Kevin Knight Steps Down as Knight-Swift Executive Chairman

Knight in a 2015 file photo. Deal-making accelerated after he became executive chairman in January 2015, including Knight’s merger with Swift in April 2017. (TT File Photo)

Kevin Knight has stepped down as executive chairman at Knight-Swift Transportation, while remaining a consultant to the company, as the trucking titan winds down a more than 50-year career in the industry.

The veteran executive was one of four founders of Knight Transportation in 1990 after previously working for Swift Transportation, which in 2017 merged with the carrier he co-founded. With the deal, the combined company became the largest truckload carrier in North America.

The Plain City, Utah, native was CEO of Knight Transportation from 1994 to 2014 and most recently executive chairman of the board of directors. Knight will remain a consultant to Knight-Swift leadership for two years.

Lead Independent Director David Vander Ploeg became chairman of the board effective June 3. Vander Ploeg joined the Swift board in September 2009 after previously spending more than 24 years with Schneider, including three as chief financial officer.

Kevin Knight founded Knight Transportation with his brother Keith and cousins Randy and Gary Knight.

Initially, the company focused on short- to medium-length haulage as a regional carrier.

Each of the four Knight cousins contributed $50,000 to get the company up and running, an investment coupled with a $10 million line of credit from Mercedes-Benz of North America.

“Kevin from day one has really been focused on cost and he’s never lost focus. He reads a lot. He understands the business very, very well,” Larry Knight, president of Knight Transportation, said in a company video.

The company — which went public in 1994 — made a number of acquisitions while Kevin Knight was CEO, including Texas-based Action Express, Mississippi-based John Fayard/Fastway Systems, Idaho-based Edward Brothers and Iowa-based Barr-Nunn Transportation.

“It cannot be overstated what Kevin has meant to our company, so many of our leaders, including myself, and so many more within our industry. Our leaders do not take lightly the trust placed in us to continue building on such a distinguished foundation,” current Knight-Swift CEO Adam Miller said.

Deal-making accelerated after Kevin Knight became executive chairman in January 2015, including Knight’s merger with Swift in April 2017.

“This is probably the biggest news in the truckload industry ever,” Kevin Knight said in an in-house video produced at the time of the deal.

Knight-Swift ranks No. 7 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and the No. 1 truckload/dedicated carrier. It is the No. 11-ranked less-than-truckload carrier.

The company has climbed steadily up the LTL rankings in recent years. Earlier in 2026, the Phoenix-based carrier told customers that as of Jan. 1, all its LTL units would operate under one brand — AAA Cooper Transportation.

The first steps to building out the LTL operations came in 2021, when Knight-Swift acquired both AAA Cooper and Midwest Motor Express.

Following those acquisitions, Knight-Swift acquired assets from the estate of bankrupt LTL carrier Yellow and then in July 2024 bought the LTL operations of Dependable Highway Express.

Knight-Swift also acquired U.S. Xpress in 2023.

Following the June 4 announcement, Kevin Knight remarked: “I am humbled when I reflect on what we have built together and where our company stands today. There is so much to be proud of. … As I have been approaching this transition in recent years, I knew this bridge would have to be crossed at some point.”

Kevin Knight is a past member of American Trucking Associations’ board of directors and executive committee, as well as a number of other committees.