Vitran Corporation is a company that provides freight services and distribution solutions to the United States and Canada. It was established in 1983 and in that same year the corporation acquired All-Way Transportation, a school busing company; G&W Freightways Ltd., a Canadian regional LTL company; and four other small busing companies. Later, in 1989, Trans Western Express Inc. was acquired, this LTL company provided services to almost all of Canada; and in 1991 they continued, acquiring: Warehouser Storage & Distribution Services Inc., ETL Environmental Technology Ltd., and Imperial Roadways Limited. The Freight Connection Inc. was acquired by Vitran in 1993, and by 1995 Overland Transportation System Inc. was also purchased. Vitran acquired Quast Transfer Inc. and combined Overland Transportation and Quast Transfer to form Vitran Express.
Vitran Corporation provides three services. First, it offers a less-than-truckload (LTL) service for shipments of an average weight of 1,600 pounds specialized in next-day delivery for 20 states in the Midwest and two or three day deliveries in the rest of the country. Second, it provides distribution solutions through its logistics services that include brokerage, highway services, and rail Intermodal services. Finally, the company provides premium same-day and next-day truckload to the Midwest and Southeast states.
The company is composed by 2,700 employees, including 1,500 drivers and 300 owner operators; in addition, it has more than 100 facilities in the U.S. and Canada and uses 5,600 pieces of equipment including tractors, trailers, and containers. Recently, Vitran Corporation decided to acquire the assets of Sierra West Express, a LTL freight carrier based in Nevada, and that operates in the Western U.S. Vitran president and chief executive officer Rick Gaetzsaid said that this is the company's initial move into the Western U.S. freight market.