By Gillian Tan 

ITS Technologies & Logistics LLC, a logistics company backed by Carlyle Group LP, is on the auction block, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Tinley Park, Ill.-based company, which has been majority-owned by Carlyle Infrastructure Partners since 2008, is working with Morgan Stanley on the sale, the people said. ITS has drawn first-round bids from other logistics companies and private-equity firms and could fetch about $500 million, some of the people said. A deal could be reached by the first quarter of 2015, one of them added.

ITS operates loading and unloading facilities at shipping terminals and rail depots around the U.S. and Mexico, according to its website. Its intermodal rail service division handles roughly 7 million container lifts a year for BNSF Railway Co., Canadian National Railway Co. and CSX Corp., among others. Its autoloading division moves roughly 1.5 million vehicles a year.

Demand for the services of logistics companies like ITS has been on the rise, as railroads and other freight carriers benefit from an improving U.S. economy. Last week, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said it would buy logistics company Charter Brokerage from Arsenal Capital Partners. In October, Rhone Capital LLC and an affiliate of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. agreed to buy Neovia Logistics from Platinum Equity.

Write to Gillian Tan at gillian.tan@wsj.com

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