LAKELAND BASED TRUCKING COMPANY BEING BOUGHT IN BILLION DOLLAR DEAL

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported in it's Saturday edition that Lakeland-based Watkins Motor Lines, one of the nation's largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers, has reached a deal to be purchased by the Memphis-based FedEx Corporation that could be worth one billion dollars.

Noone is speaking on the record at present, but the Memphis newspaper's story says that the sale could be announced as early as next week.

Watkins is part of Watkins Associated Industries, which also includes Sun-Co Carriers, an LTL with refrigerated trailers, Watkins Canada Express, the truckload line Land Span, and tanker truck line Highway Transport.

The Commercial Appeal story takes note that one of the most attractive points about Watkins is that it is one of a handful of LTLs that has remained nonunion and survived. Of course, that means drivers aren't paid nearly as much as their union counterparts.

We'll watch this story continue to develop. The Lakeland Ledger ran the Memphis newspaper's story in Sunday's edition, but did not include a local angle as apparantly noone's talking at this point.