Dive Brief:
- Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings plans to add 11 LTL terminals in the near future, according to a Q1 earnings presentation that showed the plans.
- The additions are for Midwest Motor Express in Kansas, Idaho, the Iowa-Illinois border, Nebraska and Wisconsin and for AAA Cooper Transportation in Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina and Texas.
- “Filling out a super-regional network in the short term and creating a national network in the long term will allow us to participate in more freight and enable us to find opportunities to further support our existing Truckload customers with LTL capacity,” Knight-Swift CFO Adam Miller said on an earnings call last month.
Dive Insight:
Knight-Swift has been expanding its LTL footprint over the past two years, and Miller, who is also the president of Swift Transportation, said the additions are slated for the near term. He did not provide a more specific timeline.
Following the acquisitions of ACT and MME, Knight-Swift added LTL terminals to the network across several states. A map for its network listed 10 “recent” additions.
The carrier didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
While LTL providers such as Saia and XPO have added terminals as part of growth plans, FedEx Freight is downsizing its LTL network by closing 29 locations. Yellow also has said it’s sought to eliminate overlap by selling excess terminals.
“The network optimization is expected to improve asset utilization, enhance network efficiencies, lead to cost savings and create capacity without the need to add terminals,” Yellow CEO Darren Hawkins said in a February statement.
Its plan to sell 28 terminals, though, has run into resistance from the Teamsters. Conversations between the company and labor group are ongoing.
