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Swift ordered to pay rival CRST more than $15 million in driver poaching lawsuit

Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

A federal jury ordered Swift Transportation, a unit of Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE: KNX), to pay its trucking rival more than $15 million for allegedly poaching drivers who were under contract to CRST Expedited, which is based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

According to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Iowa in March 2017, CRST claims Swift purposely recruited and hired drivers who had completed CRST’s driver training program to obtain their commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), but were still contractually obligated to work for the motor carrier for 10 months.

In the suit, CRST identified more than 250 drivers who had signed 10-month employment contracts with the carrier that were later recruited by Swift.

Starting in 2016, CRST claims it received more than 150 employment verification requests from Swift, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, for drivers who were still under contract to work for CRST. 


Court documents allege that each time CRST received an employment verification for one of its drivers still under contract, it sent correspondence to Swift, “notifying it of the driver’s contractual commitment to CRST.”

The jury found that Swift intentionally and improperly interfered with CRST drivers’ contracts, awarding it $3 million, $5 million in punitive damages and $7.5 million for unjust enrichment.

60 Comments

  1. William Rahubka

    So, you sue someone b.c. drivers went to swift? Why. Not sue the drivers.. swift doing a employment background check should not make swift liable for drivers moving from one company to the other.. and that “employment contract” is with the driver and the company.. not with swift and the other company.. swift was not liable to be binding to that contract.. this sets a dangerous precedent

  2. Donald welman

    Swift is so corrupt, if u dont run teams or are an our operator they take loads away from u and your partner. I got my licenses unfortunately from them in 2004 and thet corrupt then.Theres still corrupt to this day.If im not mistaken swift and England are own by the same familt.A friend of mine hot stripped of his license his licenses he already obtained for associating with England.

  3. Casper

    Man I am shocked by the comments from drivers who do have experience! I’ve been driving trucks for 30 plus years and I can tell you there are classes all over the country that will teach you the correct way to drive a truck for less than $1,000 you will then graduate with a 90-day permit during which time you can also study and take the test for endorsements like Hazmat and tanker. Which would allow you to get a job almost anywhere not withstanding the two-year over-the-road requirement that a lot of companies have. But I digress I think the DOT regulations that they’re coming out with make it very hard I understand safety is a factor. But the bottom line is a lot of accidents happen and the trucking industry because drivers are not utilizing their 10 hours to sleep and rest. I know it’s hard because after driving 11 hours you don’t want to go in the back of the truck and sleep , but it is a necessity in the trucking industry. If you can’t handle that don’t get behind the wheel.

  4. Annonymous

    Honestly CRST COULD BE FILING FALSE CLAIM. THEY DONT HAVE THE TRAINERS THAT HAS THE TRUST TO TAKE OUT AS MANY DRIVERS THEY HAVE SIGNING THOSECONTRACTS THEN NOBODY WANTS TO SIT OR BE HELD BACK SO THEY HAVE THE LICENSE. CHECK FOR OPPOTUNITIES TO STILL MAKE MONEY. THE SCHOOL AND THE COMPANY HAS NO DEALING BESIDES PAYMENT AND A HOLD ON CERTIFCATE. UNTIL AGREEMENT IS FULFILLED TO MY KNOWLEDGE, SO SWIFT ACCEPTS GET THE DRIVERS ROLLING PUTTING ALL THAT EXPERIENCE AND HARD STUDIES TO USE. SO WHY CANT CRST OFFER A. BUY OUT TO THE DRIVERS THAT HAS CAME SAT GAVE PATIENCE TO UNDERSTAND TO BARE WITH THEIR SHORTAGE. SO DRIVER SAYS ILL WAIT BUT CAN I. GO HOME. CRST DRIVER TRAINERS SOME ANYWAY THEY. DONT HAVE THE DRIVERS TO EVEN START THEM ON FIRST WEEK OF TRAINING. THE PAPER LICENSE EXPIRES TWO WEEKS AFTER CERTIFY AND ORIENTATION. ALLOW THAT DRIVER TO BE PICKED UP FROM NEXT AVAILABLE TRAINER FROM THEIR HOME OR NEAR SO THAT THEY CAN HAVE THEIR HARD COPY LICENSE AND DONT HAVE TO BE REROUTED BACK TOWARD HOME FOR THAT REASON ONCE TRAINING STARTS J/S.. BUT CRST SEEMS GREEDY 100 STUDENTS PER WEEK IS A LOT.

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Clarissa Hawes

Clarissa has covered all aspects of the trucking industry for 16 years. She is an award-winning journalist known for her investigative and business reporting. Before joining FreightWaves, she wrote for Land Line Magazine and Trucks.com. If you have a news tip or story idea, send her an email to [email protected].