Dive Brief:

• A. Duie Pyle, a for-hire LTL carrier, will open three new facilities, expanding its services into Virginia with centers in Richmond, Roanoke and Manassas.
• The company said it is expanding into the eastern Virginia locations to offer direct trucking and warehousing services to points along the Eastern seaboard. The company will also be able to acquire service to and from the ports of Virginia, and that will help connect key metropolitan areas like Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, according to A. Duie Pyle officials.
• The expansion plans of the Pennsylvania-based carrier follow other LTL carriers such as Saia and Old Dominion Freight Line, who are also seeking to absorb demand from growing e-commerce and final-mile deliveries, which are both heavily dependent upon LTL. The expansion also indicates A. Duie Pyle believes there is plenty of LTL business in Virginia and Maryland to be had by a new entrant. 

Dive Insight:

If companies do not see M&A opportunities to help expand their footprint, they can always grow organically. In the case of A. Duie Pyle, the company apparently saw opportunity in three key Virginia markets that are along the Eastern coast.

Those locations help the LTL carrier plug into Washington, Baltimore, Richmond and Roanoke. Service centers in Richmond also bring A. Duie Pyle closer to North Carolina markets.

To accomplish this, A. Duie Pyle had to overcome one key obstacle identified by LTL experts: the acquisition of real estate. An LTL service center has to be located in a properly zoned location close to urban areas.

Old Dominion Freight Line, the LTL giant with one of the best operating ratios in the business, had 246 centers in 2021. But as it sought to grow, it encountered higher real estate prices and zoning hurdles. One strategy is to buy existing centers from LTL rivals, but Old Dominion CEO Greg Gantt told Transport Dive in December 2020 that such ready-to-use buildings are disappearing from the market.

One reason for that is the surge in e-commerce. Such freight business demands more LTL service, and closer to urban areas. That has put tremendous pressure on LTL carriers to expand service centers.

A. Duie Pyle said they did what a lot of companies seeking quick expansion did: They went to the economic development authorities in the state. The company said it worked with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the city of Manassas, the city of Richmond, the city of Roanoke, the Greater Richmond Partnership and the Roanoke Regional Partnership to accomplish the expansion.

The Manassas cross-dock service center will have 30 doors, with Richmond getting 50 doors and Roanoke getting 16 service doors. Seventy-five jobs will be created.

The company said the centers will help speed overnight and one-day deliveries along the Eastern seaboard.

A. Duie Pyle is ranked No. 69 in Transport Topics' list of top 100 for-hire North American carriers. The Pennsylvania-based company focuses on LTL but also offers dedicated carriage and freight brokerage. The family-owned business has about 1,300 tractors and brings in about $500 million a year.