Freight Tapestries
Description: Yellow Corporation was an American transportation holding company headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Its subsidiaries included national less than truckload (LTL) carrier YRC Freight; regional LTL carriers New Penn, Holland, and Reddaway; and freight brokerage HNRY Logistics. From 2006 to February 2021, Yellow was known as YRC Worldwide.
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: 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: 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: A bold emblem featuring the words "YELLOW FREIGHT SYSTEM" in large, textured yellow capital letters on a brown background. Below this, in a script font, reads "The Symbol of Safety & Service", accented by a yellow swoosh. The entire emblem is outlined with brown and yellow borders.
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: Artistic representation of a CSX freight train traveling through lush green foliage on a railway. Vivid colors and textures emphasize the rural and industrial themes showcased by the train model.
Watercolor painting of a CSX freight train in a scenic rural setting Tapestry
by Gestalt Imagery
$30
Description: The Union Pacific Railroad is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over 32,200 miles (51,800 km) routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF. Union Pacific and BNSF have a duopoly on transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western United States.
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: Consolidated Freightways (CF), was an American multinational LTL (Less Than Truckload) freight service and logistics company founded on April 1, 1929, in Portland, Oregon, and later relocated to Vancouver, Washington. At its height, the company possessed over 350 terminals, employing more than 15,000 truck drivers, dockworkers, dispatchers and management. Consolidated Freightways was once the nation's number one long-haul trucking company and the 3rd largest-ever U.S. bankruptcy filing, ceasing business in 2002.
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: Lee Way Motor Freight was founded by Robert “Whitt” Lee in 1934 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Lee Way grew quickly, adding drivers and equipment, all while developing a reputation for safety and reliability. By 1947, the company had 225 pieces of equipment and added routes in Kansas and Missouri. That year, the company acquired another trucking company that expanded its fleet and operating authority, an expansion strategy Lee Way would follow for decades into the future. By 1975, Lee's sons decided to sell the company and by the time deregulation hit, Lee Way was in a downward spiral. Lee Way had expanded to 5,000 employees and 100 terminals in 25 states by 1984,but Lee Way's then owner, Commercial Lovelace, elected to shutter the line.
Description: This design resonates with dedicated trucker dads. It features a cool bulldog wearing a cap, leaning out of a big rig truck window, set against a scenic mountain backdrop with an American flag. The phrase 'TRUCKER DAD HAULING FREIGHT AND MISSING MY KIDS' expresses the daily life of a long-haul truck driver and their connection to family. This artwork is for fathers in the trucking industry, semi-truck operators, and anyone who appreciates the life of a road warrior and their family values.
Description: Known throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic for their iconic orange and white trucks, Preston Trucking Co. was founded in 1932 in Chesapeake Bay. The company was started by a canned goods wholesaler who had difficulty moving their product in less than truckload quantities, and their accountant suggested the company start its own trucking division. Initially, the company focused on small, irregular loads. These loads would later be known as less-than-truckload, which would be the model for what would come to be known as LTL trucking. Preston would go on to grow and expand, buying up many smaller carriers and by the late '90s, they had just over 5,000 employees, most of whom were drivers before suddenly folding in 1999, citing a lack of s
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: The Burlington Northern Railroad (reporting mark BN) was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads and operated between 1970 and 1996. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroading with the chartering in 1848 of the Chicago and Aurora Railroad, a direct ancestor line of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, which lends Burlington to the names of various merger-produced successors. Burlington Northern acquired the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway on December 31, 1996, to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (later renamed BNSF Railway), which was owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation.
