Knight-Swift solidifies national LTL presence with AAA Cooper integration of MME and DHE

Following a series of less-than-truckload-related acquisitions made in recent years by its parent company Knight-Swift Transportation—a July 2021 acquisition of AAA Cooper Transportation (ACT) and its affiliated entity AAA Cooper for $1.35 billion, a December 2021 acquisition of RAC MME Holdings LLC, which is better known in trucking circles as MME (with the brand names Midwest Motor Express Inc. (MME) and also Midnite Express Inc.), for $150 million and a July 2024 acquisition of Dependable Highway Express (DHE) for $185 million—effective January 1, 2026, both MME and DHE will officially be folded into the ACT brand.

That was made official in an October 14 customer letter from AAA Cooper Transportation President & CEO Charlie Prickett, in which he said that this will continue the company’s commitment to providing operational excellence in both its regional and super-regional LTL services.

“Thank you for your trust and support over the past three years of remarkable change and growth at AAA Cooper Transportation,” wrote Prickett. “Sustained by your confidence, we have successfully integrated two regional brands, expanded into over 50 new markets, and established around 40,000 new line-haul lanes across our network. This integration occurred alongside the ongoing transition of MME and DHE into ACT’s operating and administrative systems, with the final migration to ACT’s financial systems in July 2025.

The teamwork, ingenuity, leadership, and dedication of all ACT, MME, and DHE employees, combined with your support, enabled us to complete this transition in record time. It represented a unique and seminal challenge for both our company and the LTL industry, ranking among the most complex initiatives I have experienced in my 35 years in the industry.”

When Knight-Swift first entered the LTL market through its acquisition of AAA Cooper, its former CEO Dave Jackson said, at the time, that it had three main requirements: the scale for entry with significant market share, the profitability and management depth to operate independently and provide a platform for compelling growth opportunities, and a world class culture.

“This transaction firmly positions us as a meaningful player in the LTL space, where we intend to grow both organically and through future acquisitions,” he said.

Those future acquisitions subsequently came to fruition, with the company later acquiring MME and DHE. What’s more, when it acquired AAA Cooper, Knight-Swift explained that AAA Cooper had a proven LTL model, coupled with meaningful market share and profitability, adding that Knight-Swift offers up a strong growth-enabling platform in multiple ways, including: capital for growth in new terminals; investment for future LTL acquisitions; additional customer relationships; and network visibility to aid in density.

At the time of this acquisition, Knight-Swift said that LTL will be the second-largest segment for the company, while also noting that non-truckload trucking revenue as a percent of total expected revenue has increased from 22% to 27%. It also noted that the LTL sector is well-positioned for supply trends toward forward-positioned inventory, and e-commerce.

As previously reported by LM, Knight-Swift’s July 2024 acquisition of DHE was preceded by the company spending around $2.2 million to 10 Yellow Corp. terminal leases in the western U.S., following Yellow’s August 2023 market exit., with three in Idaho, two each in Colorado and Kansas, one each in Missouri, Nebraska and Georgia, as part of the company’s plan to have coverage in the 48 contiguous states by 2025.

According to the AAA Cooper website, the trio of ACT, MME, and DHE currently operate 179 strategically located facilities across 36 states.