Addison Heavy-hauling Truck Firm Adds Two More Companies to Its Fold

Almost exactly a year ago, business columnist Cheryl Hall introduced our readers to an Addison business owner trying to corner the market in the specialty trucking business.At the time, Don Daseke, who made his first fortune in real estate before getting into the world of heavy-hauling trucks in 2008, had already bought nine privately owned trucking companies to grow his namesake firm.Last week, his company added two more open deck trucking companies: The Schilli Companies, headquartered in Indiana, and Big Freight Systems Inc. of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Daseke paid $23.3 million in cash and stock for The Schilli Companies, according to a regulatory filing. Terms of the Big Freight Systems purchase haven't been disclosed yet.The two firms had combined revenue of $119 million in 2016, according to Daseke Inc.'s announcement of the deal. Daseke's sales totaled $679 million in 2016.Daseke owns the largest fleet of open-deck equipment in the country in what it describes as $133 billion industry. Its 3,000 tractors and 6,500 open-deck trailers haul such gargantuan cargo as Triton submarines, Boeing aircraft wings and wind turbine blades.Earlier this year, Daseke went public and now trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol DSKE.  Continue reading...