Active transport: king of the road, deal makes AT the largest black-owned vehicle transport company.

Former football player Charlie Johnson hit pay dirt with the recent purchase of a $240 million company that propels his trucking business, Active

Transportation Inc., into the big leagues. The acquisition of Jupiter Transportation Systems Inc., based in Kenosha, Wis., makes Active the largest black-owned transporter of new cars and trucks in the country.

"These are the kinds of deals that minority people need to be involved in," says Johnson, who will continue as CEO and president of Active.

Active and its sister company, Automotive Carrier Services, have combined annual revenues of $35 million, Johnson says. With the purchase, he projects that the larger company will see revenues of about $300 million a year.

Johnson closed the $50 million deal in late October. He raised $45 million in loans from American National Bank, Heller Financial and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance. The rest of the money came from Johnson himself, Dennis Traha, who is Jupiter's president, and Alice and Wade Houston, all of whom will hold positions in the new company.

"This is a case of the smaller fish eating up the bigger fish, says Renaldo M. Jensen, director of the Minority Supplier Development Program for Ford Motor Co., whose program helped expand Johnson's trucking business.

Jupiter's car and truck hauling divisions--Dallas & Mavis Forwarding Co., Kenosha Auto Transportation Corp. and Provential American Truck Transporters--will all be merged with Active. Traha will be an executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Johnson doesn't plan to drastically change jupiter's management structure or cut its 2,700 employees. Rather, he hopes to combine them with Active's 400-person workforce. Ford is the biggest client for both companies.

Ford hired Johnson after his football career ended. The former lineman for the Baltimore Colts worked as a supervisor in Ford's traffic department for 16 years.

Then, in 1983, Johnson and financial partner Wade Houston formed Johnson-Houston Corp. The company hauled automotive vehicle parts in Louisville, Ky. Four years later, Ford fostered the expansion of Johnson-Houston by encouraging a partnership with jupiter.

The new company was named Active Transport and was 60% minority owned. It concentrated on hauling cars and trucks. Ford awarded Active $5 million worth of business. By 1994, Ford's business with Active had increased and Active had taken on other clients, boosting revenues to $22 million.

Jupiter Transport is a subsidiary of Chicago-based Jupiter Industries Inc. The company became available when its owner, Jerrold Wexler, died in 1992 and his estate started selling off his businesses.

Harriet R. Michel, president of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, says the deal shows that black business owners can successfully pull off large deals. "There's no better evidence than this particular deal," she says.