Nearly 100 truck drivers for Stagecoach Cartage and Distribution of El Paso, Texas, were notified earlier this week that its over-the-road division was being absorbed by its parent company, which also owns Mesilla Valley Transportation (MVT) of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
A source familiar with the situation confirmed to FreightWaves on Friday that the OTR division would be operating under MVT’s DOT number moving forward. The source, who didn’t want to be named for fear of retaliation, said its other divisions, which include its local or regional drivers, intermodal, tanker, flatbed and warehouse, will continue to operate under Stagecoach Cartage and Distribution’s name.
“The market has definitely turned and it’s made mid-sized companies like Stagecoach very difficult to compete,” the source told FreightWaves. “Our operating costs are very high and our rate-per-mile has just tanked. So, it just became incredibly difficult to operate, especially if you don’t have the infrastructure of a large company like Mesilla Valley Transportation, which has yards across the country.”
In April of 2020, FreightWaves reported that Roadrunner Transportation Systems Inc. had sold Stagecoach Cartage and Distribution to a third-party logistics (3PL) firm, J.H. Rose Logistics LLC of Santa Teresa, New Mexico. Royal Jones owns J.H. Rose Logistics as well as several other transportation-related companies, mainly located in New Mexico and Texas, including MVT.
Although the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s SAFER website lists Stagecoach Cartage as having 135 drivers and 142 power units, the source said that number included both OTR and local/regional drivers. The source added that just under 100 drivers were affected by the decision to shutter Stagecoach’s OTR division and move its operations over to MVT, which is one of the largest private fleets in the U.S.
Although the decision to fold Stagecoach’s OTR division into MVT was made last week, its long-haul drivers and customers weren’t notified until Wednesday.
“Our drivers are already working under the MVT name,” the source said. “We had some older drivers who decided to retire and we had some drivers who didn’t feel comfortable moving over to work under MVT’s requirements, which was expected. If the parent company absorbs another company, some employees want to go elsewhere.”
Stagecoach was founded in 1986 and was the first motor carrier permitted into Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2006.
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s SAFER website, Stagecoach had one fatal crash, two injuries and three tow-aways over the past 24-month period.
Over that same time period, MVT, which has over 2,000 drivers and nearly 2,500 power units, had six fatal crashes, 58 injuries and 96 tow-aways over the the past 24-month period.
“Stagecoach Cartage is very diversified and profitable, except the OTR division, which will be absorbed by Mesilla Valley, so the decision just makes sense,” the source said.
