HTL buys its fifth 3PL since 2021, expands into reefer business

TS3 acquisition is second-largest and first buy since last year.

HTL Freight has made another acquisition. (Photo: Jim Allen\FreightWaves)

HTL Freight, the acquisitive 3PL based in North Carolina that has purchased several brokerages in recent years, has bought TS3 Logistics, a California-based specialist in refrigerated truckload and refrigerated LTL transportation.

Of the five acquisitions that HTL has made since its 2021 change in ownership, this is the second-largest purchase. The specific price paid for TS3 was not disclosed.

Left Lane Associates was the advisor to HTL on the acquisition. Peter Stefanovich, the president of Left Lane, said in an email to FreightWaves that HTL did not have extensive experience in the refrigerated and temperature-controlled freight sector previously, and the acquisition of TS3 extends the company’s reach.

HTL was purchased from original management by Onu Okebie and Brian Boland, Stefanovich said. All the acquisitions have come since then, he added, noting that the prior owners had not expanded the company through purchases.

HTL’s purchase of TS3 was its first since it acquired 3PL CTS Logistics in 2024. That was the company’s largest acquisition.

“In just four years, we’ve executed five targeted acquisitions, each one adding strength in key service modalities, geographic presence, and operational depth,” Okebie said in a prepared statement. “This move expands us into the critical temperature-controlled freight sector while establishing a stronghold on the West Coast to complement our reach across the Southeast, Northeast, Midwest, and Southwest.”

TS3 will be integrated under the HTL banner. There are 10 employees at TS3, and the acquisition will bring total employment up to 70, Stefanovich said.

Boland, the co-owner who is also CFO of HTL, said TS3 “brings a strong service reputation, deep market knowledge, and an entrepreneurial team.”

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John Kingston

John has an almost 40-year career covering commodities, most of the time at S&P Global Platts. He created the Dated Brent benchmark, now the world’s most important crude oil marker. He was Director of Oil, Director of News, the editor in chief of Platts Oilgram News and the “talking head” for Platts on numerous media outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business and Canada’s BNN. He covered metals before joining Platts and then spent a year running Platts’ metals business as well. He was awarded the International Association of Energy Economics Award for Excellence in Written Journalism in 2015. In 2010, he won two Corporate Achievement Awards from McGraw-Hill, an extremely rare accomplishment, one for steering coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other for the launch of a public affairs television show, Platts Energy Week.