) acquired Bangor, Maine-based Hartt Transportation (No. 187). Schneider (No. 8) grew its dedicated operations with the acquisition of Ohio-based truckload carrier Midwest Logistics Systems (No. 103) and its more than 1,000 truck drivers and 900 tractors across 30 central U.S. locations. Brownstown, Michigan-based EHS Trucking Enterprises was acquired by RoadOne IntermodaLogistics (No. 57), a full-service trucking company serving the Great Lakes Region. J.B. Hunt Transport Services (No. 3) acquired Conover, North Carolina-based Zenith Freight Lines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of furniture manufacturer Bassett, for roughly $87 million.
Hirschbach Motor Lines (No. 61) in February acquired Sapulpa, Oklahoma-based refrigerated carrier John Christner Trucking (No. 115), creating a refrigerated carrier giant.
TA Services, a division of PS Logistics (No. 37) in May acquired Houston, Alabama-based C2 Freight Resources, a high-end brokerage specializing in dry-van, flatbed, temperature-controlled, expedited and LTL services.
