Knight-Swift to Unify LTL Brands Under AAA Cooper
DHE, Yellow Terminal Acquisitions Bolster Expansion Ambitions
Key Takeaways:
- Knight-Swift Transportation will unify its less-than-truckload operations under the AAA Cooper Transportation brand starting Jan. 1, as part of its nationwide expansion.
- The move follows acquisitions including Dependable Highway Express and assets from bankrupt Yellow Corp., which expanded Knight-Swift’s LTL network and boosted Q2 revenue 28.4% to $337.7 million.
- Analysts say the consolidated LTL business offers strong margin growth and synergy potential, with Knight-Swift set to report Q3 earnings on Oct. 22.
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Knight-Swift Transportation’s ambitions for a competitive nationwide less-than-truckload operation took another step forward in recent days.
Historically a truckload-centric carrier, Phoenix-based Knight-Swift told customers that as of Jan. 1, all its LTL units would operate under one brand — AAA Cooper Transportation.
AAA Cooper Transportation, Midwest Motor Express and DHE Transportation would all be housed under the one brand from the start of 2026, President and CEO Charlie Prickett wrote in an Oct. 14 letter to customers made public on social media a couple of days later.
(AAA Cooper Transportation via LinkedIn)
Knight-Swift on July 30, 2024, announced plans to acquire the LTL operations of Dependable Highway Express, bolstering its operations in the market segment on the West Coast.
“This transaction increases our ability to serve customers in California, Arizona and Nevada — key markets that are often difficult to enter,” Knight-Swift CEO Adam Miller said at the time. “It’s a strategic step in our goal of building a nationwide LTL network.”
The Dependable deal added 14 terminals and 465 doors to Knight-Swift’s LTL network, with 11 of the facilities in California.
Before the Dependable deal, Knight-Swift operated 133 terminals and 5,100 doors, according to Bank of America analyst Ken Hoexter, including assets bought from the estate of bankrupt LTL carrier Yellow Corp.
Knight-Swift was an active player as the assets of one-time No. 3 LTL carrier Yellow were auctioned off.
In the auction’s first round, Knight-Swift spent $51.3 million for 13 former Yellow properties, the fourth-largest haul in that round. Later it spent $2.2 million to take over the leaseholds on 10 properties.
Size matters in the top-heavy LTL space as terminals are necessary for a successful business. However, they require a great amount of land and cost a lot of money to build, and the land is typically hard to come by near major metropolitan areas.
(Dependable Supply Chain Services via Facebook)
With the one-time DHE and Yellow assets aboard, Knight-Swift’s LTL earnings jumped in the second quarter of 2025, it said July 24.
Knight-Swift’s LTL division saw revenue increase 28.4% year on year to $337.7 million in Q2 from $263.1 million. The unit’s shipments per day increased 21.7% year over year to 24,918 from 20,842.
The unit operated an average of 4,193 tractors in Q2, compared with 3,249 tractors in the year-ago period.
Knight-Swift will release its third quarter of 2025 earnings Oct. 22 after the market closes.
The first steps to building out the LTL operations came in 2021, when Knight-Swift acquired both AAA Cooper and Midwest Motor.
With the latest step, Prickett and Knight-Swift promised prices won’t change as a result of the three brands coming together.
“Thank you for your trust and support over the past three years of remarkable change and growth at AAA Cooper Transportation. Sustained by your confidence, we have successfully integrated two regional brands, expanded into over 50 new markets and established around 40,000 new linehaul lanes across our network,” Prickett wrote in the letter.
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“This integration occurred alongside the ongoing transition of MME and DHE into ACT’s operating and administrative systems, with the final migration to ACT’s financial systems in July 2025,” he added.
“The teamwork, ingenuity, leadership and dedication of all ACT, MME and DHE employees, combined with your support, enabled us to complete this transition in record time. It represented a unique and seminal challenge for both our company and the LTL industry, ranking among the most complex initiatives I have experienced in my 35 years in the industry,” he wrote.
Analysts are generally positive about the LTL unit’s prospects, with Deutsche Bank’s Richa Harnain writing in an Oct. 1 research note that it has a lot of scope to expand margins and grow top-line as well as untapped synergy potential from being the only public operator with a “growing LTL and truckload segment.”
Knight-Swift ranks No. 7 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America. Knight-Swift is the top-ranked carrier on the truckload sector list, while AAA Cooper ranks No. 11 among LTL carriers. Knight-Swift also ranks No. 31 on the TT Top 100 logistics companies list.
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