Pilot Freight Services acquires expedited LTL trucking provider

The transportation and logistics service provider (LSP) Pilot Freight Services is back on the acquisition trail, announcing Monday that it had expanded its e-commerce delivery capabilities by scooping up American Linehaul Corp., a non-asset based provider of expedited, less than truckload (LTL) services.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Pilot said it had closed on July 30, and that the acquisition was backed by Pilot’s investors, the private equity firm ATL Partners and the institutional investor British Columbia Investment Management Corp. (BCI).

The deal marks Pilot’s latest acquisition, following its purchase in April of DSI Logistics, a non-asset based provider of last-mile home delivery and installation for heavy and hard to handle goods. And in 2018, Pilot bought Manna Freight Systems Inc., likewise a final-mile logistics provider specializing in the delivery and installation of oversized items such as furniture and appliances.

This acquisition marks the latest major move by Pilot’s new CEO, Zach Pollock, a company veteran who took over the corner office in January. Since that time, the company has also bought out several of its franchise offices, including sites in Memphis and St. Louis, and in Kansas City.

According to Glen Mills, Pennsylvania-based Pilot, buying American Linehaul will enhance its service levels for time-definite shipments and “the growing volumes of e-commerce products no longer handled by traditional expedited LTL networks,” such as kayaks and couches. Specifically, the deal will help Pilot to meet growing demand for delivering e-commerce orders of heavy, bulky products while remaining free of "third-party LTL carrier capacity and other constraints,” the company said.

Warren, New Jersey-based American Linehaul says it offers expedited LTL service to the freight forwarding community through its U.S. network of “scheduled airport-to-airport linehaul service” lanes stretching from 66 origins to over 70 destinations, serviced through 7 regional hubs.

In a statement, Pilot said that American Linehaul’s founders, Enzo & Beth Vartuli, will continue to lead that unit as a separate entity under its current name, operating as a neutral linehaul provider for the freight forwarding community. “Pilot’s investment and partnership will enable us to expand capacity in support of our freight forwarder customers, as we stay focused on achieving our long-standing goal of being the best-in-class U.S. linehaul provider,” Enzo Vartuli said in a release.