This is Marcus’s story.
How to sell a transportation business at the right time, to the right buyer, for the right price is the question Marcus had been turning over for almost two years before he picked up the phone. When the right time came, he called CGK Business Sales. Marcus ran a $4.8M regional flatbed and specialized hauling operation outside a major Texas metro, serving construction-materials, building-products, and light-industrial loads across a four-state regional footprint. He had 22 trucks (a mix of flatbeds, step-decks, and RGNs for oversize loads), 26 trailers, 18 W-2 drivers, 4 owner-operator contractors, and 9 office staff including a dispatcher, a safety and compliance manager, a mechanic, and a billing lead. He was 57. He had been dispatching at all hours for 21 years. His mother was moving into assisted living and he was the only family member nearby to handle the transition. The ELD-mandate compliance and the driver-hiring market had both gotten harder every year since 2022 in ways that did not look like reversing. He came to us in early 2024 because he was thinking about what the next ten years of his life needed to look like and did not know who else to talk to about how to sell a transportation business at this size. This page is what happened next, and what could happen for you. Marcus is a composite, not a single real CGK seller, but the patterns and details are pulled from real transportation engagements.
The night before Marcus called us.
Most owners who decide to sell a transportation business have been thinking about it quietly for a year or two before they pick up the phone. Marcus was no different. He was 57. For 21 years he had been the dispatcher of last resort, the backstop for any DOT audit, the relationship lead on his four largest customers, and the person who answered the phone at 2 a.m. when a truck broke down on a Friday night before a Monday morning delivery. The business did $4.8 million in annual revenue from regional flatbed and specialized hauling: construction materials, building products, and the occasional oversize industrial load that required an RGN trailer and a permit. The yard ran 22 trucks and 26 trailers, employed 18 W-2 drivers plus 4 owner-operator contractors, and was supported by a 9-person office team including a dispatcher of fifteen years, a safety and compliance manager, a full-time mechanic, and a billing lead.
Why owners decide to sell a transportation business
His daughter had become a school principal in Atlanta. His son was a software engineer in the Bay Area. Neither was coming home to learn dispatching. His mother had been diagnosed with early-stage dementia six months before and was moving into an assisted-living community half an hour from Marcus’s house, and he was the only family member close enough to handle the daily logistics of her transition. The business pressures were real too: ELD-mandate compliance had reshaped the industry, the driver-hiring market had only gotten harder, and Marcus’s commercial auto and cargo insurance premiums had climbed three years in a row. He had been approached three times in the prior fifteen months: once by a regional trucking roll-up backed by a private equity platform, once by a competing regional carrier in an adjacent metro who said he would buy on a handshake, and once by a 44-year-old former fleet manager from a competing carrier across town who had quietly been talking to a regional bank about SBA-financing his own acquisition. Marcus did not know what his business was actually worth, did not know whether the buyers calling were the right buyers, did not know what he would do with himself if he sold, and did not have a single peer in his life who had ever sold a business at this size.
That is the night he found CGK and submitted the form. We called him back at 9:08 the next morning.
The conversation we had on the first call.
The first call was 43 minutes. We did most of the listening.
Marcus talked about his dispatcher of fifteen years, the four anchor customers who together represented about 42 percent of his revenue (and whose loss would meaningfully reset the value of the business), the safety record his compliance manager had spent a decade protecting, and the ELD-mandate transition that had taken eighteen months and a meaningful capital investment to implement properly. He talked about the equipment replacement schedule (three trucks coming due in the next 24 months) and the insurance market that had repriced his premiums three years in a row. He talked about the broker relationships he used for spot freight when his committed-lane volume dipped, and the way the driver-hiring market had changed his hiring approach since 2022. We asked about the business in the way you would ask if you were trying to understand it, not in the way you would ask if you were trying to win the engagement. What we were listening for was not just the financials. We were listening for whether Marcus was actually ready to sell, what he was working toward, and whether his expectations on price were grounded in what the market would actually support.
At the end of that call, we set up a working session: an in-person conversation where one of our Managing Directors would walk Marcus through our valuation model and tell him honestly what his business was likely to command. We did not promise him a written report. Written valuations involve substantially more work, and we charge for those when a seller actually needs one for estate planning, a partner buyout, a divorce, or another documentary purpose. The walkthrough was free because Marcus was clearly thinking seriously about selling, the way someone thinks about it before they actually do it. Whether that ends up being in a year, three years, or longer, we make the same call.
The valuation session was the following Wednesday at 7 a.m. at his yard, before the morning dispatch went out.
Marcus was not ready to sell a transportation business yet. He went home and waited nine months.
The valuation session showed Marcus that his business was worth meaningfully less than he had been hoping, for two reasons that surprised him. The first was the customer concentration. With his top four customers representing about 42 percent of revenue, a sophisticated buyer would either price the deal at a discount or structure it with an earnout tied to those customers staying. The second was Marcus himself. He was the relationship person on those four anchor customers, the dispatcher of last resort when the daily plan blew up, and the safety-and-compliance backstop on every audit. To a sophisticated buyer, that read as classic owner-operator key-person risk concentrated in exactly the wrong places.
We told Marcus honestly: he could go to market now and accept the discount, or he could spend six to twelve months elevating his dispatcher into a true Operations Manager role with real customer-relationship authority on the top four accounts, deliberately diversifying the customer concentration by chasing two or three new mid-sized commercial accounts, and tightening the financials and the safety-and-compliance file so they would tell a clean story under buyer scrutiny. We said the second path would likely command a meaningfully better number from a wider range of buyers, including the industry-insider SBA buyers and regional trucking strategics that pay premiums for institutionally clean transportation assets.
This is the part most brokers skip. Most brokers would have signed Marcus that day, taken him to market, and made the commission whether or not the deal was the best one for him. We told him to wait, even though it meant we did not get paid for nine months and might never get paid at all if he changed his mind.
Marcus went home and waited. He spent the next nine months promoting his dispatcher into a true Operations Manager role with relationship-management authority on the top four anchor customers, intentionally winning two new mid-sized commercial accounts that brought the top-four concentration down meaningfully, formalizing the relationship structure with his four owner-operator contractors onto annual paper, and tightening the financials and the DOT safety file so they would tell a clean story under buyer scrutiny. He read up on what active acquirers were paying for regional trucking operations through resources like the American Trucking Associations. He called us back in mid-2024 and said he was ready to sell a transportation business that was finally in the shape it needed to be in.
What we did when Marcus came back.
What it takes to sell a transportation business properly
When an owner is ready to sell a transportation business with CGK, the speed surprises them. We took Marcus’s business to market in just over two weeks once he got us his updated financials, customer concentration breakdown with the new mid-sized accounts documented, DOT safety record and ELD audit trail, equipment inventory and replacement schedule, IFTA fuel-tax reporting history, driver roster with W-2 versus owner-operator status, insurance loss-runs, and the committed-lane versus spot-freight revenue split. The blind teaser went out to 76 buyers we had pre-qualified across five buyer types: regional trucking roll-up platforms (some PE-backed, some independent), industry-insider SBA buyers (former fleet managers, dispatch leads, and safety directors at competing carriers who had been quietly building toward their own acquisition), strategic acquirers from adjacent commercial transportation segments (regional refrigerated carriers, intermodal operators) looking to expand into flatbed, owner-operator entrepreneurs with prior trucking experience and SBA-backed financing, and adjacent commercial-services platforms looking for transportation exposure to vertically integrate.
Fifty-three of those buyers signed NDAs and received the full Confidential Information Memorandum. Thirty-five entered our structured data room. Twenty-two submitted Indications of Interest. Twelve advanced to Letters of Intent. We narrowed to seven for management presentations. Four re-submitted refined LOIs after the management meetings.
Marcus decided between two of the top LOIs. They were materially different. One was a higher headline price from a PE-backed regional trucking roll-up platform that wanted to absorb Marcus’s fleet into a Sun Belt portfolio, with a conventional escrow structure, an earnout tied to anchor-customer retention over three years, and a fund hold horizon of four to six years before the platform itself would likely be sold. The other was a slightly lower headline price from a 44-year-old former fleet manager at a regional trucking company in an adjacent metro, who had spent the prior eighteen months talking to a regional bank about SBA-financing his own acquisition, had been working as the operations lead at a competing carrier for the prior twelve years, and was offering to acquire Marcus’s business with personal capital plus an SBA 7(a) loan plus a seller note. We walked Marcus through what each would actually deliver to him under realistic and pessimistic scenarios, including what the cultural continuity would look like for his dispatcher, his safety manager, and his eighteen W-2 drivers under each owner. The industry-insider SBA deal was the better one for Marcus. The cash position day one was meaningfully stronger (no earnout babysitting), the structure was clean, the cultural fit with a buyer who would actually run the dispatch desk himself rather than parachute in a regional manager mattered to him, and the buyer’s twenty years of trucking operations experience reduced the transition risk in a way that no first-time outsider buyer could have. He took it.
Through the whole process, the same CGK Managing Director who had taken Marcus’s first call nine months earlier was the person walking him through every conversation.
What the deal actually looked like.
How the deal looks when you sell a transportation business with CGK
Marcus’s deal closed roughly five months after we restarted the engagement. The buyer was a 44-year-old former fleet manager at a regional trucking company in an adjacent metro who had spent twelve years there as an operations lead and twenty years overall in commercial trucking starting as a driver in his early twenties. He had been quietly preparing for this acquisition for two years by building up personal savings, talking to a regional bank about SBA 7(a) qualification, and shadowing a small-business advisor who had walked him through what owning a regional carrier would look like operationally and financially. He financed the acquisition with personal capital plus the SBA loan plus a seller note from Marcus to bridge the gap. The deal was structured as an asset sale, as SBA 7(a) financing typically requires.
The headline price was slightly below the competing PE-backed roll-up offer, but the structure was meaningfully better. About 84 percent of it came as cash at closing, funded by the SBA loan plus the buyer’s personal equity. About 4 percent was held back in escrow for 12 months to cover indemnification claims, the working capital adjustment, and a small carve-out for any DOT or insurance issues that could surface during the transition window. About 12 percent was a seller note paid back over six years at a competitive interest rate, secured by the business assets and acting as a financial bridge that gave the buyer near-term cash-flow flexibility on the equipment-replacement cycle and gave Marcus continued financial connection to the success of the business under new ownership. There was no rollover equity, which is how SBA-financed deals typically structure: a clean 100 percent buyout with the seller note as the long-tail piece. The seller note is smaller than the typical SBA-financed first-time-buyer deal because the buyer brought twenty years of trucking operations experience, which reduced the transition risk and let the lender underwrite a smaller seller-financing piece. Wire hit on a Tuesday afternoon in July.
Marcus stayed on as a paid advisor to the new owner for four months after closing, which let him personally introduce his dispatcher and his safety-and-compliance manager to the new ownership, walk through the four anchor-customer relationships in person, hand off the broker network and load board approach, and shepherd the DOT operating-authority transition. After four months, Marcus stepped back to a quarterly check-in arrangement that gave him the flexibility to support his mother’s transition into assisted living and gave the new owner a phone call he could make if a real problem came up.
What happened to Marcus’s people.
Marcus cared most about his dispatcher of fifteen years, his safety-and-compliance manager who had spent a decade protecting the DOT record, the eighteen W-2 drivers (some of whom had been with him for over fifteen years), and the four owner-operator contractors who ran the specialized oversize loads. The industry-insider SBA buyer was a former fleet manager who had spent twenty years in trucking and was going to actually run the dispatch desk himself rather than parachute in a regional manager from a corporate playbook. That made the people part substantially cleaner than it would have been under a PE-backed roll-up that would have consolidated Marcus’s safety and dispatch functions into a regional shared-services center within the first year.
The buyer Marcus chose kept all 31 of the people Marcus directly employed (drivers and office staff), honored the existing pay structure including the per-mile rates and the safety bonuses, and committed to maintaining the four owner-operator contractor relationships at their existing terms. Marcus’s dispatcher (now Operations Manager from the wait period) was confirmed in his expanded role with a meaningful comp bump, and the safety-and-compliance manager received a multi-year retention bonus structured around continued DOT clean-record performance. The four anchor-customer relationships were retained at 100 percent through the transition, partly because Marcus personally introduced the new ownership at each customer’s facility and partly because the buyer’s twenty years of trucking operations experience meant he could speak the customers’ language from the first call.
Marcus’s daughter, the school principal in Atlanta, flew home for closing weekend. His son flew in from the Bay Area for two days. His mother, in the early stages of the assisted-living transition, was able to attend a small dinner at Marcus’s house with the buyer and his wife. Marcus took the rest of the summer off for the first time since starting the business in 2003, and used the time to handle his mother’s transition without a single 2 a.m. dispatch phone call to interrupt it.
What Marcus told us afterward.
Why owners who sell a transportation business with CGK keep coming back
About four months after closing, Marcus called the Managing Director who had run his deal. He said two things that the Managing Director still tells new sellers about.
The first was about the nine-month wait. He said: “I had two trucking brokers tell me they would take me to market in three weeks. The reason I sold with you is that you told me the truth about my customer concentration, the truth about how much of the dispatch desk and the safety record ran through me personally, and what each of those things would do to the price if a sophisticated buyer’s diligence team got there before I had fixed them. You told me what would happen to the price if I went out without fixing those things. I would have left a real number on the table.”
The second was about who he sold to. He said: “I almost signed with the PE-backed roll-up because the headline price was bigger and they sounded institutional. The fact that you walked me through what each buyer would actually do with my dispatcher and my drivers, who would still be running the desk in three years, and how an industry-insider SBA buyer’s twenty years of trucking experience was structurally different from a corporate operator parachuted in by a fund, is a conversation I never even thought to have until you raised it. I sold to a buyer who is going to actually drive a truck on a Saturday morning when somebody calls out, not run the company from a regional headquarters two states away.”
This is what we mean when we say we sit with you in the decision, not just the transaction. Marcus is one composite story, but the pattern is real. The owners we work with who decide to sell a transportation business usually find their way to us through versions of Marcus’s situation, and the relationships start with a long listening session and a free walkthrough, not a pitch.
Ready to sell a transportation business? Where are you in Marcus’s story?
If you are starting to think about how to sell a transportation business, we should talk. There is no commitment and no pressure. The first conversation is free. The valuation walkthrough that follows is free when you are seriously thinking about selling, whether that is in a year, five years, or longer. We only charge for formal written valuations, and only when you actually need one for estate planning, a partner buyout, or another documentary purpose. Submit the form and a senior CGK Managing Director will reach out within one business day.
If you are Marcus at month 1: just exploring
You are not sure if you want to sell yet. The driver-hiring market is brutal, the ELD-mandate compliance and the insurance market are reshaping your costs, your kids have built careers in other fields, you are curious about what your fleet and your customer book might be worth, or maybe a regional roll-up has been calling you. Most of our best engagements start here. Submit the form and we will schedule a working session. You walk away with a real number and a clear sense of what to do next, with no obligation to do anything.
If you are Marcus at month 9: ready to go
You have done the work to clean up the business. The financials are tight. Your dispatcher has real customer-relationship authority on your top accounts. Your customer concentration is meaningfully diversified. Your DOT safety file and ELD audit trail are clean. Maybe a buyer is already in the conversation. You want to run a real process. Submit the form and we will be in touch within a business day to talk about timing, scope, and what your first 30 days as a CGK seller would look like.
If you are not sure where you are
Most owners are not sure. Submit the form and start with the conversation. We will figure out together where you are. We are equally happy to tell you to wait twelve months as we are to take you to market in two weeks.
Or call us directly at (888) 858-7191.
Start your own story
A senior CGK Managing Director will respond within one business day. Strictly confidential. For owners of transportation businesses doing $1.5M+ in annual revenue. The first conversation and the valuation walkthrough that follows are free for any seller seriously thinking about selling, on any horizon.
Confidential. No obligation. Direct routing to a named CGK business broker, not a junior screener.
One of these eight people would lead your engagement.
When you decide to sell a transportation business with CGK, one named senior Managing Director stays with you from the first call through the wire transfer, just like Marcus’s Managing Director stayed with him for nine months and then for the engagement that followed. Our Managing Directors come from Wall Street investment banks, hedge funds, Fortune 500 corporate finance, and operating-business leadership. Cornell MBA. U Chicago Booth MBA. CFA. CMT. Naval Academy. Goldman Sachs. Merrill Lynch. Deutsche Bank. AIG. T. Rowe Price.
What sellers say after they sell a transportation business (and other businesses) with CGK
I could not be happier with the experience I had selling my business with CGK. Greg did a detailed analysis of my business and helped me price and position it right for the market. After receiving multiple offers at full asking price, the rest of the process went very smoothly, and we closed in less than two months.
Hanna M.Selling my business was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I’m incredibly grateful to have had Wes by my side throughout the process. He brought perspective, pushed when necessary, and always had my best interests in mind. His experience and strategic approach allowed me to maximize the sale price while minimizing long-term risk and obligations. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose him as my broker.
Adam NevilleDerik located multiple interested strategic buyers that produced more than one serious offer. The negotiations were tough but Greg and Derik’s experience helped us overcome. We got a great result for our employees and for the owners. We would recommend them without reservation.
Bob TaylorWe sold a business that was 47 years old and being run by second generation within a year of working with Wes. CGK has a system that attracts serious prospects to review opportunities. Wes was able to make the overwhelming feeling of selling easy and to a certain extent enjoyable. I never felt alone or in the dark throughout the entire process.
Jennifer WilliamsWe decided to sell our company in 2025. Talked to another M&A company in the Houston area. We felt very comfortable with Greg and Matthew at CGK. Could not have made a better choice. From day 1 till final closing and even after 30+ days, they have been here helping us with documents and support during the transition. Thanks can not be said enough.
Rickey ThomasInside the Blueprint, on Bloomberg TV and Fox Business News.
Marcus’s daughter, the school principal in Atlanta, is the one who first sent him a clip of CGK on Bloomberg. She had been watching the segment one Sunday afternoon and recognized the firm name from an American Trucking Associations article about how to sell a transportation business her dad had forwarded her months earlier. She sent him the link with a note that read “Dad, this is the firm.” CGK Business Sales is featured on Inside the Blueprint, the syndicated business television series. Our episode aired on Bloomberg TV and Fox Business News. Watch the segment, then start a confidential conversation.
The CGK office Marcus called was in his local Texas market. Yours might be one of these.
When you sell a transportation business with CGK, whichever office you reach, you get the entire firm. Marcus worked with a CGK Managing Director based out of his local Texas market, but his deal benefited from a buyer pool we sourced firm-wide, including the industry-insider SBA buyer from an adjacent metro who ultimately won. Click any city to learn about our local presence and the named Managing Director leading that market.
Other Questions Marcus and Other Transportation Sellers Ask Us
Practical answers to what comes up before, during, and after the kind of engagement Marcus went through, when you sell a transportation business with CGK.