RoadOne acquires Savannah, Ga.-based Crown Transportation

In a move geared towards expanding its United States Southeast intermodal drayage logistics operations and overall North American network, Randolph, Mass.-based RoadOne IntermodaLogistics, a provider of intermodal, distribution, and logistics services, said earlier this week it has acquired Savannah, Ga.-based Crown Transportation, a provider of transportation and warehouse services.

A purchase price was not disclosed. RoadOne officials said Crown will be renamed as Crown IntermodaLogistics. And RoadOne noted that Rick Prevatt, Crown owner and president and COO Steven McAllister will remain in their roles to oversee operations for Crown, coupled with RoadOne’s fuel, truck, and insurance purchasing capabilities, national warehousing, depot services, and its TMS TrueVision offering.

This deal is a byproduct of a January 2019 partnership RoadOne formed with Boston-based Nonantum Capital, with Nomantum serving as its equity partner to help RoadOne’s coast-to-coast expansion efforts, technology investments, and objective to be a top platform for owner/operators and team.

With Crown now part of RoadOne, it brings a container terminal in Savannah, more than 500,000 square-feet of transload and warehousing capacity, and 100 trucks that serve port drayage and transload operations in the region, in addition to overweight cargo handling specialization and transloading services.

“I'm thrilled to add Crown IntermodaLogistics, a strong, experienced intermodal trucking and logistics company to our national footprint to deliver the increased capacity and comprehensive intermodal logistics solutions our customers' supply chains depend on,” said Ken Kellaway, CEO of RoadOne IntermodaLogistics, in a statement.

In an interview with LM, Kellaway said a major driver for this deal was that RoadOne wanted vertical integration in other sectors of import logistics that would complement RoadOne’s strong port product, as well as strengthen its offering to customers as a single source solution in intermodal logistics.

Kellaway added that the main benefit of acquiring Crown for customers is that it provides them with a single point of contact for import drayage and transloading with bundled technology and invoicing. And he said that Crown brings a coastal transloading platform that RoadOne will use to expand into new national markets.

From a competitive perspective, Kellaway said this deal provides RoadOne with “differentiation from other small drayage providers as a full service port logistics company….[and] ease of doing business for our customers.”