Milwaukee Trucking & Local Freight Company, Established 2000 Wisconsin Carrier

$5.5M

Revenue

$1.1M

SDE

3.5x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a Milwaukee-area trucking company founded in 2000 that specializes in local pickup and delivery across southeast Wisconsin and northern Illinois, with reach extending into northern Wisconsin. The business runs on a fully owned fleet of trucks and trailers (no leases), operates out of a facility with 40-plus docks, offices, and storage on several acres, and serves a diverse client base described as ready for both stability and growth. At $5.5M revenue and $1.125M EBITDA, this is a roughly 20% margin operation, which is healthy for local/regional freight where fuel, labor, and equipment costs typically compress returns.

What matters here is asset structure. The asking price of $3.9M covers the operating business plus $8,000 of FF&E, but excludes both the real estate (valued at $3.5M) and $2.3M of inventory. The seller offers flexible terms on the property, either a separate purchase or a commercial lease. That means a buyer must underwrite occupancy cost on top of the 3.47x EBITDA multiple, and the true all-in cost to control the operation depends heavily on the lease-vs-buy decision on the dock facility.

Local and regional trucking is a boring, essential, recession-resistant service. Goods still move in a downturn, and a carrier with owned equipment, 25 years of operating history, seasoned drivers, and a diverse book of local shippers is exactly the kind of durable cash flow that compounds if run tightly. The retirement sale, tenured staff, and included fleet make this a genuine operator opportunity rather than a turnaround.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is real for the sector: $1.125M EBITDA on $5.5M revenue is a ~20% margin, strong for local freight where fuel and labor eat most operators. The fleet is fully owned free and clear, so there are no truck lease payments dragging cash flow, and reported financial management is described as solid.
Durability comes from 25 years of operating history and a diverse local client base rather than one anchor shipper. Local pickup and delivery is sticky, relationship-driven business, and switching carriers creates real disruption for shippers, which protects revenue in a downturn.
Freight and last-mile delivery are recession-resistant essentials. Goods keep moving whether the economy is hot or cold, and a carrier positioned at the crossroads of southeast Wisconsin and northern Illinois sits on a durable, defensible geographic corridor.
This is a clean operator advantage: seasoned management and drivers with moderate to long-term retention, a retiring seller offering a real transition plan, and a 40-plus dock facility with room to add volume. A hands-on owner who tightens pricing and utilization can grow EBITDA without a rebuild.

How to improve it

Model the property decision on day one. With $3.5M of real estate excluded, decide whether to buy the facility, lease it, or negotiate a purchase-price allocation that lets an SBA or conventional lender roll it in. The occupancy structure will swing your true return more than any operational lever.
Audit lane profitability and shed the losers. Local freight almost always carries a tail of underpriced accounts and deadhead miles. Rank every customer and lane by contribution margin per truck-hour, reprice or fire the bottom decile, and redeploy capacity to the profitable corridors.
Push driver retention and recruiting hard. The seasoned driver base is an asset, but it is also a concentration risk as the retiring owner exits. Lock in a retention plan, referral bonuses, and a recruiting pipeline before turnover hits, because empty trucks kill trucking margins fast.
Add a fuel surcharge and rate escalator discipline. If the diverse client base includes handshake or legacy pricing from the retiring owner, implement transparent fuel surcharges and annual rate reviews to protect the ~20% margin against fuel and wage inflation.
Invest in basic telematics and TMS if not already in place. Route optimization, load boards for backhauls, and dock scheduling software can lift asset utilization on the existing fleet. Better utilization drops straight to EBITDA with no new capital.
Evaluate the second Wisconsin property and 40-plus dock capacity for a warehousing or cross-dock add-on. Turning excess dock and storage into a paid drayage or 3PL service line diversifies revenue beyond pure hauling and monetizes the real estate footprint.
Formalize customer contracts and MSAs. Convert the diverse but likely informal client base into multi-year agreements with volume commitments. This hardens revenue durability and materially raises the resale multiple when you eventually exit.

Diligence notes

Reconcile the numbers: cash flow (SDE) is listed as Not Disclosed while EBITDA is $1.125M. Get full financials and verify whether EBITDA is truly clean or includes owner add-backs, and confirm the maintenance capex required to keep an owned fleet running, since heavy trucks depreciate and replacement is expensive.
Get the asset list and fleet condition report. Owned trucks and trailers are the core of the deal at this multiple, so verify age, mileage, DOT/CSA compliance history, deferred maintenance, and realistic replacement timing. An aging fleet turns a 3.47x deal into a much higher effective multiple once you fund replacements.
Clarify the true all-in cost. The $3.9M asking excludes $3.5M real estate and $2.3M inventory. Determine what inventory even means for a carrier (parts, tires, fuel?), whether you must buy it, and price out the lease-vs-buy on the facility so you know your real capital and occupancy commitment.
Assess customer and driver concentration. Confirm the client base is genuinely diverse with no single account over 15-20% of revenue, and quantify driver tenure and turnover risk as the retiring owner departs. Both are the biggest threats to the stated EBITDA holding up post-close.
Verify DOT authority, safety scores, and insurance. Pull the CSA scores, accident history, and loss runs. A poor safety record or pending claims can spike insurance premiums and directly compress the margin you are paying for.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →