United Road gears up for long haul: Acquisition helps car hauler meet demand
Romulus-based new- and used-vehicle transporter United Road Services Inc. in December bought the auto hauling division of Billings, Mo.-based Waggoners Trucking Inc. for $225 million. The acquisition is a textbook example of how the handful of major vehicle logistics firms are handling increased car and truck production. Railroads typically have moved 70 percent of vehicles for automakers, said John Taylor, chair of the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at the Wayne State University’s School of Business Administration. However, railroads shifted to more oil industry and other work, which has fueled the growing need for additional capacity in the car-hauling segment of the trucking industry, Taylor said.
