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Knight Transportation, Inc. Business Information, Profile, and History

5601 West Buckeye Road
Phoenix, Arizona 85043
U.S.A.

Company Perspectives:

Our operating strategy is to achieve a high level of asset utilization within a highly disciplined operating system while maintaining strict controls over our cost structure. To achieve these goals, we operate primarily in high-density, predictable traffic lanes in select geographic regions, and attempt to develop and expand our customer base around each of our terminal facilities. This operating strategy allows us to take advantage of the large amount of freight traffic transported in regional markets, realize the operating efficiencies associated with regional hauls, and offer more flexible service to our customers than rail, intermodal, and smaller regional competitors. In addition, shorter hauls provide an attractive alternative to drivers in the truckload sector by reducing the amount of time spent away from home. We believe this improves driver retention, decreases recruitment and training costs, and reduces insurance claims and other costs. We operate a modern fleet to accelerate revenue growth and enhance our operating efficiencies. We employ technology in a cost-effective manner where it assists us in controlling operating costs and enhancing revenue. Our goal is to increase our market presence significantly, both in existing operating regions and in other areas where we believe the freight environment meets our operating strategy, while seeking to achieve industry-leading operating margins and returns on investment.

History of Knight Transportation, Inc.

Knight Transportation, Inc., is a trucking company focused on short-to-medium lengths of transporting freight. The average length of a Knight Transportation haul is 532 miles. The company operates regional terminals that serve as hubs for freight routes within 750 miles of the facility. The company maintains terminals in Phoenix, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah; Portland, Oregon; Denver, Colorado; Kansas City, Kansas; Katy, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Charlotte, North Carolina; Gulfport, Mississippi; Memphis, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; and Las Vegas, Nevada. The company hauls general commodities, including consumer goods, packaged foods, paper products, and beverage containers, as well as import and export products. Knight Transportation is praised for the loyalty of its drivers and its efficient operation. The company ranks as one of the fastest growing companies in its industry.

Origins

Knight Transportation, from its conception to its widely hailed success as one of the fastest-growing corporations in the United States, was led, and majority-owned, by four members of the Knight family. The central figures in the family-run business that drew excited praise from the business press were brothers Randy Knight and Gary Knight and their cousins, also brothers, Keith Knight and Kevin Knight. The four Knights cemented their kinship early in their lives, choosing the same profession and the same employer. After completing high school, Randy, Gary, Keith, and Kevin joined a trucking company named Swift Transportation Co., a firm that factored as a major player in the industry during Knight Transportation's celebrated rise.

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."

The four Knight family members gradually expanded their business during the early 1990s. The company was able to recruit drivers by paying them well and by offering what few other trucking employers offered their drivers: frequent opportunities to spend time with family. Thanks to the company's ability to neatly choreograph the complex web of routes that sustained its operations, its drivers typically spent three nights a week at home, while drivers for other short-haul trucking concerns typically spent two nights a week at home or less. (The industry average for all types of trucking firms was one night every two to three weeks.) Drivers were eager to work for the family-owned and -managed firm, enabling the company to record impressive financial growth during its first years in operation. In 1991, its first full year in operation, Knight Transportation generated $13.4 million in revenue. Within the next two years, Knight Transportation's sales volume nearly doubled, reaching $26.4 million in 1993, when the company's fleet consisted of more than 200 trucks.

Expansion After 1994 Public Offering

The company's success during its first three years in operation was based on its development of markets in Arizona and California. The Knight family's objective from the outset, however, was to make Knight Transportation one of the leading companies in the industry, a goal to be achieved only if the company expanded beyond its core markets. To facilitate the company's maturation into a national force, the Knights took the company public in 1994, filing with Securities and Exchange Commission for a $22 million initial public offering (IPO) of stock. The company completed its IPO in October 1994, enabling it to develop ambitious expansion plans. Looking ahead, Randy Knight wanted to expand into Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and the Pacific Northwest. To support this geographic march, he placed orders in 1994 to increase the size of the company's fleet by 40 percent, including the purchase of 83 tractors and 225 trailers by the end of 1995.

Aside from the financial advantages of becoming a publicly traded company, Knight Transportation also strengthened its bond with its drivers through the IPO. The company initiated a stock-option program concurrent with its conversion to public ownership, which made Knight Transportation one of only two trucking companies in the country to offer its drivers stock options. The allegiance of the company's drivers, which had been remarkably strong before the implementation of the program, became legendary throughout the industry after stock options were granted as perquisites for driving a Knight Transportation truck. The loyalty of the company's drivers had a salubrious effect on all aspects of the company's operations, figuring as one of the chief reasons the company earned praise from critics and peers. In 1996, Forbes magazine placed Knight Transportation on its annual list of the "200 Best Small Companies in the United States." Typically, annual driver turnover in the trucking industry neared 100 percent, but at Knight Transportation the turnover rate averaged 50 percent. The company, by this point, ranked as the fastest growing and most profitable publicly traded trucking firm in the country. Between 1991 and 1996, the company's revenue increased at an annual compound rate of 43 percent, a growth rate eclipsed by its increases in profits. During the same five-year period, Knight Transportation's earnings grew at an annual compound rate of 61 percent.

The physical expansion aided by the company's IPO in late 1994 began to chart its progress as Forbes and other onlookers took note of its success. Knight Transportation's geographic reach was extended by establishing regional terminals that served as hubs to support the company's expanding fleet of trucks and trailers. In February 1996, the company opened a terminal in Katy, Texas, which was followed two months later by the establishment of a terminal in Indianapolis, Indiana, its first terminal east of the Mississippi River. By mid-1996, the company maintained a fleet of 500 trucks, more than twice the number in operation three years earlier. In addition to these vehicles, the company was supported by trucks owned by its drivers, who contracted with Knight Transportation as independent contractors. The company began contracting with owner-operators in 1994, when it initiated its independent contractor program. By the end of 1996, when sales totaled $77.5 million, the company relied on 158 trucks that were owned and operated by independent contractors.

The company's expansion in the late 1990s was fueled by opening additional regional terminals and by taking advantage of a new mode of expansion--acquiring other trucking companies. By pursuing both avenues of expansion, the company's financial stature swelled during the late 1990s and, particularly, in the first years of the 21st century. In 1998, after generating $99.4 million in revenue the previous year, Knight Transportation eclipsed a financial milestone, recording $125 million in revenue, the same year it eclipsed another milestone by employing more than 1,000 workers for the first time in its history. In 1999, the company set out to increase these totals substantially, initiating an expansion program that added new regional terminals and the assets of other trucking concerns to its fold. The company established a terminal in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a terminal in Salt Lake City, Utah. On the acquisition front, the company completed its first major deal, purchasing Action Delivery Service Inc. and its affiliated company, Action Warehouse Services Inc. Based in Corsicana, Texas, Action operated as a privately held carrier serving customers in Texas and the south-central United States. The company maintained a fleet of 50 tractors and 130 trailers, registering $5.6 million in revenue in 1998.

Knight Transportation pressed ahead with its growth plans as the company entered a new decade with a change in leadership. In July 1999, Randy Knight retired as chairman of the board. Kevin Knight took on the responsibilities of chairman while holding on to his post as chief executive officer. Under Kevin Knight's stewardship, the company struck again on the acquisition front in 2000, purchasing the trucking operation of Gulfport, Mississippi-based John Fayard Fast Freight Inc., which operated as Fastway Systems.

Rapid Growth in the 21st Century

During the first years of the 21st century, Knight Transportation focused on increasing its physical presence. The company opened a number of new terminals, transforming it into a genuine, national competitor. A new terminal in Kansas City, Kansas was opened in 2001, fleshing out the company's presence in the Midwest. For the seventh consecutive year, Forbes magazine selected Knight Transportation as one of the "200 Best Small Companies in the United States" in 2001, a year in which the company's trucks logged more than 240 million miles. In 2002, after recording 11 consecutive years of revenue growth ranging between 20 percent and 30 percent, Knight Transportation added two new terminals to its growing list of regional hubs. In March, the company entered the Pacific Northwest for the first time, establishing a terminal in Portland, Oregon. In July, Knight Transportation opened a terminal in Memphis, Tennessee.

As Knight Transportation neared its 15th anniversary, the company exuded enviable vitality. It ranked as the fastest growing trucking company in the nation, boasting an impressive record of financial growth. In 2003, the company posted $35.5 million in net income, nearly three times the total recorded five years earlier. Revenues, which stood at $125 million in 1998, had swelled to $340 million, making Knight Transportation, as its founders had envisioned, one of the industry's major competitors. As the company prepared for the future, there were few observers who doubted the ability of the Knight family to continue its record of success. To maintain its electric rate of growth, the company pressed forward with expansion, opening terminals in Atlanta, Georgia, and Denver, Colorado, in 2003. In February 2004, the company established a regional hub in Las Vegas, Nevada, with plans calling for the opening of two additional terminals by the end of the year. With a national network of regional terminals in place, Knight Transportation promised to figure prominently in the trucking industry's future.

Principal Subsidiaries: Knight Management Services, Inc.,; Knight Transportation South Central, L.P.; KTTE Holdings, Inc.; QKTE Holdings, Inc.; Quad K Leasing, Inc.

Principal Competitors: Heartland Express, Inc.; Schneider National, Inc.; Swift Transportation Co., Inc.

Related information about Knight

In the UK, a title of honour granted as a reward for services, permitting the use of Sir with one's name; originally (in the Middle Ages) men who formed an elite cavalry (Fr Chevalier, Ger Ritter). The ideal of knighthood involved the maintenance of personal honour, religious devotion, and loyalty to one's lord. This ideal was most nearly achieved at the time of the Crusades (11th–13th-c).

Otheruses
Knight is the English term for a social position originating in the Middle Ages. Knighthood is a non-heritable (with a few rare exceptions) form of gentility, but not of nobility. In the High and Late Middle Ages, the principal duty of a knight was to fight as, and lead, heavy cavalry (see serjeanty); more recently, knighthood has become a symbolic title of honour given to a more diverse class of people, from mountain climber Edmund Hillary to musician Paul McCartney. the history of the word, and the corresponding terms in French and Latin; Dame Judi Dench) within the Commonwealth of Nations. There are technically differing levels of knighthood (see Order of the British Empire), but in practice these are even more symbolic than the title itself today and thus only express the greatness of the recipient's achievements in the eyes of the Crown.

Etymology

The word knight derives from Old English cniht, meaning page boy, or servant (as is still the case in the cognate Dutch knecht and German Knecht for servant), or simply boy. Knighthood, as Old English cnihthad, had the meaning of adolescence, i.e. The sense of (adult) lieutenant of a king or other superior was in existence at least as early as 1100, although there are signs of it as early as Alfred's Orosius.

In this respect English differs from most other European languages, where the equivalent word emphasizes the status and prosperity of war horse ownership. Linguistically, the association of horse ownership with social status extends at least as far as ancient Greece, where many aristocratic names incorporated the Greek word for horse, like Hipparchus and Xanthippe; the character Pheidippides in Aristophanes' Clouds has his grandfather's name with hipp- inserted to sound more aristocratic. A survival is the modern given name Philip, whose etymology means lover of horses.

An Equestrian (Latin eques, plural equites) was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire.

Origins of European Knighthood

Knighthood as known in Europe was characterized by two elements, feudalism and service as a mounted combatant. Both arose under the reign of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne, from which the knighthood of the Middle Ages can be seen to have had its genesis.

Some portions of the armies of Germanic tribes (and super-tribes, such as the Suebi) which occupied Europe from the third century had always been mounted, and sometimes such cavalry in fact composed large majorities, such as in the armies of the Ostrogoths. However, it was the Franks who came to dominate Western and Central Europe after the fall of Rome in the West, and they generally fielded armies composed of large masses of infantry, with an infantry elite, the comitatus, which often rode to battle on horseback rather than marching on foot. So it was that the armies of the Frankish ruler and warlord Charles Martel, which defeated the Umayyad Arab invasions at the Battle of Tours in 732, were still largely infantry armies, the elites riding to battle but dismounting to fight in order to provide a hard core for the levy of the infantry warbands.

As the eighth century progressed into the Carolingian Age, however, the Franks were generally on the attack, and larger numbers of warriors took to their horses to ride with the Emperor in his wide-ranging campaigns of conquest. Although in some nations the knight returned to foot combat in the fourteenth century, the association of the knight with mounted combat with a spear, and later a lance, remained a strong one.

These mobile mounted warriors made Charlemagne?s far-flung conquests possible, and to secure their service he rewarded them with grants of land called benefices. The period of chaos in the ninth and tenth centuries, between the fall of the Carolingian central authority and the rise of separate Western and Eastern Frankish kingdoms (later to become France and Germany, respectively), only entrenched this newly-landed warrior class. This was because governing power, and defense against Viking, Magyar and Saracen attack, became the local responsibility of these new hereditary local lords and their demesnes.

These mobile mounted warriors made Charlemagne?s far-flung conquests possible, and to secure their service he rewarded them with grants of land called benefices. In the century or so following Charlemagne?s death, his newly enfoeffed warrior class grew stronger still, and Charles the Bald declared their fiefs to be hereditary. The period of chaos in the ninth and tenth centuries, between the fall of the Carolingian central authority and the rise of separate Western and Eastern Frankish kingdoms (later to become France and Germany, respectively), only entrenched this newly-landed warrior class. This was because governing power, and defense against Viking, Magyar and Saracen attack, became an essentially local affair which revolved around these new hereditary local lords and their demesnes.

The medieval institution

In the early Middle Ages the term knight designated a professional fighting man in the emerging feudal system. and the knightly families became known as the nobility. (In the British Isles, "nobility" is more restricted, to the Peerage.)

From the 12th century, the concept continued being tied to cavalry, mounted and armoured soldiers. When the young man had completed his training he was ready to become a knight, and would be honoured as such in a ceremony known as "dubbing" (knighting) from the French "adoubement".

From the time of Henry III of England, a knight bachelor was a member of the lower nobility, preceded by the knight banneret, a commander of ten or more lances who could lead his men under his own banner, but who did not have the rank of baron or earl. The knights bachelor did not wear any insignia until 1296.

The concept, together with the notion of chivalry came to full bloom during the thirteenth century, the apogee in the power and influence of the mounted knight on the battlefield, particularly in France, whose knighthood had the most redoubtable battlefield reputation. However, as the fourteenth century dawned, the importance of heavy cavalry was reduced by improved pikemen and longbow tactics. This was a bitter lesson for the nobility, learned throughout the 14th century at battles like those of Crécy, Bannockburn and Laupen. The English introduced foot service for the knight in the early Hundred Years War, to support their longbowmen and to combat the depleted French knights whose charge managed to reach the English lines through the deadly hail of longbow arrows. However, as their victories increased in the later Hundred Years War, the French took to increased mounted action -- the Battle of Formigny was finally won with a French cavalry charge. (Perhaps not coincidentally, the chess piece was named in this period of increased mounted service, around 1440.)

The French knight, now known as a man-at-arms (gendarme) would fight mounted through the Italian Wars and beyond, and the knights of other nations would follow his lead.

Becoming a knight

The process of training for knighthood began before adolescence, inside the prospective knight?s own home, where he was taught courtesy and appropriate manners. A page was usually the son of a vassal, who sent him to his or another lord?s castle to become a page. He would learn basic hunting and falconry, and also various battle skills such as taking care of, preparing, and riding horses, as well as use of weapons and armour.

A page became a squire when he turned 14 years of age, being assigned or picked by a knight to become his personal aide. In the early period, the procedure began with the squire praying into the night, known as vigil. He was then bathed, and in the morning he was dressed in a white shirt, gold tunic, purple cloak, and was knighted by his king or lord. A squire could also be knighted on the battlefield, in which a lord simply performed the accolade, i.e. struck him on the shoulder saying ?Be thou a knight?.

The night before his knighting ceremony, the squire would take a cleansing bath, fast, make confession, and pray to God all night in the chapel, readying himself for his life as a knight.

In various traditions, knighthood was reserved for people with a minimum of noble quarters (as in many orders of chivalry), or knighthood became essentially a low degree of nobility, sometimes even conferred as a hereditary title below the peerage.

Meanwhile kings strove, as an expression of absolutism, to monopolize the right to confer knighthood, even as an individual honour. Not only was this often successful, once established, this prerogative of the Head of State was even transferred to the successors of dynasties in republican regimes, such as the British Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. (However, military knights remained among the Knights of Malta until 1798.) The British title of baronet was established by James I of England in 1611 as an inheritable knighthood, ranking below Baron (the lowest Peerage title). There was an instance of three knights of Beauvais who needed a fourth knight to witness their contract; in the late Middle Ages, sovereigns began to forbid their subjects to make knights, as they forbade them other military preparations.

By about the late 13th century, partly in conjunction with the focus on courtly behavior, a code of conduct and uniformity of dress for knights began to evolve. Knights were eligible to wear a white belt and golden spurs as signs of their status. either to a liege lord or to a military order.

In theory, knights were the warrior class defending the people of feudal Christianity and bound by a code of chivalry. Knights served mightier lords, usually as vassals, or were hired by them. So-called robber knights or robber barons even turned to organized crime, some based in a castle.

In times of war or national disorder the monarch would typically call all the knights together to do their annual service of fighting. Sometimes the knights responding to the call were the nobles themselves, and sometimes these men were hired by nobles to fight in their stead;

As time went by, monarchs began to prefer standing (permanent) armies led by officers rather than knights, because they could be used for longer periods of time, were more professional and were generally more loyal. This move from knights to standing armies had two important outcomes: the implementation of a regular payment of "scutage" to monarchs by noblemen (a money payment instead of active military service) which would strengthen the concept and practice of taxation; and a general decrease in military discipline in knights, who became more interested in their country estates and chivalric pursuits, including their roles as courtiers.

The Knights of Malta also dropped their traditional role of heavy cavalry as they moved from one island fortress to another across the Mediterranean Sea. Instead they became skilled in Naval warfare and engaged in frequent sea battles with the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary Pirates until nearly the end of the 18th century.

In some countries, knighthood was merged into the nobility, remaining only as a low or genetic noble title; There were three hereditary knighthoods in the Kingdom of Ireland:

Knight of Glin, the Black Knight, (Fitzgerald of Limerick)
Knight of Kerry, the Green Knight, (Fitzgerald of Kerry)
The White Knight, (FitzGibbon), now extinct.

The idea of hereditary knighthood also inspired James I, to establish baronetcy.

Malta was a British possession, and the crown recognizes Maltese hereditary knighthoods.

Chivalric code

In war, the chivalrous knight was idealized as brave in battle, loyal to his king and God, and willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good. Towards his fellow Christians and countrymen, the knight was to be merciful, humble, and courteous.

Military-monastic orders

Knights Hospitaller, founded during the First Crusade, 1099 to present.
Order of Saint Lazarus established ca. 1100, abolished 1830.
Knights Templar, founded 1118, disbanded 1307.
Teutonic knights, founded ca. 1190, ruling Prussia until 1525.

Other orders were established in the Iberian peninsula in imitation of the orders in the Holy Land, in Avis in 1143, in Alcantara in 1156, in Calatrava in 1158, in Santiago in 1164.

Chivalric orders

After the Crusades, the military orders became idealized and romanticized, resulting in the late medieval notion of chivalry, as reflected in the Arthurian romances of the time. The creation of chivalric orders was fashionable among the noblesse in the 14th and 15th centuries, as remains reflected in contemporary honours systems, and the term order itself, notably the Order of Saint George, founded by Charles I of Hungary in 1325/6, Order of the Dragon founded by Serbian knight Milos Obilic in 1385,the Order of the Garter, founded by Edward III of England in ca. 1348, the Order of the Golden Fleece, founded by Philip III, Duke of Burgundy in 1430, and the Order of St Michel, founded by Louis XI of France in 1469. Such orders were particularly popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, and knighthood continues to be conferred in various countries:

The United Kingdom (see British honours system) and some Commonwealth of Nations countries;
Most European countries, such as The Netherlands (see below).
Malaysia — see Malay titles;
Thailand;
The Holy See — see external link www.chivalricorders.org/vatican/main2.htm Papal Orders.

There are other monarchies and also republics that also follow the practice.

Accompanying the title is the given name, and optionally the surname. however, this style is largely archaic and is only used in the most formal of documents.

State Knighthoods in the Netherlands are issued in three orders, the Order of William, the Order of the Dutch Lion, and the Order of Orange Nassau. Additionally there remain a few hereditary knights in The Netherlands.

In Italy, the Cavalieri is an honour equivalent to a knighthood.

In France, among other orders is the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. The lowest of the three ranks conferred by this academy is knighthood.

Modern ranks

Within most Continental European orders, and many other orders, the following rankings (or similar rank structures) exist:

Knight or Chevalier
Officer
Knight Commander (or simply Commander)
Grand Officer
Knight Grand Cross (or Grand Cordon)

Within the British honours system, and some members of the Commonwealth of Nations, the following rankings (or similar rank structures) exist:

Member
Officer
Commander
Knight
Knight Commander
Knight Grand Cross

Literature

Boulton, D'Arcy Jonathan Dacre. London: Central Chancery, 1906 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970).

Chronology

Key Dates:
1990: Knight Transportation hauls its first load of freight in July.
1994: Knight Transportation completes its initial public offering of stock.
1996: Knight Transportation opens new terminals in Katy, Texas, and Indianapolis, Indiana.
1999: Action Delivery Service Inc. is acquired.
2000: Knight Transportation purchases John Fayard Fast Freight Inc.
2001: A new terminal in Kansas City, Kansas, is opened.
2002: New terminals in Portland, Oregon, and Memphis, Tennessee, are opened.
2003: New terminals in Atlanta, Georgia, and Denver, Colorado, are opened.
2004: Knight Transportation opens its 12th terminal, establishing a facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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