XPO buys drayage firm Bridge Terminal Transport for $100 million

XPO Logistics Inc., fresh from last week's US$3.5 billion purchase of French transport and logistics firm Norbert Dentressangle S.A., said today it spent $100 million more to buy Bridge Terminal Transport Services Inc., a drayage firm that operates primarily on the East Coast.

The acquisition of Charlotte, N.C-based Bridge, expected to close by the end of June, adds about 1,300 independent owner-operators to XPO's network. It will triple XPO's intermodal drayage capacity to more than 2,000 drivers. All told, XPO will have 6,200 owner-operator drivers in its network. Most of the drivers will support the company's "last-mile" delivery and expedited transportation services.

The acquisition helped raise XPO's year-end revenue projections to $9.5 billion, an increase of $1 billion from estimates for year-end revenue made after it announced the Dentressangle acquisition. Bradley S. Jacobs, XPO's founder, chairman, and CEO, said the adjustments are the result of the additional $230 million brought in by Bridge, as well as organic growth from all of its business units.

Bridge operates from 28 terminals in the U.S. Its management team will join XPO, and its main operations will stay in Charlotte, Jacobs said.

Separately, XPO reported a first-quarter net loss of $14.7 million, halving the deficit reported in the first quarter of 2014. Gross revenue increased 148.9 percent year over year, while net revenue—gross revenue minus the cost of purchased transportation—rose 349 percent year over year.

Jacobs said strong performances in XPO's last-mile and expedited businesses offset a weak noncontract, or spot, market for freight brokerage in the quarter, as well as the disruptions of the company's West Coast intermodal operations due to the impact of labor unrest at West Coast ports.