USA Truck is up for sale again. Less than three years after DB Schenker bought the Van Buren, Arkansas-based carrier, new owner DSV has formally moved to divest the business, classifying parts of Schenker’s U.S. road operations as “held for sale” and reporting them as discontinued operations. Group CFO Michael Ebbe confirmed the plan on DSV’s earnings call, saying the unit is being treated as a divestment.
The move follows DSV’s April 30 acquisition of Schenker and is consistent with the Danish logistics giant’s asset-light strategy. In its third-quarter update on October 23, DSV said it is consolidating and optimizing road networks while keeping heavy assets off its own balance sheet—a model that leaves little room for an asset-based truckload fleet like USA Truck inside the portfolio.
What’s on the block is not a small operation. Recent local reporting and federal data peg USA Truck’s fleet at roughly 2,000-plus tractors and about 6,500 trailers, with more than 2,250 power units noted as of March. DSV inherited the carrier through Schenker’s 2022 purchase of USA Truck for $435 million.
Short-term performance pressures are part of the backdrop. DSV said Schenker’s U.S. road activities posted a quarterly loss of about DKK 90 million (roughly $14 million), and the company trimmed the top end of its full-year EBIT guidance on Thursday, citing soft freight demand and FX headwinds. Against that environment, management reiterated that USA Truck is the only asset it intends to discontinue as part of the Schenker integration.
Why it matters for carriers: this is a rare, ready-made platform in a market where organic growth has been tough. A buyer could gain immediate scale in dry van and regional TL, plus a brokerage arm, without a multi-year buildout. But the same market forces weighing on results—subdued volumes, rate pressure and policy uncertainty—will influence valuation and timing, likely narrowing the field to strategics or private equity willing to underwrite a multi-quarter turnaround. DSV’s decision to keep focusing on non-asset road services also suggests sale terms may prioritize a clean separation over complicated long-term entanglements.
Why it matters for shippers: expect continuity in the near term. When a carrier is classified as “held for sale,” operations typically continue while the seller runs a competitive process. Contract customers should review assignment and change-of-control clauses, but DSV said explicitly that only USA Truck is being discontinued from its portfolio, signaling a targeted divestiture rather than a broader U.S. retreat.
Big picture: the sale underscores how global integrators are redrawing their North American strategies. DSV is pushing deeper into asset-light road and forwarding while shedding an asset-heavy outlier, even as it increases synergy targets from the Schenker deal. For trucking, it’s another chapter in consolidation—one that could hand a scaled fleet to a buyer looking to add density in the central U.S. and restore margin through network discipline.
Sources: FreightWaves, Commercial Carrier Journal, Trucking Dive, Reuters, DSV
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