William B. Cassidy, Senior Editor | Mar 02, 2012 11:47AM EST
Celadon Trucking will get trucks, trailers and, perhaps most important, badly needed truck drivers from its purchase of Teton Transportation’s assets.
The $557 million truckload carrier purchased the assets of Knoxville, Tenn.-based Teton for an undisclosed amount, Celadon’s third acquisition since October. The Teton acquisition expands Celadon’s capacity, broadens its customer base and increases freight density in its primary traffic lanes, the company said.
The purchase also adds truck drivers — perhaps the most valuable asset in trucking in 2012 — to Celadon’s roster as the company struggles to “seat” trucks. In the second half of 2011, freight revenue dropped by $6.2 million and loaded miles dropped 7.2 percent. Celadon blamed a “slight decrease” in seated line-haul tractors.
“The decrease in company tractors was primarily driven by difficulty recruiting drivers,” Celadon said in its fourth quarter earnings report.
Despite the six-month drop in freight revenue, the Indianapolis-based carrier increased total revenue and boosted profit 47.9 percent to $10.8 million in the same period. In December, Celadon acquired the assets of truckload carrier Glen Moore from less-than-truckload giant YRC Worldwide for an undisclosed amount.
That purchase brought 557 tractors and 1,151 trailers to Celadon. The company operates more than 2,600 tractors at the end of 2011. In October, the company acquired 229 tractors and 435 trailers operated by American Eagle, a non-refrigerated division of Frozen Food Express Industries.
Both acquisitions also bought an undisclosed number of drivers to Celadon.
“We anticipate revenue to increase in the near term due to an anticipated increase in our seated line-haul tractors through the hiring of certain drivers from the acquisitions of FFE and Glen Moore,” the company said in its 10-Q.
Last October, Celadon purchased a 6.3 percent stake in USA Truck, but the rival truckload carrier rebuffed potential talks about a merger or acquisition.
-- Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @wbcassidy_joc.
