Freight Lines Mugs
Description: Hennis Freight Lines was founded in 1933 by brothers S.A. and H.L. Hennis of Mt. Airy, North, Carolina. When the Hennis brothers sold their trucking company to Shirley Mitchell in 1946, Mitchell moved the company to Winston-Salem and began his quest to become the largest individual owned trucking company in the world... and he very well could have succeeded. Hennis grew rapidly through acquisition of other lines, but unfortunately, Mitchell’s theory on maintenance was a little short-sighted. He thought it was better to buy new equipment, rather than repair the old. This led to a lack of common parts, with little or no parts inventory, which left Hennis trucks stranded all over the system when they broke down.
Description: Founded in Pocatello, Idaho in 1913 by Clarence Garrett as a luggage transfer service for railroad passengers, Garrett Freight Lines grew to become the fifth-largest freight carrier in the U.S. and a major employer in Pocatello for nearly seven decades. Garrett was purchased in 1977 by a private equity firm, and then sold to ANR, an oil and gas concern, in 1978. ANR purchased three trucking companies with authority to operate routes from coast-to-coast. ANR redesigned the familiar green-and-gold Garrett logo, replacing it with a multicolored U.S. map design, and moved the firm’s headquarters to Denver, but eventually divested its trucking businesses, leaving Garrett to be absorbed by other entities.
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: 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.
Description: A vintage-style emblem featuring a retro orange truck with 'HENNIS FREIGHT LINES' written on the side. Above the truck, 'HENNIS' is written in large, distressed block letters. Below the oval emblem, 'Est. FREIGHT LINES 1933' and 'Winston-Salem, NC' are displayed in different fonts.
Description: A retro emblem featuring a red and blue semi-trailer truck centered within an oval shape. The background has horizontal stripes of cream, blue, and orange. Text above reads "HENNIS" in a curved banner, and below the truck on another banner reads "FREIGHT LINES." The words "WINSTON-SALEM, NC" are printed at the bottom.
Description: Founded in 1956 by A.P. Anderson and his wife, Mabel, Caldwell Freight Lines was based in Lenoir, North Carolina, and operated as a nationwide transport company serving the state's thriving furniture industry. A.P. and Mabel grew the company into one of the largest furniture carriers in the United States that kept trucking along well into the 2000s before being bought out in 2007.
Description: Joseph J. Milne started Milne Truck Line in 1916, running a single Garford 1.5 ton truck with hard rubber tires. He began hauling food and other things between St. George, Anderson Ranch, Cedar City, Lund, and the rail head at Modena. As business grew, Milne added newer trucks with pneumatic rubber tires and started hauling as far away as Salt Lake City, eventually transitioning from hauling fresh produced to transporting petroleum products and dry freight. Through a series of acquisitions and expansions over several decades, Milne became one of the West's largest motor carriers, serving 11 Western states, including Alaska and Hawaii. Milne itself was sold in 1979, but operated under the Milne name until the company's dissolution in 1987.
Description: Founded in 1931, The Chief Lines was a regional trucking company based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. With terminals in Tulsa, Kansas City, and Coffeyville, The Chief Lines covered most of Kansas and Oklahoma with line haul service for their first decade in business, but began expanding their coverage through a series of acquisitions that took them well into the northeast and a good way down the eastern seaboard. Despite their strong growth and expanded presence, The Chief Lines was a victim of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 along with many other carriers at the time who simply weren't prepared to function in the new deregulated trucking industry.
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.
