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TFI to acquire UPS Freight for $800M

Deal will dramatically expand US truckload, LTL footprint

Nate Tabak
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UPS Freight is set to become TFI International's largest acquisition to date. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

TFI International has agreed to acquire UPS Freight for about $800 million, the Canadian trucking and logistics company and UPS (NYSE:UPS) said Monday, in a deal that will transform it into a North American less-than-truckload juggernaut.

The deal, expected to close in the second quarter, will represent TFI’s largest acquisition to date in sheer dollars, dwarfing the $558 million it spent to buy CFI from XPO in 2016. It will bring TFI a comprehensive U.S. LTL network and a dedicated truckload business, which brought in over $3 billion in revenue in 2019.

“We’re excited by this very attractive opportunity to extend our long-standing record of successful growth through acquisition, which will vault TFI International to one of the largest North American LTL carriers,” TFI CEO Alain Bedard said in a statement. 

UPS Freight will operate as TForce Freight. Its 14,500 employees will shift to the new TFI unit, which will also continue serving UPS’ LTL needs under a five-year agreement. UPS Ground customers will also be able to receive freight pricing.


After the acquisition closes, U.S.-based businesses will dominate TFI’s revenue stream. The UPS Freight deal follows the acquisition of Chicago-based third-party logistics provider DLS in September. 

TFI has built itself into one of North America’s largest trucking and logistics companies by acquiring companies with struggling margins — and then aggressively turning them around. 

The deal also represents TFI’s single-largest turnaround project. UPS Freight is expected to post a $463 million operating loss for 2020. It posted a $75 million profit in 2019 and a $26 million loss in 2018.

Bedard has signaled TFI’s desire to get into U.S. LTL through an acquisition. He told analysts that the DLS acquisition was a way for TFI to learn the U.S. LTL market. 


Over the past two years, the Montreal-based company has been building out its asset-light U.S. logistics and final-mile operations through acquisitions to set the groundwork for tapping into the growth of e-commerce. Bedard has likened the business to a “diamond in the rough.”

UPS Freight, however, represents a very different animal — with 197 facilities, 147 of which it owns. It also includes more than 6,300 tractors and 23,000 trailers. 

It also comes with a workforce that is over 75% unionized.

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43 Comments

  3. Mali Mal

    The only reason UPS bought Overnight is because of our pension. They bled Overnight/Ups Freight for twelve years, sold It, and stripped us of our pension. Gotta love Ups for the blood sucking parasites that they are.

    1. Geoff

      That’s like saying keep everyone in pensions even tho pensions are unsustainable.
      Unions are just grifters that foment dissatisfaction and line their own pockets as they decline in numbers.

      2. MR TRUTH

        I agree totally,,, I wish my fellow Americans would stop all this territorial hate . Drawing lines in the sand ,dirt and snow sounds too much like caveman mentality..💯

    1. CS

      It wouldn’t have been resented if they would have treated it as the company it was. You don’t successfully treat a freight company like a package company. But yes, this parting of ways is good for both.

    2. Tricia Peterson

      and UPS has run a good company into the ground by not learning from the old managers. This might be the positive we need.

    3. CS

      And UPS will die out if they don’t update their discipline and culture. It’s not 1907 anymore. The people these days are changing and UPS needs to change with them or get left behind.

      2. Geoff

        There is a small division that is o/o but most drivers that are not Coyote are union- unless your shop is not- like Des Moines.

        They don’t need the flipping unions. Fedex is doing just fine without and the wages of Overnite were just as competitive at the time of acquisition.

      3. Mike

        How is it non union? Ups Freight has been union since 2008 when contract was ratified. Please do your research before making an uneducated comment.

      4. Don

        Where the hell do you get your information. Ups ( teamsters) said the acquisition of OVERNITE would go only with teamsters brought in to unionize.

Comments are closed.

Nate Tabak

Nate Tabak is a Toronto-based journalist and producer who covers cybersecurity and cross-border trucking and logistics for FreightWaves. He spent seven years reporting stories in the Balkans and Eastern Europe as a reporter, producer and editor based in Kosovo. He previously worked at newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the San Jose Mercury News. He graduated from UC Berkeley, where he studied the history of American policing. Contact Nate at ntabak@freightwaves.com.