United Road Services, Inc. - Introduction

Introduction

10701 Middlebelt
Romulus, Michigan 48174
U.S.A.
Telephone: (734) 946-3232
Fax: (734) 947-7902
Web site: http://www.unitedroad.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1997
Employees: 1,726
Sales: $248.7 million (2002)
Stock Exchanges: Pink Sheets
Ticker Symbol: URSI
NAIC: 488410 Motor Vehicle Towing

United Road Services, Inc. (URSI) is a Romulus, Michigan-based company that provides towing services from operations located across the United States and Canada. URSI offers a variety of towing services in addition to road service, including automobile transport, heavy equipment transport, law enforcement towing, insurance salvage towing, private impound towing, and repossession services. Customers include government agencies, automakers, auto dealers, corporate fleets, motor clubs, insurance companies, and lending institutions. Created as a consolidator of the highly fragmented towing industry, URSI has been stifled in its attempts to become a national powerhouse. Instead, it has gone through a series of management changes, and seen its shares delisted and reduced to penny stock status. The company is owned by KPS Special Situations Funds, a New York private equity firm known as a buyer of last resort. Its shares are now sold on a pink sheet basis.