The leaders of mega fleet Schneider National have agreed to buy Cowan Systems, a Baltimore-based carrier founded 100 years ago and specializing in dedicated work, for about $390 million and pay another $31 million for some related real estate.
Schneider, No. 6 on the 2024 FleetOwner 500: For-Hire, will pay cash for Cowan, which ranked 61st on the FO500 and operates roughly 1,800 trucks and 7,500 trailers. Cowan also operates brokerage, drayage, and warehousing businesses and has assembled a network of more than 40 locations in the eastern half of the country.
When Schneider completes its acquisition, the company’s dedicated business will be on pace to book nearly $2 billion in revenues annually and comprise more than 8,400 tractors. Executives expect the deal to be finalized by the end of the year and said they will retain the Cowan brand. FleetOwner ranked Schneider the third largest general freight carrier in the U.S. in 2024.
“By complementing our organic dedicated growth success with transactions like this, we are broadening our presence to provide greater value to our customers and stakeholders,” Schneider President and CEO Mark Rourke said in a statement. “We look forward to collaborating with the talented team at Cowan Systems to drive our now shared mission forward.”
In addition to its owned fleet, Cowan also has contracts with 500 owner-operators. Many of the company’s largest customers are in the retail, packaging, and food/beverage markets, as well as in the industrial and building materials sectors.
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Bringing the Cowan team into the fold would grow Schneider’s dedicated business to about 70% of the company’s truckload fleet. In the third quarter, that share was 64%, an increase of about four percentage points from a year earlier. On his team’s recent third-quarter earnings conference call, Rourke pointed out that the dedicated business has grown revenues by an average of 9% per year since 2017 via both organic growth and acquisitions.
Buying Cowan will help extend that growth in 2025. Early this month, Rourke said two large new customers had pushed launches expected this year into next year. He added that general activity appears to be improving.
“We came out of the quarter slightly ahead [of June 30 numbers] as current account and start-up activity accelerated through the quarter,” Rourke told analysts and investors November 6.
Shares of Schneider (Ticker: SNDR) rose 1.3% to $32.02 on the November 25 Cowan news. Over the past six months, they have rallied more than 40%, which has grown the company’s market capitalization to more than $5.6 billion.
