Roadrunner Eyes LTL Acquisitions After Lane Expansion
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Less-than-truckload carrier Roadrunner is ramping up acquisition plans, the company’s top executive told Transport Topics.
Acquisitions are in the cards as Roadrunner eyes expanding its northeastern U.S. and Pacific Northwest operations, Executive Chairman and CEO Chris Jamroz said in an interview.
The Downers Grove, Ill.-based carrier ranks No. 78 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America. Roadrunner ranks No. 19 among LTL carriers.
“We are looking very seriously at the M&A landscape,” Jamroz said, adding that Roadrunner is not in serious talks with potential acquisitions but is talking to “dozens and dozens of potential targets.”
Jamroz and his brother, Tomasz, Roadrunner president and chief operating officer, who control a majority stake in the company, spent the past five or more years turning the carrier first into a pure LTL play, trimming those operations and then adding lanes.
Revamping Roadrunner’s LTL network began after the carrier spun off what is now Ascent Global Logistics in August 2020 and sold three truckload units and its Prime Distribution Services business. C.H. Robinson acquired the Prime Distribution Services unit in January 2020 for $225 million.
Since then, Roadrunner has regularly added lanes and worked to transform its reputation in the LTL space.
Lane Expansion
The carrier in July added more than 100 new lanes. Those lanes add more than 21,000 miles of coverage across the U.S. and Canada and establish Kansas City as a new hub, the company said July 24.
The expansion follows March’s addition of 278 lanes to the carrier’s network.
“The business is growing. Demand for our services is growing,” Chris Jamroz told TT.
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Roadrunner concentrates on 1,000-plus mile routes. The company has 19 service centers and operates in 40 major metropolitan areas, Tomasz Jamroz said.
The carrier is not looking to serve 100% of ZIP codes in the U.S. and is concentrating on cities that tend to have at least one professional sports team across the major North American leagues, he said.
“Our goal is not to be the biggest; our goal is to be the most innovative LTL in the U.S.,” Tomasz Jamroz said.
Innovation Over Size
With 40 terminals, the company can reach 80% of all customers. Meeting the requirements of the other 20% of potential customers, Tomasz Jamroz said, would require the company to add a further 100 terminals, which he said did not make economic sense for Roadrunner.
That said, customers are seeking shorter-haul regional service, which offers more flexibility, he noted, adding that Roadrunner focuses on what it’s good at but also wants to give customers what they want.
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The recent uncertainty surrounding U.S. import tariffs promised, imposed, sometimes withdrawn or tweaked and then introduced by the Trump administration has played to Roadrunner’s strengths though, the executives say.
“We are a niche player for anyone who needs to reorganize their supply chain,” Tomasz Jamroz said. “We are not cheap, but we are not charging you for expedited service,” he said, adding that the carrier is still able to move shipments across the entire country.
Claims Ratio Improves
The company’s claims ratio is 0.2%, but it used to be 5%, he said, noting the aim was for key performance indicators like those posted by Old Dominion Freight Line.
ODFL ranks No. 9 on the for-hire TT100 and No. 2 in the LTL sector, with an operating ratio typically the best of all the publicly traded LTL-centric carriers.
Carriers’ OR provides insight on how well a company is balancing its costs and revenue generation. The lower the ratio, the better a company’s performance.
But Chris Jamroz is aiming even higher.
“We will be a no-claims carrier,” he promised.
The current iteration of Roadrunner is version 2.0, but version 3.0 is fast approaching, Tomasz Jamroz said. Major announcements are on the way by the end of 2025, he added, while declining to provide more details.
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