American Cranes & Transport - December 2014 - page 43

ACT presents its annual
TRANSPORT50 ranking of
North America’s largest
specialized transportation
companies.
Large and
in charge!
Fivenew companiesmade the
ACT TRANSPORT50 in2014,
with fourof themmaking the
top25.Daseke Inc. comes inatNo. 2,
although the company is actuallynot
a truenewcomer to the list.Daseke
Inc. acquiredLoneStarTransportation
in earlyOctober 2014, andLoneStar
TransportationhasbeenonourTransport
50 list for several years, consistently
ranking in the top10.
Jacksonville, FL-basedLandstar
TransportationLogistics,witha total
capacityof 109,430 tons anda fleet of
12,155vehicles, is againNo. 1on the
Transport 50.ChallengerMotorFreight
andATSSpecialized switchedplaces this
yearwithATSSpecializednow claiming
theNo. 3 spot andChallenger atNo. 4,
just behindDaseke Inc.Alsonew to the
Transport 50and in theTop10atNo. 9
isCombinedTransport, based inCentral
Point,OR.GuyM. Turner atNo. 14,W.O.
GrubbCraneRental atNo. 21andBengal
TransportationatNo. 56 roundout the
newcomers toour list.
For themost part, ourTransport 50
stayedprettymuch the same in2014,
with just a few companiesmaking jumps
more than two spaces, includingSarens
USA jumping fromNo. 29 toNo. 24and
CraneRentalCorp. jumping fromNo. 50
toNo. 47. Thebiggest jumperon the list
wasMexico-basedTranstell/Transportes
Tellería,which jumped fromNo. 51 to
No. 42.
Specialized transportation companies
successfully rolled through2014without
much fanfare, althoughmost of the
cargo this sectorhauls and rigs isquite
spectacular. By comparing the2014
ACT TRANSPORT50 with the2013
ACT TRANSPORT50, we can surmise
thatmost companies added equipment,
especially trucks/tractors andmodular
transport systems, includingSPMTs.
Interestingly, the ACTTRANSPORT50 in
2014addedbranchofficesbut didn’t really
increase employment significantly. In
2013 the ACTTRANSPORT50 employed
23,285and this year it employs 23,611.
It appears that therehasbeena
sustained,modest growth experienced
by the larger companies and the smaller
ones areholding theirownandadding
equipment to their fleets.Companies
that transport oversized, overweight
cargoachievemonumental tasks, rigging
andhaulingobjects and equipment that
wouldhavebeen consideredunmovable
even10years ago. The effort tohaul
these items requires extremeplanning,
sophisticated engineeringand expensive
trucks, trailers and specializedhauling
equipment. Plus there are all sortsof
otherhurdles, including routeplanning,
outdated roadways andbridges, acquiring
permits, dealingwithweather issues anda
ACT TRANSPORT50
43
DECEMBER 2014 ACT
BY THENUMBERS
AmericanCranes& Transport Magazine’s
2014 TRANSPORT50 includes 80
companies that do business on a regional,
national and international basis.Most of
the firms are purely transportation services
firms, althoughmany, especially those in
the top30, offer lifting and rigging services.
This year’s ACTTRANSPORT50 list
offers some interesting conclusions
and observations about the business of
specialized transport.
■ The total fleet size of the entire
ACTTRANSPORT50 encompasses
46,117 pieces of equipment or
vehicles, up from 41,588 in 2013.
■ The total capacity inU.S. tons of the
entire ACT TRANSPORT50 is
1,083,770 tons.
■ The ACTTRANSPORT50 employs
23,611 industry professionals, up
from 23,285 in 2013.
■ ACTTRANSPORT50 companies own
and operate approximately 20,649
tractor/truck units, up from 17,946
in 2013.
■ The ACTTRANSPORT50 represents
476 headquarters and or terminal
locations throughout NorthAmerica, up
from 388 in 2013.
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Photo© JonB. Petersen, Tulsa, OK