Swift Enterprises
Location: Cleveland, Tenn.
Principal: Greg Swift
Equipment: 157 Kenworth T600s, T2000s and W900s equipped with Caterpillar C-15 Engines; Eaton Fuller Super 13-speed transmissions
Freight: General freight
Challenge: Running a growing trucking operation profitably with low overhead
Solution: Remaining a leased operator despite size and emphasizing driver productivity

Few fleet owners are satisfied when someone else calls the shots. But Greg Swift is. In fact, the president of Cleveland, Tenn.-based Swift Enterprises speaks of his 157-truck operation in surprisingly humble terms.

“Imagine a field with thousands of mice and a few big elephants,” Swift says. “Every time an elephant moves, mice get stepped on. They may not mean to, but every time the elephants take a step, they kill some mice. I’d rather be on the back of one of those elephants than on the ground floor.”

In Swift’s metaphor for the trucking industry, the elephants represent the mega-carriers – those with thousands of trucks. All other trucking companies are mice. If a mega-carrier wants a lane, for example, it can cut rates 10 cents a mile and get it, Swift says. The mice always get squished. “Many trucking companies with 500 or fewer trucks are disasters waiting to happen. Big carriers can undercut them at any time.”

But not Swift Enterprises. The company survives as one of the largest independent contractors in the United States, essentially immune to the tough competition most trucking companies of similar size face. The entire fleet of 157 trucks is leased to Chattanooga, Tenn.-based U.S. Xpress. As if not having to worry about rates, sales and marketing weren’t enough, consider what else Swift Enterprises is not responsible for:

• Log, safety and regulatory compliance;
• Trailers;
• Cargo and liability insurance; and
• Terminal overhead.

In a sense, Swift has outsourced these functions through his lease agreement with U.S. Xpress. In addition, a local dealer, Kenworth of Tennessee in Chattanooga, performs Swift’s maintenance. The result is a lean operation for a fleet its size. Aside from his drivers, Swift runs his operation, which generated $17.5 million in revenue in 2002, with a half dozen employees.