Carl Moyes was a
truck driver hauling produce for
C.R. England in the 1940s out of northern
Utah. In the late 1950s Betty and Carl Moyes started a small trucking company in
Plain City, Utah, B & C Truck Leasing. After their son,
Jerry, graduated from
Weber State University in 1966, they moved the small company to
Phoenix, Arizona. Carl and his two sons, Ronald and Jerry (vice-president), formed the company
Common Market in Arizona, that would become Swift. Operations began in 1966 In 1970, in response to the Teamsters Strike, Swift Transportation, fired all its drivers, closed its doors in Gardena, CA and moved to Phoenix, AZ. Refusing to rehire a single driver. They stated that they would NEVER be a Union Shop. And they have held to that position. The name Swift Transportation was purchased from a descendant of the
Swift Meat Packing family, when the Moyes family bought the trucking assets of Swift & Company. The three Moyes family members and a fourth partner, Randy Knight, grew the business to $25 million in annual revenues by 1984. Jerry Moyes became president, chairman, and CEO that same year, and when Carl died in 1985, Jerry bought out the other two partners, his brother Ronald and Randy Knight. Ronald would continue to hold shares in Swift while Randy would become a co-founder of
Knight Transportation. In April 1988 Swift purchased
Greenville, South Carolina-based Cooper Motor Lines from
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based
ARA Services. By 1990, Swift Transportation had grown to a $125 million carrier with over 800 trucks. In 1991, with money raised in the IPO, Swift bought
Stephens City, Virginia-based Arthur H. Fulton Inc. for $9 million out of
Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In a similar move, in 2001 Moyes purchased the assets of Dick Simon Trucking, which had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Those assets were rolled into Moyes's small
Central Freight Lines out of Texas, and later spun off as the separate entity Central Refrigerated Service, which remained wholly owned by Moyes until its subsequent sale to and merger with Swift. That sale was announced in summer 2013, and the merger completed on February 1, 2014. Moyes received $180 million in cash for the sale. Moyes was soon to retire when he was forced out as
chief executive officer (CEO) at Swift in October 2005 after a
United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into
insider trading. Without admitting or denying wrongdoing he paid a $1.26 million settlement. The Moyes family still controlled about 39% of the public stock. In November 2006 Moyes offered to buy Swift for $29 a share. The offer was raised to $2.4 billion ($31.55 per share) for shares not controlled by the family and assumption of $332 million in outstanding debt. The transaction closed on May 10, 2007. To finance the acquisition, Moyes formed Saint Acquisition Corporation, and issued $2.1 billion of a senior secured credit facility and $835 million in second-lien senior secured notes. to approximately 17,700. Swift owns 100% of Trans-Mex, a
Nuevo Laredo, Mexico-based carrier. Swift offers border crossing services at all major
Mexican border crossings. Swift maintains a presence in every
Canadian Province. The company offered 73,300,000 shares at $11.00 per share, raising almost $766 million, with the proceeds used for debt reduction. The offering represented 54.9% of the company, valuing the company at $1.86 billion. Due to the economic downturn, the IPO was below Moyes leveraged-buyout (LBO) price of $17.61. With the offering the name changed from Swift Holdings Corp. to Swift Transportation Company. In April 2017, Swift Transportation merged with Knight Transportation in a $6 billion deal. In July 2024, Knight-Swift acquired Dependable Highway Express, Inc., a LTL carrier out of Los Angeles.
Company trucks Image:Truck_072.jpg | 2006
Volvo VNL670 with a 2002
Wabash National 53' DuraPlate Dry Van Trailer Image:Truck_181.jpg|
2005 Freightliner Columbia with a 1996
Wabash National 53' Sheet & Post Dry Van Trailer Image:Swift_flatbed_colorado.JPG|
Freightliner Columbia with Flatbed Spread Axle trailer Image:Swift_stepdeck_at_inland_steel.JPG|
Freightliner Columbia with single drop flatbed (also known as a stepdeck) trailer ==References==