Xpress was conducting important proofs-of-concept tests with its new technology. Xpress began acquiring new assets for Variant in the back half of 2019, a deep trough for the trucking industry.Īt the time, transportation analysts questioned the wisdom of growing the fleet when overcapacity was suppressing rates and asset utilization, but U.S. Xpress wants to keep scaling Variant, quadrupling its size over the next two years. Variant has already delivered some impressive results: Its fleet runs 20% more loaded miles per week, has 70% lower driver turnover and is far leaner than the legacy model, with five times as many trucks per operational employee. Variant’s platform optimizes for asset utilization and maximizing loaded miles per week, enabling each tractor to generate more revenue and each driver to take home more money. Variant has “operations specialists” who address an exceptions queue, not fleet managers who hand-hold the drivers. Load planning and scheduling are performed by a new suite of machine learning and artificially intelligent algorithms called the Variant Optimizer, which reduces operating costs and allows the fleet to be managed by exception. That fleet is called Variant, and it comes complete with a unique look: brand-new gray Freightliner Cascadias tricked out with digital dashboards and driven by experienced drivers looking to run hard. Xpress ( NYSE: USX) management detailed a new strategy that generated more than 500 basis points of operating ratio improvement in its truckload business: a digitally recruited, dispatched and managed asset-based fleet that could transform over-the-road trucking.

In its second-quarter earnings call Tuesday evening, U.S.

The Forum at FreightWaves LIVE (Fall 2019).

Evolve: The Next Evolution of Oil & Gas.Podcasts: FreightWaves FreightCasts Network.Loaded & Rolling (Enterprise Fleet News/Analysis).

Variant trucking