United Road acquisition makes fleet repositioning faster, easier

United Road, a logistics provider that moves around 4 million new and used vehicles annually for OEMs and fleets across the U.S. and Canada, has acquired Team Drive-Away (TDA), along with and its affiliates Driveaway USA and Fr8 Management. Mark Anderson, president and CEO of United Road called the new addition a “natural fit,” as TDA specializes in providing drivers to deliver Class 8 trucks for buyers and sellers.

“TDA is a customer-driven business that brings new heavy haul capabilities to United Road,” Anderson said. “Its asset-light business model of partnering with trusted independent contractors combined with our geographic territories will bring new opportunities and new customers to our combined enterprise.”

United Road is now able to move vehicles ranging from light cars to heavy trucks, each repositioning job powered by the OVISS logistics system, the logistics provider’s proprietary platform that performs tracking and visibility, load building, route making and more.

The most interesting asset United Road brings is a knack for quick deliveries.

“Within the industry, 7-10 days for pick-up and delivery is the norm,” TDA president Steve Wambold said. “At Team Drive-Away we constantly exceed those expectations, including making moves within 24 and 48 hours, depending on our capacity.”

Team Drive-Away is also adding 500 contractors to United Road’s network of 2,500 company-owned and dedicated independent vehicle carriers and 4,500 third-party carrier partners, according to Wambold.

“This gives both parties more capacity and the ability to avoid bottlenecks, get trucks from the OEM to dealers and their customers and move fleets safely, on-time and efficiently,” he said.

It also benefits fleet owners who need these new trucks trailered up and on the road making money as fast as possible. Because of the current demand for drivers, fleets are also more reluctant to use one of their people, who would be transporting one tractor, or perhaps three if deck loaded, to their new destination, as opposed to an important load for a customer.

“Fleet owners large and small use TDA for repositioning trucks versus doing it themselves as it keeps their drivers in a revenue-generating position,” Wambold explained. “In these times of driver shortages, TDA is very helpful and makes economic sense. They want their vehicles delivered in a timely manner and prefer to not send their company drivers on a non-revenue move.”