As spot rates continue to shrink, Quantix has found a new way to expand.
The Houston-based chemical transporter recently purchased the assets of five fleet-owner companies it previously contracted to haul freight: Dobbins Enterprises, C&S Express, Chancelor Transportation, T&K Chancelor Enterprises, and Templet Transit.
The deal included bringing on personnel from the companies, Quantix said.
“We hired these fleet owners to work for us,” Quantix CEO Chris Ball explained to Bulk Transporter. “They were hired capacity and we wanted to own it. So we put together a deal for these owners, bought their trucks, brought on their employees and drivers, secured a couple of terminals in the deal—and brought it all in house.”
Quantix said it also signed a new agent, L.D. McCloud Transportation, based in the Dallas area.
“They were an agency for another carrier, and they were frustrated with them and their performance, and they came to us and said, ‘We want to work for somebody else,’ so we worked out a deal and brought them on,” Ball said.
“That took all their capacity and put it in our house.”
See also: A&R Logistics rebrands as Quantix
The fleet-owner and agent transactions added more than 140 trucks and ancillary equipment to the company’s liquid and plastics transportation division, Quantix said. The new trucks will serve customers around the Gulf Coast, including Houston; and Port Allen and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; as well as Meridian, Mississippi.
L.D. McCloud, with 40 trucks, has locations in Dallas, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio.
Ball said the small-fleet owners decided it was a good time to sell—and their drivers already are benefitting.
“We wanted the assets, and they said, ‘Hey, this is a good opportunity to sell,’” he said. “And the other thing is they were having a lot of driver turnover because they couldn’t pay their guys as much as we could. And so we immediately took them on as company drivers, and all of them got a really nice pay raise.
“So it was good for the drivers, good for us from a capacity standpoint, and good for the owners. And these fleets are really young. Their average age is two years. So in our world, we have five more years in those trucks.”
Ball also hinted another larger acquisition is coming. He expected to close the deal after Thanksgiving.
Quantix last month acquired G&W Tanks, a provider of ISO tank transportation, as well as ISO tank repair, ISO tank storage depot, wash, and loading services. That acquisition was the eighth for Quantix under the ownership of Wind Point Partners, which acquired the business in 2019. Quantix added Delaware Express in December 2021, RJ’s Transportation in July 2021, Luckey in April 2021, L.T. Harnett in August 2020, First Choice Logistics in February 2020, Plantgistix in November 2019, and Blue Water Plastic Transport in June 2019.
“Quantix continues to scale our services in Texas and the Gulf Coast regions, and these new assets strengthen our ability to do so,” Ball said in a release. “Greater capacity means better service for our customers.”
