Freight & Cargo Businesses for Sale in Tennessee.
The freight revenue number is obvious, but the real value lives in the repeat customers and the dispatch team that keep loads moving without the owner touching every booking.
Rejigg lists 1 freight & cargo businesses for sale in Tennessee.
Featured Freight & Cargo Businesses in Tennessee
Showing 1 of 1 listings
Search, filter, and find your perfect opportunity
What to know about buying a freight & cargo business in Tennessee
Nashville carries healthcare, professional services, hospitality, construction and home services; Memphis carries logistics and distribution; Knoxville and Chattanooga carry manufacturing, healthcare and the trades. Tennessee has no tax on wages, but it levies a franchise tax on net worth and an excise tax on net earnings for most entities, plus a business tax on gross receipts collected by the state and cities. Contractors need a license from the Board for Licensing Contractors for work above a set amount, and home improvement work is licensed in several counties. SBA 7(a) lending is active, with the SBA district office in Nashville. Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga are the active metros.
How freight & cargo businesses are valued
Asking prices are set as a multiple of earnings: 3x–8x annual profit, depending on customer loyalty, team, and how lean the operation is.
Where you land in that range depends on how many customers come back regularly, whether your team handles things without you, and how well you manage cash flow and collections.
- Customers who keep coming back
- Revenue spread across many customers and routes
- A dispatch team that runs without you
- Healthy cash flow and good collections
What buyers of freight & cargo businesses look for
- Freight companies looking to add new routes, services, or coverage areas
- Logistics companies building scale through acquisitions
- First-time buyers with supply chain or operations backgrounds who want a business with repeat revenue
- Companies in related fields like warehousing, customs, or delivery looking to add freight capabilities
The first questions buyers ask:
- Margin Mix. Where does your gross profit actually come from, by customer, by lane, by mode?
- Cash Float. What’s the cash float, and how many days are you funding loads?
- Claims & OS&D. What happens when a claim, OS&D (Overage, Shortage, and Damage), or accessorial dispute hits, and who ultimately pays?
Rejigg deals closed in Tennessee
Across 43 closed deals on Rejigg, the median time from first pitch to close is 185 days.
See all Rejigg deal dataDue diligence
What to Look For
Practical guidance from hundreds of real acquisition conversations.
Actual Profit Margins
- Freight revenue can look large because it includes what you pay carriers. The number that matters is profit after carrier costs.
- Ask for a P&L that separates gross revenue from net margin, and make sure you understand what's included before putting weight on the headline.
- Some brokerages bundle ancillary fees into gross revenue in ways that inflate the picture — worth clarifying early.
Customer Loyalty and Concentration
- Ask how long the top accounts have been shipping with the business and how often they come back.
- Freight businesses where 80% or more of revenue comes from repeat customers who've been around for years offer a much more comfortable foundation than ones constantly hunting new loads.
- Also look at whether any single customer makes up a large chunk of total revenue, since that concentration shapes the risk picture significantly.
Carrier Network and Partner Relationships
- The quality of the carrier relationships directly affects service reliability and the ability to cover loads during tight market periods.
- Ask about the depth of the carrier network, how long those relationships have been in place, and whether the dispatch team manages them or whether they're tied primarily to the owner.
- Carrier relationships that belong to the business rather than one person's contact list are far more transferable.
Cash Flow and Collections
- Freight can have a challenging cash cycle: you pay carriers before customers pay you.
- Find out how quickly customers pay, what days-outstanding typically looks like, and whether there are any significant overdue accounts.
- Strong collections discipline and low bad debt are signs of a well-run operation and worth verifying before you commit to a deal structure.
Valuation
What Should You Expect to Pay?
3x-5x
SDE
Owner-operated brokerage or small fleet
5x-8x
EBITDA
With management team and strong repeat revenue
In freight, the spread between 3x and 8x reflects customer loyalty, how independently the dispatch team operates, and whether the business is asset-light (brokerage) or asset-heavy (owned fleet).
What drives a premium
Repeat customers averaging 3+ years of relationship history with consistent shipping volume
Dispatch and operations team that handles bookings, carrier selection, and problem-solving without owner involvement
Revenue diversified across multiple customers and routes with no single account over 20%
Clean cash flow cycle with low days-outstanding and minimal bad debt history
SBA Loan Calculator
See what your monthly payments would look like at different deal sizes
Make your next conversation count
A listing starts the conversation. These tools help you check the fit, understand the financials, and decide what to ask next.
Prepare for the first owner call
Clarify what is for sale, who runs the business, and what the owner wants from a transition.
Prepare your buyer introductionCheck the numbers behind the asking price
Explore financing scenarios, debt payments, and the cash a business needs to keep operating.
Try the SBA loan calculatorTurn interest into a clear next step
Use the diligence checklist and LOI templates to organize requests and prepare a proposal.
Explore the deal templatesFind a business worth a closer look
Keep your industry and location in focus. Explore matching businesses or get new listings as they arrive.