In the first big trucking acquisition of 2023, Forward Air of Greenville, Tennessee signed a deal to absorb all of Land Air Express of Bowling Green, Kentucky. In the $56.5 million dollar transaction, Forward Air will be taking in all of the office and warehouse personnel, as well as the over 250 drivers, 300 trucks, and 25 terminals.
As is the standard operating procedure in a trucking merger, drivers and other personnel can expect to fill out the usual paperwork (applications, criminal background checks, drug screenings) and possibly have to change routes or even terminals as the companies integrate resources.
There has been no word so far as to layoffs or a WARN Act application, so we assume there will not be a purge as the companies merge, which is slated to be completed by the end of 2023.
Let’s see what the SAFER profiles have to say
According to FMCSA’s SAFER profile on Land Air Express, Forward Air will be acquiring 302 power units and 258 drivers. The company handles general freight, as well as chemicals, liquids and gasses, and US Mail.
On the inspection side, LAE had 134 vehicle inspections, 199 driver inspections, and 10 hazard material inspections. They remained under the national average for out-of-service violations, with 22 (16.4%) vehicle and three (1.5%) driver OOS penalties.
They had one hazmat OOS violation, which put them at 10%, above the 6.47% national average. As for crashes, LAE had three injury-related crashes and nine towaways.
As to Forward Air’s SAFER record, they are listed as a broker but do have their own trailer pool. It had three inspections in the past 24 months, two of which were found to be placed OOS.
As for crashes, Forward Air is shown with two injuries and one towaway.
Todd Maiden, finance editor at FreightWaves, wrote an article pertaining to the business end of the merger. You can follow him to get detailed business information and commentary as more information is made available.
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