RoadOne taps into Houston freight corridor with acquisition

Deal for The Transporter gives RoadOne a Texas-based regional intermodal service provider

The acquisition of The Transporter boosts RoadOne’s presence in Texas and is designed to give shippers more options for freight arriving from Port Houston. Pictured is a Port Houston container yard. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

RoadOne IntermodaLogistics has acquired The Transporter Inc., a regional intermodal service provider with facilities in Houston, Dallas and Laredo, Texas.

The Transporter provides local and over-the-road services, such as drayage, reefer, hazmat, bonded, dry van and flatbed solutions, as well as an in-house brokerage service.

The Houston-based company, which has about 122 trucks and 150 drivers, will now be known as Transporter IntermodaLogistics, a division of RoadOne.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“The Transporter team is a perfect match for RoadOne,” Ken Kellaway, president and CEO of RoadOne, said in a statement. “The U.S. Southwest is an important market, especially as we see container volumes increase in the Gulf of Mexico.”

The Transporter was founded in 1988 by Russ Cook, who is retiring. Jeff Ebel, the company’s vice president of operations, and Greg Cook, vice president of sales, will remain with the company running the day-to-day operations.

“I am extremely pleased to have Transporter join the RoadOne organization,” Russ Cook said in a statement. “With my sons at the helm, I know the company will continue to grow and prosper, especially backed by RoadOne’s national network and array of logistics, drayage and distribution resources.”

RoadOne is a supplier of intermodal, warehousing and logistics services with headquarters in Randolph, Massachusetts. The privately held company has over 2,200 drivers in more than 100 locations across the country, including ports and rail and truckload terminals.

RoadOne also recently added a Houston branch office and transitioned into a 480,000-square-foot transload facility in Pasadena, Texas, about 5 miles from Port Houston.

Port Houston recently reported container volume was up 14% year over year in 2022 compared to the previous year, totaling 3.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units. Total tonnage at the port was up 22% year over year compared to 2021, reaching 55 million short tons, a new record.

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Noi Mahoney

Noi Mahoney is a Texas-based journalist who covers cross-border trade, logistics and supply chains for FreightWaves. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English in 1998. Mahoney has more than 20 years experience as a journalist, working for newspapers in Maryland and Texas. Contact nmahoney@freightwaves.com