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(PREVIEW) The Man Who Built U.S. Xpress Explains What’s Happening to Freight

Kaja Kusińska · March 31, 2026 · 4 min read

We sat down with Max Fuller, Founder of U.S. Xpress.

At its peak, the company had nearly 10,000 trucks. He’s been in trucking for 50+ years and has seen everything, from heavy regulation to the free-for-all that came after deregulation.

This is a preview of that conversation.

The full interview is available only to FreightCaviar Magazine subscribers in our private Circle community.

The Man Who Built U.S. Xpress Explains What’s Happening to Freight

On our recent trip to Chattanooga, we sat down with Max Fuller, Founder of U.S. Xpress.

He’s been in trucking for over 50 years.

He’s seen:

regulation
deregulation
hypergrowth
and what the industry is turning into today

And he’s one of the few people who can explain how we got here and what’s coming next.

Max’s dad, Clyde Fuller, got into trucking in the late 1950s by trading two Volkswagens for a truck and hauling chickens in North Georgia. That’s how it started.

Clyde Fuller, Max's father, is on the cover of our latest print magazine.

By the late 80s and early 90s (after deregulation), they were growing 70–80% per year. That kind of growth only happens when the rules change, and you actually take advantage of it.

Max came up through it the hard way. Washing trucks, changing oil, and figuring out how the business actually works.

A Trucking Company Owner at 17

Max Fuller during our interview. Behind him is his son, Craig Fuller, Founder & CEO of FreightWaves and SONAR.

In 1974, at just 17 years old, Max became the registered owner of Southwest Motor Freight. He recounts the story.

“When my father bought it he had ICC authority going west but didn't have freight coming east. There was a company called Southwest Motor Freight that had just gotten ICC authority to haul freight coming east … so he actually found it and ended up wanting to buy the company. Of course, he couldn't, because he already owned a carrier, so at age 17, I became an owner.”

That’s also when he learned how serious the business really is.

Riding the Wave of Deregulation

The 1980s brought massive change to the trucking world. Deregulation opened the door to new competitors and innovation. Max compares the industry back then to the Wild West, but that opened the door to new ways to compete and innovate.

When the opportunity arose, Max didn’t wait; he created his own path. When Clyde sold the company in 1984, Max received a portion of the stock and used it to launch U.S. Xpress. Long before it became standard, he embraced technology.

"We adopted satellite communications and started building software to track trucks. That was the beginning of modernized trucking."

That’s how U.S. Xpress scaled.

Over the course of five decades, Max has seen the industry reinvent itself again and again. From tightly controlled regulation to today’s tech-driven, hyper-competitive landscape.

Fast forward to today, and the industry looks completely different.

“The over-the-road truckload market is almost decimated."

That’s where we cut it.

In the next part of the conversation is where he explains what he believes will happen next; especially for brokers, and how the next cycle plays out.

We didn’t put that part out publicly.

The full interview is available to FreightCaviar Magazine subscribers inside our private Circle community.

Listen to the preview of our interview on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, or watch the preview on YouTube.

Max Fuller at the Max Fuller Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), a reflection of his impact on the city’s logistics ecosystem.

We also sat down with Max’s step-brother, David Parker, Founder & CEO of Covenant Logistics. That full interview will be released soon to FreightCaviar Magazine subscribers.

We’re also dropping our original film, FREIGHT ALLEY, featuring the people who built what is now known as Freight Alley.

Coming soon.

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