Knight-Swift CEO sees opportunities post-Montgomery

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings CEO Adam Miller expressed optimism Oct. 21 that the market is shifting to better favor safe carriers after Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II. The Supreme Court in May ruled that freight brokerage providers aren’t protected by federal law from state-level negligent-hiring lawsuits. This resolved a patchwork of state rules by clarifying that brokers are responsible for drivers they use. Miller is hopeful it will help balance out an industry dragged down by an oversupply of noncompliant carriers. “That’s been a challenge for all large carriers over the last couple cycles,” Miller said during the truckload carrier’s third-quarter earnings call. “Largely, the growth that has come in during an upcycle has been from the very small carriers with low barriers to entry, and many of those aren’t being as compliant as the large carriers have had to be.” Miller added that he now feels as though the industry is finally establishing some needed barriers to entry that will bolster those carriers that already understand how to develop safe drivers. “Now it won’t be easy, and so we’re being very mindful about where we’re making our investments,” Miller said. “We’ve been very targeted and tactical about where we do driver pay and ensuring that we have the rate and the margin to support it. I think we’ve done a good job managing that, and we’ve done some things on the owner-operator front.” KNX Quotes by TradingView See more transportation stock listings To that end, Knight-Swift has started providing dynamic market-based pricing for small independent owners, which it had historically…

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