Roadrunner shuffles top management at LTL business

Roadrunner Transportation Systems Inc. said today that Frank Hurst has been named president of Roadrunner Freight, the company's asset-light, less-than-truckload (LTL) business.

Hurst, who joined the company in January as the unit's senior vice president, sales and marketing, replaces Grant Crawford, who is leaving the Cudahy, Wis.-based company.

Hurst spent three years as vice president/general manager for North America Corp., a distributor of facilities, packaging, and marketing supplies. He has worked in transportation for 21 years, including 16 at FedEx Freight, the LTL unit of Memphis-based FedEx Corp., and as executive vice president at LTL carrier Vitran Express.

Roadrunner, which offers truckload and LTL services through an "asset-light" model where it effectively controls capacity without employing drivers or owning equipment, ran into trouble in January when it said it would restate four years of financial results because of unrecorded expenses at two of the 34 companies it had acquired between 2005 and 2015. The company has yet to file its annual 10-K report for 2016, citing the complex process of investigating the causes of accounting discrepancies and reviewing its internal control over financial reporting and compliance programs. Under Securities and Exchange Commission rules, it has until Sept. 30 to do so.

In January, Roadrunner acknowledged its multi-year acquisition spree left it with an unwieldy organization, comprised of 20 operating units, that was slow to respond to changing market conditions, especially in 2016 amid declining demand for truckload and LTL services.

Since then, Roadrunner has restructured into six operating groups. Four of those groups are in truckload, and one each in LTL and Roadrunner's logistics group, the latter of which is known as Global Solutions. The four groups in the new truckload segment cover air and ground expedited; temperature-controlled; intermodal; and asset-based brokerage.

In March, Roadrunner formed a unit focused on temperature-controlled services made up of two of its acquisitions: M. Bruenger and R&M Transportation.