Trucking software company Bestpass-Fleetworthy Solutions has made another acquisition, one that adds another 200 employees to the company.
Bestpass-Fleetworthy, which has co-headquarters in Albany, New York, and Madison, acquired Drivewyze, an Edmonton, Alberta-based tech company that provides in-cab safety alerts to truck drivers as well as weigh station/inspection bypass services, the companies said in an Aug. 7 press release.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. It closed Aug. 2.
Bestpass-Fleetworthy CEO Tom Fogarty said the acquisition increases the company's gross revenue from $100 million per year to $150 million.
Drivewyze's software indicates to truck drivers whether they can legally bypass truck inspection sites, which saves fleets time and money. The company provides bypass services at over 900 weigh stations and inspection sites across North America.
Bestpass in Albany secured a multimillion-dollar investment from Insight Partners, a global software investor, last June. Since then, Fogarty said, the goal has been to expand the company's offerings beyond its original tolling services.
That aim drove Bestpass's acquisition of Fleetworthy in Madison in November. Fleetworthy provided compliance services for truck fleets. Similar to how Bestpass has automated tolls for trucks, Fleetworthy had automated the process for licensing, inspection, maintenance and background checks with its dashboard.
The acquisition doubled the employee headcount and established a co-headquarters in Madison for the combined Bestpass-Fleetworthy.
"The thesis was we could solve a lot more of the problem, and we knew that because our customers were asking us to," Fogarty said.
Chief Technology Officer Michael Sebast said Bestpass's technology is moving in an all-encompassing direction to accommodate its growing portfolio of services.
"The core tolling technology, we've abstracted it away a bit from toll, and we've built more of a transaction engine," Sebast said. "Where a toll record is just a day, time, location and amount, that's no different than a permit for Fleetworthy if you need this for this state on this date at this time. Same thing for weigh station bypass."
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And many fleets that use weigh station bypass services also use toll management services, making Drivewyze's services complementary to what Bestpass already offered.
The acquisition adds 200 employees to Bestpass-Fleetworthy, bringing the total headcount to over 500 employees between Albany, Madison and Edmonton.
Drivewyze will maintain its brand. CEO Brian Heath will stay on as special adviser to Fogarty and continue to manage his direct reports.
For the remainder of 2024, Fogarty said the focus will be on integrating Drivewyze into the company. After a quarter or two, Bestpass-Fleetowrthy can look to its next opportunity.
"We can't take our eye off the ball in making sure we deliver increasing value for customers and a balanced workload for employees," Fogarty said.
