It's funny that both Central Refrigerated, and Swift are in cahoots together, but Central Refrigerated trucks run twice as fast as Swift trucks. :lol: :P

 

Dick Simon trucking went bankrupt when a disgruntled driver drove up the steps of the Capitol building in Sacramento California. This incident and the subsequent investigation opened the books ...so to say .. and things went very very badly.

One thing that is not well understood is that Jerry Moyes bought the equipment, contracts, infrastructure, etc without the liabilities of Dick Simon trucking. To buy Dick Simon would have also taken on the liabilities and in particular lawsuits. Central Refrigerated is formed ...

Now .. Jerry is an interesting character to say the least. He is good at building up companies by buying up the competition. He is not so good at leading a company through more natural growth. It is my opinion the troubles at Swift are Jerry's making. If you grow too fast you do not have the opportunity to develop company policies and build infrastructure. Instead, a monster emerges as middle management spasmodically implements business policy.

If you want a dichotomy of how to grow a company .. look at CFI and Swift.

When the Board ejected Jerry I saw some real efforts to correct this problem through policy making. Turning a huge company around and building structure in such a behemoth is a huge undertaking .. sometimes taking many years .. but from a business analysis standpoint ..progress was evident. Now with Jerry coming back .. I see huge problems on the horizon.

 

Though Jerry instrumented the Dick Simon buy out the companies were run as separate entities. There was a AZ Republic investigation that alleged a mixing and laundering of money between the companies (and many other operations Jerry was involved including Swift aviation) but that was never proved.

 

Man, that's crazy. Very interesting.

 

isnt Knight one of the companies that JM owns along with Central freight in Waco, tx

 

No the Knight Family owns 36% of Knight Transportation. Jerry does not have his hands into this company ... yet .. :wink:

 

The owners of Knight drove for Swift, I think.

 

From: http://www.answers.com/topic/knight-transportation

All of the four Knight family members were groomed as future executives of Swift Transportation, a company managed by the Moyes family. Randy Knight, who figured as the impetus for Knight Transportation's formation, rose to the rank of vice-president at Swift Transportation, spending 16 years at the company before leaving in 1985. Randy Knight's departure was prompted by his perception that his professional progression at Swift Transportation was limited. He was not a member of the Moyes family, which, according to his thinking, barred his advancement beyond the position of vice-president. Randy Knight left Swift Transportation in 1985 and started a company named Total Warehousing Inc., but his entrepreneurial talents would find their greatest expression with the formation of Knight Transportation. Randy Knight was forced to wait for his destiny, however. The eldest member of the founding Knight Transportation contingent, Randy Knight was bound by a five-year noncompete agreement he signed with Swift Transportation. When he left in 1985, the clock started ticking toward the end of his noncompete agreement, when he was legally able to start his own trucking enterprise.


Randy Knight acted as swiftly as he could after he left the Moyes-run company. He incorporated Knight Transportation in 1989, an event that served as a prelude to the actual operation of the company as a commercial enterprise. With him at the inception of the company were Gary Knight, appointed Knight Transportation's president, Kevin Knight, named chief executive officer, and Keith Knight, an executive vice-president who managed the company's sales operation in Los Angeles. Each of the four Knights contributed $50,000 to get the company up and running, an investment that was coupled with a $10 million line of credit from Mercedes-Benz of North America. On July 19, 1990, Knight Transportation officially became operational, hauling its first three loads from Phoenix, Arizona, to Los Angeles and back. By the end of its first week in business, Knight Transportation had hauled 15 loads.


Combined, the four Knight family members had more than 80 years of experience in the trucking industry when they started Knight Transportation. They intended to use their experience to make the company one of the major competitors in the industry. The Knights cast their company as a regional trucking concern focused on offering short- to medium-length hauls, the largest segment of the trucking market; approximately 75 percent of all truckload freight moved less than 500 miles. To succeed, the Knights emphasized fostering driver loyalty and they placed a premium on the efficient execution of coordinating the movement of their customers' freight. Every trucking operator claimed to strive for efficient operation, but the Knights made good on their claim, excelling at managing the movement of freight. "Face it," an analyst remarked in a March 26, 2001 interview with Investor's Business Daily, "these are asset-intensive businesses, so the key to success or failure is asset utilization. Knight [Transportation] doesn't let a tractor sit under a trailer to be loaded or unloaded for any period of time."

.....

 

Things that make ya go hmmmm. :lol: :P

Speaking of Knight, I took my wife to work this morning, and I noticed a Knight truck going southbound on 287. It was a sharp dark red 379. Company truck. Couldnt believe it. I never had a clue that Knight ran Petes.

 

Yeah, they run petes. 379's and and there had been some talk of trying the kw-T600 or what ever that new model is. There were issuse with volvo and they still are pissed at F/L over some warranty issues they had with the centurys. Plus they knew that with the petes, that they would have drivers competing with each other to get into one of them, trying to get more miles and show them what good boys and girls they were.