Dive Brief:

• P.A.M. Transportation Services has acquired Metropolitan Trucking in a deal valued at $77.4 million, P.A.M. announced Wednesday.
• Metropolitan has around 320 trucks and 1,060 trailers in its fleet. The dry van TL carrier is PAM's first acquisition in nearly 20 years, said PAM President Joe Vitiritto in a statement. It primarily operates in the eastern U.S., serving customers from its New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Illinois locations.
• Metropolitan will operate as an independent business with no personnel changes other than CEO Joe Mangino’s retirement. Employees and customers should notice little change, according to the release.

Dive Insight:

While the trucking industry has been rife with M&A deals this year, PAM had stayed on the sidelines "for quite some time" until its purchase of Metropolitan, Vitiritto said. The company's last acquisitions were in 2003, when it acquired McNeill Trucking Company and East Coast Transport & Logistics.

PAM's acquisition adds to the flurry of M&A activity in the trucking industry in June. Schneider announced it bought regional paper carrier deBoer Transportation, while Heartland Express purchased Smith Transport for $170 million.

"Metropolitan has been operating for almost 90 years as a successful family run business," Vitiritto said. "They have a very experienced group of drivers, long standing customer relationships and a culture that is very [complementary] to our existing businesses.”

PAM is a TL carrier providing transport services in the continental U.S. and Canada, as well as parts of Mexico under agreements with carriers based in the country. Metropolitan will become "the Northeast regional face for PAM," Mangino said in a statement. Its customer base includes manufacturers, consumer product companies and retailers.

"To ensure our future was secured for the long term, my goal was to find a partner with similar values, strong financial performance, and a desire to invest for growth," Mangino said. “PAM truly cared about our drivers and other employees, and their resources will provide more opportunity for our people and more capacity for our customers.”

PAM's operating revenues were $707 million in 2021, with $100.2 million made in operating income. Metropolitan generated $83.3 million in revenue and $13.5 million in operating income for the 12 months ending March 21, per the release.

PAM's release also touted Metropolitan’s "modern" tractor and trailer fleet. Metropolitan's trucks and trailers have an average age of 2.1 years and 6.1 years, respectively. PAM's average truck and trailer ages were 1.9 years and 5.7 years, respectively, at the end of the first quarter.