Knight-Swift

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 . 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 in 1994.

In 2017, Knight Transportation merged with Swift Transportation 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 freight in July 2021 when it acquired southeastern regional LTL firm AAA Cooper Transportation for US$1.35 billion.