"I guess the point I am trying to make here is that the acquisition is still nothing close to being a Unisys, Ryder, Penske, FedEx or UPS as an all in one solutions provider. Maybe I am wrong but I don’t see the gains that others expect. "
Eeek, left out some info.
Also Greg, remember that Panther's parent company owns everything from Trans-freight to Delimex, the company that sells the Tornados at Pilot. You know the yummy little rotisserie cooked mexican snack.
Oddly enough, you mentioned a panoply of "one solutions providers" and left out the largest one in the world. One that we all see every day.
As incestuous as the freight re-location industry is, everyone is a "one solution provider." As a supervisor at UPS, we sent freight out on FedEx (they are cheaper), PANTHER, Holland, Overnite, Roadway, and 50 others. As a supervisor at DHL (largest world-wide by the way) we also sent freight out on everybody. In fact, EGL sold their planes and if you got a piece of EGL airfreight, most likely it came on a DHL (actually AStar) aircraft (affectionately known as a flying banana).
I can call Bob's Logistics in Whoziwhat, Alabama and make one call to get my freight delivered to Gregscool, Wisconsin. It just means that Bob is going to make some additional phone calls. Every provider uses everyone else.
As a Panther driver I have picked up at FedEx and delivered their freight.
So, lighten up. We can all split hairs and find the marketing babble that everyone uses.