Active Transportation Buys Fellow Auto Hauler
This story appears in the June 1 print edition of Transport Topics.
Active Transportation said it bought majority ownership in Jack Cooper Transport, a move that consolidates two car haulers at a time when auto industry sales are at the lowest level since 1981.
The transaction, which was an-nounced May 24, brings together Jack Cooper, Kansas City, Mo., with Active, which is based in Joplin, Mo.
“The industry has known both names for decades,” Active’s CEO, Mike Riggs, told Transport Topics. “The auto industry has had a distressed year. I’ve never seen such a downturn.”
“Our focus now is getting through this year,” Riggs added. “When volumes get back to reasonable levels, we will be a lean, mean, competitive machine.”
The total revenue for the two companies was about $300 million last year and could drop to about $200 million because of the auto industry’s sales weakness, he said.
“We are doing this very much as a partnership,” said Riggs, who noted that Thom Cooper, owner of Jack Cooper, is remaining on the new company’s board. Cooper retained a 15% stake in the combined car hauler, Riggs said.
Cooper, which bought Pacific Motor Transport 21 years ago to serve the West Coast, traces its roots to 1928, when it began hauling General Motors vehicles. Active operates in Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey and Ohio, primarily hauling Toyota and Ford vehicles. Active’s heritage in car hauling dates to the 1930s.
Both companies employ Teamsters and have between 750 and 800 active drivers combined, Riggs said, compared with a typical workforce in recent months of about 1,000. The total fleet is about 1,250 units.
With drivers on layoff and 500 parked units, Riggs said, the company has quick access to capacity when business rebounds.
Riggs, who has controlled Active since January 2008, said the combined company eventually will be known as Cooper Active.
Riggs also is the chairman of private equity firm Innovative Equity Partners LLC. He said the company is looking at every opportunity, including fuel savings, pricing, lower injury costs and opportunities to reduce deadhead miles.
For example, Riggs said, empty miles were eliminated when Active’s movements of new vehicles into the Kansas City area were combined with shipments of cars and light trucks that originated there on Jack Cooper’s equipment.
“Both companies have great management that will remain in place,” said Robert Farrell, executive di- rector of the Automobile Carriers Conference of American Trucking Associations.
“This merger creates synergies for the new company as they operate in different geographical areas,” Farrell added.
