Terminal Properties Attract Investors

Investors may be shunning trucking stocks, but a small but growing number of firms think there is money to be made in owning truck terminals.

Long viewed as a financial backwater, freight terminals are being touted as good long-term investments and a way for trucking companies to free up money to invest in other parts of their business. In addition, an increasing number of developers and real estate investment trusts are coming to appreciate the critical role that freight terminals play in the logistics supply chain.

Although decidedly utilitarian, freight terminals are also evolving.

New freight handling facilities are larger and wider with more space outside for parking and inside for stacking pallets and sorting freight.

Crossdock terminals, like the one operated by USF Logistics in Bowling Brook, Ill., feature extensive automation — from bar code readers to conveyors and chutes — to speed the movement of packages and freight as well as to boost the productivity of freight handlers.

Terminals aren’t even called terminals at American Freightways. The less-than-truckload freight carrier, based in Harrison, Ark., operates “customer centers,” and five of its 235 centers feature auditoriums and classrooms for training employees and making sales presentations.

There are an estimated 15,000 freight terminals in the United States and some companies see them as fertile ground for investment.

For the full story, see the June 28 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.