- Old Dominion Freight Lines (ODFL) added 60 new truck terminals to its network in the last 5 years, the latest being a 40 door terminal on 8 acres in Altoona, PA – the 215th terminal in its network. Old Dominion’s largest crossdock is located in nearby Harrisburg. Notably, next month LTL competitor A Duie Pyle will be opening its new 60 door terminal in nearby Allentown, PA, one of seven it purchased from YRCW. JB Hunt also recently purchased a YRCW crossdock terminal in Central Pennsylvania which it plans to demolish and replace with a truckload terminal. Prime is upgrading its terminal in Pittston, PA, all of which underlines the strength of the Central Pennsylvania industrial warehouse market – probably the strongest industrial warehouse market in the US right now.
- But Old Dominion is not just expanding its network in select locations or even to service a particular transportation market segment. The company purchased an adjacent terminal from Estes in Indianapolis recently to facilitate a $22 million, 102 door expansion of its terminal there, recently moved into a larger terminal in St Louis and expanded its San Diego terminal. It even expanded its footprint this year with the purchase of a 24 door crossdock terminal in Madison, WI (it now has 5 terminals in Wisconsin).
- The company made a $100m real estate CapEx commitment last year when it owned 132 terminals and leased 81 at y/e up from 125 owned and 85 leased terminals the year before. The company owns about 80% of its door count. About 10% of the company’s terminal network is currently available for sale (a better than industry average), primarily terminals they have outgrown or that were purchased as part of a tuck-in acquisition.
- The company is also expanding its transportation real estate portfolio beyond crossdocks. It opened new dray facilities in Baltimore, Memphis, and Mobile, AL this year. Most interestingly, while the company is best known for its LTL offering and extensive crossdock network, the firm also owns about 190,000 sf of a 1,165,000 sf logistics warehouse portfolio it utilizes for its wholly owned logistics subsidiary, Vault Logistics. Vault is in 7 markets across the US.
- Last year, the company extended what it regards as the useful life of its trucks from 7 to 9 years and its trailers from 12 to 15 years. While most predominately LTL players, particularly in the public arena, are allocating CapEx dollars to replacing aging equipment and highly selective acquisitions, OD continues to fine tune is network both by crossdock door count (increased door count by 3.4% in 2010) and across other transportation real estate platforms.
Ted Morandin
(410) 349 9002
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