Background
Charles Hammel, Sr. founded Hammel’s Express in 1919 with a horse, a buggy and one customer. His son, Charles Hammel, Jr., continued in the family business beginning in the 1940s. The company founded by his grandfather and continued by his father was where Charles (Chuck) Hammel, III began to learn about and began to love the transportation industry.
Chuck, Bob and Ken, the three sons of Charles Hammel, Jr., purchased three trucks and leased a small, one-door warehouse in East...
There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. These companies are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.
Today’s FreightWaves Classics profiles another fallen flag in the trucking industry – Pacific Intermountain Express, which was known as P.I.E. and P-I-E. Unfortunately, there is not much...
Starting out
Ross Neely, Sr. was a truck driver. His son, Ross, Jr. was born in Gadsden, Alabama in 1927, and moved to Birmingham with his family four years later. At the age of 16, Ross Neely, Jr. enlisted in the U.S. Navy; he spent 30 months in the Pacific Theater during World War II. After the war, Ross returned to Birmingham and finished high school, where he met and married his late wife.
Ross drove a truck for his father and delivered newspapers for several years. He bought a 1947...
In remarks to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, MIT Professor David Correll recently outlined yearslong research conducted by the MIT Freightlab, detailing a chronic underutilization of the American truck driver.
Below are some highlights and reporting from the event. Interestingly there was additional research regarding whether electronic logs can predict if a driver will...
The U.S. trucking industry grew in the years following World War I. Nonetheless, the industry was still in its early days, and railroads were the primary method of transportation for goods from point of manufacture to point of sale.
Early history
This did not deter brothers Carroll and Galen Roush, who founded Roadway Express in Akron, Ohio in 1930. Roadway Express entered the trucking industry as a less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier; its first load was transporting tires between Akron and St....
The early years
Consolidated Freightways, also known as CF, was founded in 1929 by Leland James in Portland, Oregon. James combined four short-haul companies located in Portland into one trucking firm. Once these companies were combined, James focused on expanding their reach. At the time, trucking in the West was a fledgling industry. The lack of industrial expansion to the West at this point made any sort of progress difficult to achieve. Because of this, James focused primarily on...
Karen and Harry Muhlschlegel founded Jevic Transportation Inc. in 1981 in Delano, New Jersey. The name “Jevic” was a combination of the names of the three Muhlschlegel children. Founding a trucking company just one year after the trucking industry was deregulated was ambitious, but the gamble proved profitable.
Jevic Transportation enjoyed prosperity throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s. Unlike other less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers, Jevic rejected a traditional hub and spoke network and...
At one point in time, Motor Freight Express was one of the oldest motor freight companies operating in the state of Pennsylvania. The company’s roots dated back as far as 1867, with the founding of the Baltimore Transfer Company in Maryland. At the time, the company was strictly a horse and wagon operation.
Pre-World War II
The owners of Baltimore Transfer Company founded Motor Freight Express in 1929, as a less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier. They then purchased the Maryland and Pennsylvania...
https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/freightwaves-haul-of-fame:-motor-freight-express
The story of Cole’s Express is a classic American “rags to riches” tale.
Allie Cole struck out on his own at the age of 10 when he was old enough to understand that his widowed mother could not support him and several sisters and brothers on what she earned as a washer-woman. After leaving Lowell, Maine, Cole supported himself through a series of jobs, including farm and stable work. In 1910, at the age of 17, he was working as a baggage and freight handler at the Enfield, Maine, railroad...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-haul-of-fame-coles-express-was-maines-finest
Campbell’s “66” Express, Inc. was founded by Franklin George Campbell in Springfield, Missouri, in 1926. The company was initially named Campbell Fuel and Transfer, but transitioned to trucking in 1933 when a banker asked Campbell if he would take over Rapid “66” Express, an ailing trucking company in the area. Rapid “66” Express operated from Springfield to St. Louis, Missouri along Route 66. Campbell agreed, and Campbell’s “66” Express was formed.
Campbell’s “66” Express was known throughout...