Nearly 100 truck drivers for Stagecoach Cartage and Distribution of El Paso, Texas, were notified earlier this week that its over-the-road division was being absorbed by its parent company, which also owns Mesilla Valley Transportation (MVT) of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
A source familiar with the situation confirmed to FreightWaves on Friday that the OTR division would be operating under MVT’s DOT number moving forward. The source, who didn’t want to be named for fear of retaliation, said its other divisions, which include its local or regional drivers, intermodal, tanker, flatbed and warehouse, will continue to operate under Stagecoach Cartage and Distribution’s name.
“The market has definitely turned and it’s made mid-sized companies like Stagecoach very difficult to compete,” the source told FreightWaves. “Our operating costs are very high and our rate-per-mile has just tanked. So, it just became incredibly difficult to operate, especially if you don’t have the infrastructure of a large company like Mesilla Valley Transportation, which has yards across the country.”
In April of 2020, FreightWaves reported that Roadrunner Transportation Systems Inc. had sold Stagecoach Cartage and Distribution to a third-party logistics (3PL) firm, J.H. Rose Logistics LLC of Santa Teresa, New Mexico. Royal Jones owns J.H. Rose Logistics as well as several other transportation-related companies, mainly located in New Mexico and Texas, including MVT.