Iowa Company Acquires John Christner Trucking Based In Sapulpa

One of Oklahoma's largest trucking companies, which is based in Sapulpa, has been bought by an even larger company out of Iowa. For employees, not much will change.

Ownership of John Christner Trucking will be taken over once the deal with Hirschbach closes in a few months.

John Christner Trucking has been in Oklahoma for decades. CEO Danny Christner said they were ready for a change.

"We realized people were in transition in their lives, to retirement, health issues, for other reasons," Danny said.

Danny said a trucking company out of Iowa, called Hirschbach, is acquiring John Christner Trucking.

Once the deal goes through, Danny's brother and dad will retire. The companies will have $1 billion combined revenue, with more than 3,000 trucks around the country.

The companies also have similar cultures. Danny said more importantly, having more fleet helps with major supply chain issues they've been dealing with.

"We're feeding the country, moving the product ultimately to the consumer," Danny said.

Hirschbach drives mostly in the north and east parts of the country. JCT goes mostly to the west and south so Danny said the companies are a perfect fit.

JCT will keep its branding and will operate independently for now.

He said they already have more than 1,000 employees and want to keep growing.

"We're both turning down thousands of loads," said Danny. "We need to add people and scale this thing up, not down."

"We're growing and there's room for good people everywhere," he said.

The deal is set to be finished in April.