Eric Fuller shortly after he took over leadership of U.S. Xpress.
Photo: Deborah Lockridge
Eric Fuller, the president and CEO of U.S. Xpress Enterprises, Chattanooga, Tennessee, will soon be leaving the company, following its sale to Knight-Swift Holdings, a Phoenix-based logistics giant.
Fuller is heading to another Chattanooga-based company, The Company Lab, as executive in residence.
According to published reports, he will be recruiting and developing entrepreneurs in the freight and logistics industry, as The Company Lab opens its application portal for entrepreneurs in the sustainable mobility space.
In the announcement of the acquisition, Knight-Swift said that U.S. Xpress would continue to be led by its current senior management until closing, at which point the Fullers, along with CFO Eric Peterson, will transition out of their executive officer roles while remaining available to ensure a smooth transition.
Fuller is the son of Max Fuller, executive chairman of U.S. Xpress, who co-founded the company in the early days following deregulation, along with the late Pat Quinn. He has headed up the company for six years.
U.S. Xpress had been struggling financially ahead of the Knight-Swift acquisition. After a net loss of $9.5 million in the first six months of 2022, U.S. Xpress realigned the company, rolling its Variant “digital fleet” into its regular over-the-road operations and implementing cost-cutting designed to bring it back to profitability.
Its reorganization last year was doomed by lower spot market rates and weaker overall freight volumes in the fourth quarter. Those headwinds more than offset the cost savings from the realignment plan. In the fourth quarter, U.S. Xpress’ truckload segment operating loss was $11.9 million, an increase of 44.5%, compared to a year earlier.
