Freight Handler Hoodies
Description: Founded in Holland, Michigan in 1929, Holland Freight spent decades serving the central United States. Long recognized for delivering the most next-day service lanes in its territory, Holland expanded into the Southeast, Midwest, and Canada's two easternmost provinces, bringing their on-time reliability to even more customers. From humble beginnings in a single truck driven by the owner, to more than 10,000 dedicated employees in the 2020s, Holland Freight was a regional success story in the LTL freight business.
Description: Con-way Freight was founded as a non-union spinoff by Consolidated Freightways (CF) in 1983 in Ann Arbor Charter Township, Michigan. CF’s business focus was long-haul transportation, with many of its routes averaging 1,300 miles. Research revealed that the most profitable segment of over-the-road transportation at the time was freight that traveled less than 500 miles, so a decision was made to pursue regional LTL operations. While deregulation through the 1980 Motor Carrier Act had left many carriers floundering and desperate for a buyout, CF elected to build Con-way from the ground up. The gamble paid off, and for the next three decades, Con-way Freight flourished, taking them through 2015 until they themselves were bought out.
Description: 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.
Description: In 1936, Dick Cantlay and Joe Tanzola's trucking company purchased Western Truck Lines which allowed them to move into dry freight and then 20 years later, the purchase of Gillette Motor Freight had them changing names to Western Gillette Motor Freight and reaching all the way to Chicago and serving 1,400 cities in between. By the ’70s, the company had over 2,000 employees operating out of 52 company terminals in 15 States and a fleet of over 1,000 trucks. Cash flow problems started to rear their heads and in 1976 the company was sold to Roadway, marking the untimely end of Western Gillette Motor Freight.
Description: In 1906, Grover 'Cleve' Harrell started what was to become the Yellow Cab Company with horse-drawn carriages in Oklahoma City. Harrell's older brother, A. J. arrived, soon followed by their younger brother Marvin, and the three went into business together. In 1929, the Harrell brothers established Yellow Transit Freight Lines to serve small manufacturers for whom express rates were prohibitive. Eventually the partnership dissolved, and A. J. took control of the freight lines, which he kept small until 1952 when an ownership group bought the freight company. During this time, Yellow pioneered the concept of consolidating small shipments into trailer loads. In 1968, the company name was changed to Yellow Freight System.
Description: 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.
Description: Viking Freight System got their start in January 1966 as Viking Delivery Service based in San Jose, California. Their first customer was Pacific Telephone, and the cargo was computer punch cards that contained the daily phone number changes. These cards had to be delivered to 13 phone company offices at night so that updated information would be available the next day. By 1973 the company had grown to a large fleet of 27' van and flatbed trailers for both local and line haul routes as annual revenues reached $2.8 million. By 1981, Viking was the largest interstate carrier in California, with annual revenues of $48.0 million. Viking's success would eventually be their undoing as they were purchased by a worldwide carrier.
Description: Los Angeles Seattle Motor Express (LASME), began with the partnership of two trucking companies in 1932. The companies were Hendrix Refrigerated Truck Lines, located in Seattle, and Los Angeles Seattle Motor Express. The two companies merged and continued under the name of the latter company. The company was purchased in 1949 and the new owners did not share the lofty expansion ambitions of many other trucking companies of the time, and instead, LASME focused on their namesake west coast corridor, though the company did successfully extend their reach into Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1968, LASME was merged with DC International and T.I.M.E. to form T.I.M.E.-DC, the Los Angeles Seattle Motor Express name was no longer used.
Description: Pilot Freight Carriers Inc. was founded by RY Sharpe in 1941 after he purchased Pennie Transportation, a small trucking company named that was going under. Pilot began hauling general commodities between Winston-Salem, North Carolina and New York, New York. Sharpe would continue to purchase smaller companies that had operating rights in areas he wanted to run in, and before too long, Pilot Freight Carriers was operating along the entire eastern seaboard. By the early '80s, Pilot Freight Carriers had more than 80 terminals, but before the decade was over, the once prosperous trucking company would find themselves in trouble and began a shut-down and sell off in that began in 1987 and ended in 1989.
Description: Reddaway Truck Line was founded in 1919 by William Arthur "Art" Reddaway in Oregon City, Oregon with a single Model T truck. He managed the company with his wife, Ethel, and later, his son, Walter, succeeded him and led the company until his retirement in 1970. Reddaway Truck Line ran the I-5 corridor hauling general commodity and LTL freight between Alaska and California with 20 terminals along the way. In 1989, the firm was brought out by an Australian conglomerate and at that time, the truck line had over 800 pieces of company owned equipment and were one of the largest carriers on the West Coast.
Description: 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.
Description: Harvey Jones started a business hauling dry freight between Springdale, Rogers, and Fayetteville, Arkansas with two mules and a wagon in 1918. Jones bought his first truck in 1919, and when the M&NA railroad went on strike in 1920, Jones Truck Lines (JTL) began hauling freight between Seligman, Missouri, and Eureka Springs – a route that would have been served by rail. As the strike wore on for years, it was a catalyst for JTL's rapid growth, adding more trucks and routes. Post-war saw JTL buying up smaller lines, making them the largest privately owned carrier in the country in the '50s. As of 1990, JTL had 133 terminals in 23 states throughout the Midwest and South, with 3,300 employees and revenues of $240 million.
Description: Founded in 1930, Smith's Transfer Corporation was based out of Staunton, Virginia and, inside of 50 years, grew to be the eighth-largest trucking company in America. For decades, you could find their signature 'ST' logomark on their silver trailers traveling from coast to coast until the company was bought out in the early '80s.
