Roadway Corp., Akron, Ohio, is moving into the next-day delivery business, which it says is the fastest-growing segment of trucking - and also a profitable one.

That's according to the Wall Street Journal, which reports that Roadway will use the recently acquired Arnold Industries as the entry point for the move. Roadway CEO Michael Wickham told the paper that the company will make other acquisitions that will put it in the next-day trucking business region by region.
The Nov. 30 Arnold acquisition will help contribute to 2002 profits, Wickham said.
Roadway Express, Roadway Corp.'s main operating unit, is a leading less-than-truckload carrier. However, because it is structured for the long-haul business, next-day LTL doesn't work within the system. So the New Penn Motor Express unit of Arnold will operate autonomously, as well other future regional acquisitions, according to the Journal. New Penn serves the Northeast, with 95 percent of its freight delivered the day after it is picked up. It handles shipments of several hundred pounds or more, so it doesn't compete directly with United Parcel Service or FedEx, which handle lighter overnight shipments.
More acquisitions of regional carriers probably won't begin until late 2003.