Knight Transportation was founded in 1990 by four cousins: brothers Randy and Gary Knight, and brothers Kevin and Keith Knight. The four cousins worked for
Swift Transportation, also based in Phoenix, and Randy was even a part-owner in Swift when
Jerry Moyes bought out his interest. The Moyes family and the Knight family both were raised in
Plain City, Utah, before moving to Phoenix in the late 1960s. Knight began transporting general commodities from Phoenix, Arizona, to
Los Angeles, California. Starting with just a handful of trucks and one service center in Phoenix, Arizona, the company now runs a fleet of over 4,000 trucks and more than 8,700 trailers (dry, refrigerated, and brokerage). Revenues have grown from over 13 million in 1991 to over $866 million in 2011, with operating ratios at or near 80% year after year. They have grown from a few associates to more than 4,000, and from a family-owned business to a publicly held company trading on the
New York Stock Exchange (KNX) in 1994. and
Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. was formed to serve as the parent company for both carriers. In 2019, Knight-Swift settled a $100 million class-action lawsuit alleging the company failed to classify 20,000 owner-operator drivers as employees. Drivers were not paid the minimum hourly wage in accordance with the
Fair Labor Standards Act and had their rights violated under the forced labor statute. The lawsuit from March 11, 2009 is entitled
Van Dusen, et al. v. Swift Transportation Co. of Arizona, LLC, et al.. The deadline for claimants to file was December 14, 2019. Knight-Swift expanded from its core truckload market into
less than truckload (LTL) freight in July 2021 when it acquired southeastern regional LTL firm
AAA Cooper Transportation for . Further acquisitions have expanded Knight-Swift's footprint in LTL including its January 2022 acquisition of Midwest Motor Express and July 2024 purchase of Los Angeles-based Dependable Highway Express, Inc. from Dependable Supply Chain Services. In July 2023 Knight-Swift acquired
truckload carrier
US Xpress. == Business ==