Bulldog Hiway Express becomes Daseke company

Daseke, Inc., an open-deck and specialty transportation company, announced it would merge with Charleston, S.C.-based Bulldog Hiway Express.    Bulldog Hiway Express has merged with Daseke, Inc., a family of flatbed, open-deck and specialty trucking carriers.
   Based out of Charleston, S.C., Bulldog Hiway Express operates over 400 trailers and handles dedicated and for-hire, open-deck operations, intermodal port deliveries and heavy hauls with loads up to 180,000 pounds throughout the United States and Canada. The company also operates terminals in Savannah, Ga. and Mobile, Ala.
   Dallas, Texas-based Daseke operates with 2,800 tractors and over 5,800 open-deck trailers in 49 states, Canada and Mexico.
   In addition to Bulldog Hiway Express, Daseke comprises Smokey Point Distributing, based in Arlington, Wash.; the E.W. Wylie Corporation, based in West Fargo, N.D.; J. Grady Randolph, based in Gaffney, S.C.; Central Oregon Truck Company, based in Redmond, Ore.; Lone Star Transportation (including Davenport Transport), based in Fort Worth, Texas; the Boyd Companies (including Boyd Bros. Transportation), based in Clayton, Ala.; WTI Transport, based in Tuscaloosa, Ala.; and Mid Seven Transportation, based in Des Moines, Iowa.
   “We’ve been growing at a 20 percent clip over the past two years and now, as a Daseke company, we expect that growth to compound,” Bulldog President and CEO Phil Byrd said in a statement.
   Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.