Swift Transportation is a Phoenix, Arizona based publicly held truckload motor shipping carrier. With over 16,000 trucks, it is the largest common carrier in the United States.
Carl Moyes was a truck driver hauling produce for C. R. England Trucking 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, and 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, as Common Market, in Arizona, that would become Swift.
Subject ID: 38319
MoreSwift Transportation is a Phoenix, Arizona based publicly held truckload motor shipping carrier. With over 16,000 trucks, it is the largest common carrier in the United States.
Carl Moyes was a truck driver hauling produce for C. R. England Trucking 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, and 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, as Common Market, in Arizona, that would become Swift.
Operations began in 1966 transporting imported steel from the ports of Los Angeles, California to Phoenix, Arizona, and then returning with cotton from Arizona to be delivered to Southern California.
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's and a fourth partner, Randy Knight, grew the business to $25 million in annual revenues by 1984. Jerry became president, chairman, and CEO that same year, and when Carl died in 1985, Jerry bought out his other two partners, his brother Ronald and Randy Knight. Ronald would continue to hold shares in Swift while Randy would become a co-founder in 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. The company did an initial public offering (IPO) in 1990 and became a publicly traded entity on the NASDAQ market system under the symbol SWFT.
In 1991, with money raised in the IPO, Swift bought Stephens City, Virginia based Arthur H. Fulton Inc. for $9 million. Fulton was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the time.
The company growth has continued since 1988 with the purchasing of (11) different motor carriers throughout the United States, including M. S. Carriers, of Memphis, Tennessee in 2000. The shareholders of M. S. Carriers obtained a 22% stake in the combined company.
Subject ID: 38319
Subject ID: 38319