Transportation, Distribution & Logistics involves the planning, management, and movement of people, materials, and goods by road, pipeline, air, rail and water. Additionally, this sector includes support services such as transportation infrastructure planning and management, logistics services, mobile equipment and facility maintenance.
The transportation industry moves people and goods by air, sea and land. Its many segments include municipal systems such as bus, subway, and commuter-trains; container ships that transport goods from port to port; and rail and trucking networks that move those containers across states, countries, and continents. Global and domestic economies would come to a standstill without the transportation industry. Millions of people are employed in the transportation industry.
The trucking segments – and its truck drivers – are an integral part of the industry.
According to the American Trucking Associations, the largest national trade association for the trucking industry, over 70% of all the freight tonnage moved in the U.S. goes on trucks. The industry moves over 10.5 billion tons of freight annually, requiring over 3.4 million heavy-duty Class 8 trucks and over 3.5 million truck drivers, and using over 38 billion gallons of diesel fuel to move all of that freight. Simply – without trucks, America stops.”
Wisconsin boasts a 112,000-mile network of state highways and local roads, including the 3,650-mile Corridors 2020 network of four-lane backbone and key connector routes. The system is well-maintained, ensuring reliable just-in-time deliveries.
In recent years, transportation companies have consolidated, merging into full-service transportation integrators, combining ships, trains, boats, and rail. At the same time, we have had the pleasure at Creative Business Services / CBS-Global to assist owners of trucking companies in Wisconsin to achieve their goal – whether it is divestiture or acquisition to expand their markets and/or service offerings.
How we work
Creative Business Services / CBS-Global’s approach, whether buy-side or sell-side of the transportation industry, is to work closely with our clients to understand their aims and objectives and to develop an approach to the transaction which is most like to meet those requirements. Of importance in any mergers & acquisitions activity is maintaining confidentiality and ensuring that the existence of a transaction only becomes public knowledge when appropriate. From a buyer’s perspective, it is undesirable to draw competitors’ attention to your interest. From a seller’s perspective, the possibility of a sale can be a big distraction to management and a staff at a time when you want to show the business in the best light. Truly understanding the core value of a transportation business beyond the numbers is critical in both determining the actual value as well as understanding which buyers would find the most value in the business. There are plenty of smaller mergers and acquisitions happening and that’s particularly true in trucking, where many founders of family-owned companies are reaching retirement age and looking to sell.
