The recent announcement by Roadrunner Transportation of a reorganization of three of its subsidiaries was described as a “very positive step” in the company’s ongoing reorganization.
The reorganization will pull together the Active Aero Group, USA Jet and Rich Logistics into one operation. The new unit will operate as Active On-Demand powered by Rich Logistics and USA Jet. They will be under the company’s Truckload and Express Services division.
In answering a series of questions submitted by Freightwaves to Roadrunner about the changes, a spokeswoman described the current activities of the three units. Active Aero is involved in ground expedite, international air freight and hand carry; USA Jet is an on-demand air charter; and Rich Logistics is involved in scheduled and unscheduled truckload, and door-to-door cross border in Mexico and Canada.
The five services to be provided by Active On-Demand were described in the company’s announcement of the changes as Scheduled Truckload, Ground Expedite, Air Charter, Hand Carry and International Airfreight.
Roadrunner is coming off a significant accounting scandal that is not completely behind it. It has a new management team which has conceded it will be a gradual process to put the company back on track. For example, it has not yet reported revised earnings past the third quarter of last year and it stock is now on the OTC pink sheets, rather than the New York Stock Exchange.
Asked if in the past it was possible for one customer to have separately contracted with two or three of the now combined units, the spokeswoman said that could have occurred. “This is one of the key reasons for the integration and rebranding,” she said. “Customers previously contracted or worked directly with the companies. Now customers will be able to engage one team to provide a comprehensive range of mission critical air and ground transportation solutions across North America.”
However, legally, the three entities will continue to exist, she said.
The Active On-Demand combined tractor fleet will be approximately 50% company-employed drivers, with the other half independent operators. The combined size of the fleet will be approximately 750 trucks, she said.
“This is a very positive step towards our on-going strategy of fully integrating successful companies into larger business platforms to expand our go-to-market message and information technology capabilities which will directly benefit our customers as well as our driver and pilots, team members, vendors and shareholders,” the spokeswoman said in the email response to Freightwaves questions. Cost savings are expected but the their size was not specified.
The announcement of the reorganization focused on technology gains provided by the consolidation. “Satellite asset-tracking and bid-board systems (are) being combined on one platform to provide seamless visibility across al modes of transportation including scheduled truckloads, expedite over-the-road and air charter services,” the statement said.
