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Founded in 1925 with a single Model T truck, Central Freight Lines was a less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier based in Waco, Texas. Its founder, W.W. “Woody” Callan, Sr., launched the company as Central Forwarding and Warehouse Company. He started out transporting goods between Dallas and Waco with that single vehicle, and 96 years later, Central had over 5,000 tractors, trailers, and delivery trucks, with 80 terminals from Miami to Los Angeles. 

Roadway Express, Inc. was founded in Akron, Ohio in December 1930. While Roadway began with an owner-operator model and primarily focused on truckload shipments, but by the mid '40s, it had shifted entirely to company-owned vehicles and mostly to less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping. Roadway became a publicly traded company in 1956, and in subsequent years, it expanded across the United States and by 1982 was operating over 500 terminals nationwide. By 2003, Roadway Express was the largest LTL carrier in the US, and held that title until 2009 when they were purchased by a logistics holding company that would merge Roadway into their operations, ending Roadway's nearly 80 year legacy.

Established in 1937 during the height of The Depression, Carolina Freight Carriers Corporation quickly grew and by 1939, the company was operating 53 trucks and showing signs of steady growth. By the time the 80s rolled around, the company was fully operating as a national carrier rather than a regional one and, in the coming years, began servicing Canada and Mexico. Carolina Freight started from nothing and grew into a top national carrier and was one of the largest trucking companies in the Americas by the time of their demise in 1995.

Be-Mac Transport Company, Inc. was founded in 1932 in St. Louis, Missouri. While other trucking companies were constantly trying to expand their operating authority, Be-Mac focused on maintaining their strong north/south Midwestern route throughout the life of the company. From their centrally located St. Louis headquarters, Be-Mac's route went as far south as Dallas, Texas, and as far north as Grand Rapids, Michigan with a number of company terminals along the way.

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Silver Eagle Transport Inc. was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1930 with a focus on produce and tanker service. In the late '50s, the company got into LTL freight, which dramatically expanded their reach and took them through the '90s before closing up shop early in 2000.

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Founded in Middletown, Connecticut in 1920, Bailey's Express got their start hauling loads of 40-quart milk canisters to New Haven. They eventually stopped delivering milk and would later diversify, building up a varied customer list with regional businesses of all sizes from a myriad of industries and providing them with a suite of comprehensive freight forwarding services. Bailey's picked up freight in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island and brought it back to their Middletown terminal where goods were repackaged nightly into larger loads and shipped out to their final destination via over-the-road line haul trucking companies. The Middletown terminal operated 20 hours per day and handled 500 loads every night.

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Motor Freight Corporation (MFC) was started in 1926 by Harry Adams with one truck operating between Terre Haute and Brazil, Indiana. About a year later another truck was added and service was extended to Bloomington and Bedford and a little later to Indianapolis. Adams would proceed to buy up smaller truck lines year over year until the '60s when MFC was operating terminals in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, and Tennessee, and maintaining ICC operating authority on multiple routes. Increasing public interest in deregulation of the trucking industry in the early '70s had Adams seeing the writing on the wall, and he looked for a buyer for MFC, finding one in Branch Motor Express out of Pennsylvania.

Willig Freight Line was founded in 1923 and quickly proved to be a pioneer in California trucking. Over the next 40 years, Willig remained a modestly successful truck-load carrier while keeping the majority of its operations within the Golden State. In 1965, CPA Eric K. Anderson purchased Willig for a reported $2 million, immediately changing the operation from a TL carrier to an LTL operation and began overnight service from LA to San Francisco. Over the next several years, profits increased by 20% per year as Willig expanded throughout the west with new terminals and expanded service. By 1986 revenues increased to $62.6 million a year and became one of the US's top 100 carriers, but not a decade later, Willig would be defunct.

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Seven Santini Brothers (also Santini Brothers, Inc.) was a full-service American moving, storage, and relocation company that was founded by seven Italian immigrants. The seven brothers were Pasquale, Pietro, Paride, Rinaldo, Agostino, Goffredo, and Martino, five of whom started the business in 1905, with the last two others joining in 1907. Ultimately, the Seven Santini Brothers grew into one of the world's largest moving, packing and shipping organizations, with offices and warehousing facilities from coast to coast and in six foreign countries. The Santini family eventually sold the company to another moving and storage outfit in 1988 that decided to dismantle and sell the various operations and by 1993, the company was dissolved.

Hall's Motor Transit was founded in 1922 by John H. Hall as a one-truck carrier that plied a 60-mile route between Harrisburg and Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Hobbled by losses from the Depression, it emerged from Chapter 11 in 1938, growing into a national powerhouse with 5,000 employees and annual sales of more than $250 million by 1981.It emerged from its first bankruptcy when an investment group led by John N. Hall (no relation) purchased the firm. Through a series of acquisitions, Mr. Hall built the small intrastate carrier into one of the 30 biggest trucking companies in the nation. After running the carrier for 42 years, Mr. Hall sold it to Tiger for $45 million before deregulation in 1980 and by the mid-'80s, they were out of business.