US private equity firm FENWAY PARTNERS is acquiring CONSOLIDATED FASTFRATE, CANADA DRAYAGE and KOCH TRANSPORT. Consolidated Fastfrate, one of Canada’s largest privately-owned transportation and logistics providers with more than 1,500 employees, transports more than two billion pounds of freight each year. The company provides LTL and truckload services in Canada and the Northeast and Midwest US. It also provides national drayage and cartage, warehousing, transloading and third-party logistics services. Consolidated Fastfrate is also Canada’s largest LTL intermodal carrier with a relationship with Canadian Pacific Railway. The company says it is the only intermodal carrier in North America that has co-located facilities with the railway in every CPR intermodal yard in Canada, with the exception of Edmonton where one is currently slated to be built. The company has 17 terminals in Canada as well as a sales office in Shanghai. Under the deal, Fastfrate’s shareholders will control 25% of the company. Consolidated Fastfrate CEO Ron Tepper will remain with the company and says access to Fenway’s capital should help the company grow through selective strategic acquisitions.

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TRANSFORCE is adding LTL and TL carrier, the THIBODEAU GROUP OF COMPANIES, to its already sizeable stable of transportation companies. Thibodeau operates primarily in Quebec, Ontario and the US. The carrier was founded in 1945 by the father of its current president, Pierre Thibodeau. The company operates 1,530 tractors and trailers out of 14 terminals. The group generated revenues of more than $80 million in 2006. Transforce president Alain Bedard is looking to the new acquisition to further strengthen his company’s less-than-truckload and truckload operations in Eastern Canada.

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TOTALLINE TRANSPORT is expanding its operation in Western Canada with the move to a larger and custom-designed facility in Richmond, B.C. With 135,000 sq. ft., 24 shipping doors and two indoor bays, the facility offers customers more warehousing space and features the latest in security measures responding to an increasing demand in Western Canada. Merging Totalline’s two locations in Vancouver into one larger, customized operation strengthens its position in Western Canada, according to president and CEO Uwe Petroschke and adds to its warehousing space across the country, which is now over 750.000 sq. ft.

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TRIMAC TRANSPORTATION SERVICES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP has completed the purchase of the petroleum hauling business and related assets of STAN FERGUSSON FUELS based in eastern Ontario. The purchase price for the business was $4.1 million and includes a fleet of 17 tractors and 17 trailers.

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CN and CANADIAN PACIFIC have reached agreement on a routing protocol to expedite their exchange of interline freight traffic at key gateways. Under the protocol, CN and CP have established a structured plan to direct flows of interline traffic through the most efficient interchange locations. Implementation of the agreement is well underway. The routing protocol will result in a number of changes: * Fourteen gateways, principally Montreal (St-Luc), Milwaukee, and Winnipeg (Paddington), will experience an increase in volume of interline traffic.

* Fifteen gateways, including Chicago, Minneapolis, Superior, Wis., Calgary and several southern Ontario locations, will see lesser volumes of interline traffic. With the CN-CP agreement, CN now has routing protocol agreements with six Class 1 North American railways. CP has similar agreements with three Class 1s.

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XTL TRANSPORT has opted to implement Shaw Tracking’s OmniVision mobile computing platform to track its growing truck fleet. The OmniVision system offers text-to-speech capabilities so drivers can communicate without having to pull over to read a text message. The system also features an integrated, colour touch-screen and a remote control device allowing drivers to quickly access important information such as messages read by the text-to-speech feature.

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MSM CANADIAN TRANSPORT has been named one of the 100 fastest growing private companies in Los Angeles for the second consecutive year, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. The survey ranks companies according to revenue growth from 2004 to 2006. MSM Canadian Transport placed 76th, based on a 53.17% revenue increase during the three-year period. Located in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., MSM Canadian Transport provides daily scheduled less-than-truckload service to Canada from the Los Angeles area. MSM Canadian Transport is affiliated with the MSM Group of Companies of Bolton, Ont.