Swift enters ltl world

I wonder what this will mean for the LTL industry. I hope it doesn't make the driver pay go down. I think the Megas really hurt OTR pay and are at least part of the reason why OTR dry van and OTR reefer hasn't kept up (pay wise) with the times compared to other sectors of the trucking industry.

 

I wonder what parallels might be drawn to Schneider's ill-fated acquisition of Watkins & Shepard, with their final-mile delivery services. @gentleroger may have an interesting comment or two.

 

The echoes of UPS buying Overnite are the voices of TForce buying UPS Freight

 

Poor Cooper Drivers.

 

I’m sure this will probably go the same way Swift’s car haul venture went...

 

It will be a surprise if knight-swift merge central freight line and AAA Cooper as a one carrier to expand their reach.

 

They will try and use "system" drivers to cover the line haul loads and then have "dedicated " drivers doing the local p&d. The problem is that those line haul loads MUST go on time, they can't wait an hour, whereas most system freight has generous cushions on pu/del. Swift will have to change their mindset and start eating a bunch of dead head miles to make sure the truck is in position when the load is ready.

A lot of guys have commented on the lack of driver skills. That was a minor part of our final mile failure. Skill at unloading/loading the truck was more costly than the "driving" accidents. The biggest problem was setting up and running the cross docks, with a particular focus on inventory management.

Overall, it's not a bad idea, but I doubt they will execute it in a profitable way.

 

In 2007 Conway freight purchased truckload carrier CFI for $750 million.

After XPO purchased Conway freight in 2016 they sold the CFI Truckload portion to T-force for $558 million.

Maybe Swift will have better luck making the two more profitable.