Key executives at Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings are slated to get much less in equity incentives under a new plan approved last week.
The compensation committee for Knight-Swift’s board approved restricted stock unit awards and performance based stock units for five individuals, per a securities filing dated Friday.
But unlike recent years when multiple individuals were eligible to receive millions of equity units, the amounts granted were a fraction of the potential payouts awarded from 2020 through 2022.
This time, Board of Directors Vice Chairman Gary Knight and General Counsel and Secretary Todd Carlson are eligible for under 14,000 equity units, while Jackson qualifies for up to 60,532 units.
The restricted stock units make up 40% of the equity awards and will vest in three parts in 2025, 2026 and 2027.
The performance based stock units make up the remainder of the equity awards and could be anywhere from 0% to 200% of the amount. They’ll be deliverable on or around Jan. 31, 2027, and could also be multiplied by a factor of 75% to 125% based on how other peer companies in truckload, less-than-truckload, rail and logistics are doing.
From 2020 to 2022, such equity awards ranged from 600,000 units to 3.5 million. During that time for Jackson, the committee approved a restricted stock unit award of 1.3 million and 1.4 million awards, vesting in three-year spans each time.
In 2018 and 2019, the committee approved individual awards ranging from just over 13,000 equity units to over 91,000.
