Schneider National Goes Public

Green Bay-based trucking company Schneider National has gone public.

The company has been family owned for 82 years and made its Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. On its first day of trading, SNDR held steady at $19 per share.

The company’s Chief Operating Officer Mark Rourke said 28.9 million shares were included in the IPO, with an estimated value of $632.49 million.

“We’re still largely a closely held organization,” Rourke said. “Only about 15-17 percent of the company will be out in the public equity market.”

Rourke said the sale will allow the business to make acquisitions, and to expand its reach into logistics and intermodal transportation, which involves putting the big orange trailers onto trains.

Even though the company with 20,000 employees will now answer to shareholders, Rourke said employees and customers shouldn’t notice any changes.

“I think one of the outcomes that may play out over the next couple of years is that we’ll continue to find ways to extend what we do in the transportation and logistics area,” Rourke said.

He added executives decided the “time was right” for the IPO.

“The day-to-day running of the company and the culture that we have, I don’t expect any real changes there,” Rourke said.

Schneider executives were joined by Bob Wyatt, a 44-year veteran truck driver, to ring the NYSE opening bell Thursday morning. Rourke said in the 44 years time, Wyatt has driven 5 million miles without an accident.