Access America Transport was founded in 2002 in Chattanooga by Ted Alling and Barry Large as the logistics division of Key-James Brick. The company soon expanded into other commodities and began offering dry van, flatbed, and refrigerated van service. In 2003, Miller Welborn and Allan Davis joined Access America Transport and the company expanded its services to include transload and warehouse facilities. Access America opened its first such facility in Birmingham, Alabama. The company opened its second office location in 2005 in Birmingham. The office began working with the Department of Defense and other government entities moving truckload freight within the United States. Following the opening of the Birmingham location, the company began moving freight within Canada and Mexico as well. In 2006, Access America added locations in Minneapolis and Eufaula, Alabama. In addition, the company began offering less-than-truckload, heavy haul, and intermodal services to its customers. The expansion into LTL also included technology upgrades which enabled Access America customers to enter shipment information online and compare service options based on pricing, service, and LTL carrier, the interface similar to websites like Travelocity. In 2007 and 2008, Access America opened three additional locations in Ohio and Tennessee. The company also expanded into supply chain management, reverse logistics, freight consolidation, and refrigerated LTL while further upgrading its transportation management system software. In 2009, the ownership team at Access America also founded a transportation insurance agency called Reliance Partners. Access America Transport added its 7th location in Atlanta in June 2011. The company hired its 200th employee in July 2011 and expanded its Chattanooga and Minneapolis facilities. AAT opened two additional offices in 2012. The new offices locations were opened in Denver, Colorado and San Antonio, Texas. The San Antonio office was opened to provide additional focus on produce and refrigerated shipping. In addition, the Birmingham and Columbus, Ohio locations were both relocated to accommodate additional growth. Access America Transport hired its 425th employee in November 2012. Access America Transport announced the addition of over 950 new jobs in Chattanooga; Knoxville; and Minneapolis in early 2013. These jobs are to be created over the next five years and will be supported by workforce training grants from Tennessee and Minnesota. 2013 also marked the opening on the tenth Access America office in the Gulf Coast region. In March 2014, Access America Transport and Coyote Logistics announced that both boards had approved an agreement to merge the two businesses. The combination created a more than $2 billion freight brokerage. Coyote Logistics reportedly paid more than $260 million for Access America Transport. The combined company was sold to UPS for $1.8 billion in July 2015.
