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AMX buys fellow Alabama company Powell, adds reefer capacity

John Kingston
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Alabama Motor Express will push deeper into the refrigerated business with purchase of Powell Transport Solutions.

The acquisition, announced earlier this week, will bring 35 refrigerated trailers to AMX, the company said in a statement. A spokeswoman for AMX, in response to questions submitted by FreightWaves, said the company’s business is currently about 10% refrigerated. The AMX fleet before the acquisition was 650 trailers, she said.

Powell’s business is 100% refrigerated, according to the spokeswoman. All of Powell’s drivers are expected to join AMX.

It’s the first big acquisition for AMX since 1997, the spokeswoman said. That one saw AMX acquire Lane Trucking, which had about 175 trucks.


The cost of the acquisition was not disclosed.

Powell does not come with a logistics division, the spokeswoman said. According to the company’s statement, AMX noted that the company now will have “access to Powell’s customer base, offering them a broad range of truckload and 3PL services.”

Paul Powell, president of Powell Transport Solutions, will be joining AMX and head its now expanded refrigerated division.

AMX’ locations are diverse. AMX Trucking is in Ashford, Alabama; the logistics division has offices in Dothan, Savannah, Georgia, and Atlanta. Atlanta actually is the dateline on the release announcing the acquisition of Powell. The release says the Savannah and Atlanta offices were opened recently.


Powell lists its headquarters as Midland City, Alabama.

Taylor White, a vice president at AMX, noted the company’s location in “the middle of Freight Ally, where refrigerated demands continue to grow.” 

“Now we can meet the diversified needs of our customers using more of our own trucks, drivers and 3PL services,” White said. “And we’re gaining the support of a savvy, experienced team that knows temperature-controlled freight, understands its customers and wants to grow with us in the sector.”

“AMX continues to aggressively add drivers, logisticians and other transportation professionals to accommodate its ever-growing business portfolio,” the announcement of the acquisition said.

(Editor’s note: this story has been edited to reflect the fact that AMX currently has 650 trailers).

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John Kingston

John has an almost 40-year career covering commodities, most of the time at S&P Global Platts. He created the Dated Brent benchmark, now the world’s most important crude oil marker. He was Director of Oil, Director of News, the editor in chief of Platts Oilgram News and the “talking head” for Platts on numerous media outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business and Canada’s BNN. He covered metals before joining Platts and then spent a year running Platts’ metals business as well. He was awarded the International Association of Energy Economics Award for Excellence in Written Journalism in 2015. In 2010, he won two Corporate Achievement Awards from McGraw-Hill, an extremely rare accomplishment, one for steering coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other for the launch of a public affairs television show, Platts Energy Week.