Third-party logistics provider Geodis has acquired Plano, TX-based freight brokerage company Velocity Transport from Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary McLane Company, to add to its transportation capabilities across a range of modalities.
Velocity provides freight brokerage services that include refrigerated and temperature-controlled freight, flatbed and less-than-load (LTL) trucking, intermodal, van and specialty options. Terms of the deal, which closed June 30, were not disclosed.
“As the industry experiences extremely tight capacity with shortages of drivers and trucks, and that is not going away anytime soon, we saw this as an opportunity to expand and grow our brokerage services,” said Jeff McDermott, SVP of transportation management for Geodis Americas. “We can offer customers more resources, and the ability to add more capacity to the network to support them.”
As in any acquisition, people and culture are a critical aspect, and there Geodis found a lot of overlap, McDermott said. “They have great people and great service and truly value the customer relationship,” he said. “Their culture emerged as being specifically in line with our values at Geodis. Also, they’re in a great market for us, as we expand our transportation offerings.”
Even though Geodis has strength in international freight forwarding, McDermott said the addition of Velocity’s assets helps grow its U.S. transportation coverage in the Southwest through its suburban Dallas location. Geodis also has transportation management offices in Nashville, Chicago, Reno, NV and St. Louis.
“Freight forwarding is key,” he said. “Getting product into the U.S. is important, but there’s still the domestic transport component. This helps tie our global operations from a forwarding and U.S. transport perspective.”
McDermott said the entire Velocity team will come over to Geodis, bringing its domestic headcount up to 3,500 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Geodis, an MCM Top 3PL, operates more than 150 warehouse facilities in the U.S. totaling more than 47 million square feet of space, and employs 15,000+ in North America.