Trucking and technology at scale: A look at Variant with Josh Smith
On Tuesday, Josh Smith, vice president at Variant and over-the-road operations at U.S. Xpress, spoke to FreightWaves about the Variant program and how technology and operations are vital to success in trucking.
During the interview, Smith highlighted the evolution of the Variant brand and how the organizational structure seeks to make life better for drivers on the road. Smith noted the Variant model is...
U.S. Xpress is going through a reorganization following a recent round of layoffs. The technology-driven Variant program will be merged into a larger Highway Services group, which will include the legacy over-the-road business and the USX freight brokerage. The company also announced a termination of the lease on Variant’s Atlanta headquarters due to the reduction in workforce and remote options.
In a call with analysts Thursday...
Central Freight Lines shuts down, U.S. Xpress fires truckload exec and ACT releases driver hiring data
Central Freight Lines to shut down after 96 yearsCentral Freight Lines to shut down after 96 years
Central Freight Lines is shutting down after 96 years in operation. The LTL carrier based in Waco, Texas, has over 2,100 employees including 1,325 drivers, 1,600 power units and approximately 820 office staff at the Waco company headquarters. This announcement makes...
With Variant, the startup within U.S. Express that is about to wrap up its first full calendar year of operation, the company’s CEO told an audience of investors Thursday that sequential financial improvement at the company is likely to begin in the first quarter of 2022.
The third-quarter earnings of U.S. Xpress were a clear disappointment, with the company’s truckload operating ratio rising to 98% from 94.6% a year earlier and the consolidated adjusted OR coming in at 98.5%, weakening from...
Dustin Koehl, SVP of sales at U.S. Xpress, joins this week’s episode of Taking the Hire Road to discuss U.S. Xpress’ Variant Model fleet, a digitally orchestrated fleet, with host Jeremy Reymer, founder and CEO of DriverReach. They also dive into a recent U.S. Xpress report about freight demand and trucking capacity issues, as well as Koehl’s work on the American Trucking Association’s (ATA) subcommittee on autonomous trucks.
Koehl said Variant derives its name from the Latin variantem, roughly...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/peering-into-the-future-with-us-xpress-taking-the-hire-road