Trucking companies that you wished were still in business

Though i never worked for them. I miss Monson trucking out of duluth mn. It's just not the same trip up to the north shore or duluth with out seeing at least ten of them on the road. Plus there was one alway park outside of an apartment near my house. I didn't even have to look at the clander to know the day. It was like clock work it was there just about every wensday and thursday. Its just sad because seing there trucks on the road is what made me get my cdl. I was like i really want to drive one of those.

 

I started with ONC out of Portland, OR in '72. Later drove for PIE. Both were good companies.

 

Anybody here ever drive for Caretta Trucking out of Bergen county NJ? I remember seeing alot of their trucks back in the 80's. They had some good looking rigs.

 

My Daddy drove for Carretta out of Paramus, NJ back in the mid eighties when the trucks were still blue and ran like hell. They had these Rockwell Trip Master computers on board in the side box that used a tape recorded to monitor rpms to make sure you ran 55, even though the trucks weren't actually governed. They used to unhook the connector and hook it back up again which tricked the computer to read one speed while they ran another. They were ran by the mafia as I was told and money wasn't a problem, until Little Joe and his wife got into it, they got a divorce and she took half of it from him, then the IRS got involved somehow and they got the rest. After things settled down he tried to come back under the name Load to Ride, but that didn't last long. I never saw much of Daddy when I was little cause he ran the west coast back and forth, but I sure remember going with him to the yard off route 17 and looking at all those pretty blue trucks. When he ran teams he had a longnose pete then a cabover and when he went solo they put him in a freightliner. As he would say when you saw a Carretta truck back then, all you caught was a blue and white streak and then taillights.

 

i thought con-way is ccx?


By the way i hate your new logo, the person that designed it, well i can't print it here.

 

aha - that is who I thought you drove for. Did you work out of San Diego or just retire there?

 

well 5 years to the day Mr. Cochran sold Overnite to the railroad, he started Highway Express out of Richmond, Va, literally across the street from the Overnite Richmond terminal over there on Rte 60 (Midlothian Trnpk). i started working for him in November of 1993, and left about maybe 5 years later, for a better paying job.

Mr Cochran was one of the most gregarious owners of a trucking company one could ever be. he had an actual "open door policy" whenever i (or any driver) was going to be at the Highway Express terminal (in Richmond). he'd chat up a storm with any driver, then when you were leaving he'd wish you well and a safe trip.

i cannot think of any other place i worked at, where the owner actually took time to talk with you.

in later years, Highway Express was sold out to Celadon, and some of the terminals are now long since closed. there is still a terminal in Greensboro, NC (Groomstown Rd exit) that Celedon kept. I do not know, but i will assume, Mr James H, Cochran has long since died.

by the way, (supposedly a true story about Mr.Cochran). his Highway Express trucks were painted like the old "Rollins Leasing trucks".

yellow/white, with a black stripe separating the two colors.

Rollins "told him" he could not have that paint scheme....

he asked, "you got a patent on that color scheme"....

(Rollins) said, "NO".......


Mr.Cochran said, "thank you, good-bye"...!!

 

I wish Key Line Freight of Grand Rapids, MI, was still in business. I was an owner-operator leased to the van division 1973-78. Key Line was a union company with LTL, refrigerated, steel and TL van divisions. They paid the hotel bills, and fuel was available at their terminals for their owner-operators. They were a safety minded company that used radar and Markel. Their 8-state operating authority granted in 1935 was restricted: To and From Michigan.

Darling Freight - The Key Line in Transportation was founded by Dallas Darling. He and his wife would observe their trucks when they were on vacation, and compare their notes with drivers' logs. Dallas Darling built an innovative LTL terminal in Grand Rapids in 1954. It was a 504' Quonset Hut with beneath-the-floor chain conveyor to move dock carts. In 1967, Key Line was the 159th largest trucking company in America with 32 terminals and $12 million in revenue. Dallas' son Dan Darling bought the company in 1969. Key Line was sold to Roadway for $9 million in 1978. The Darlings then invested in an airport in Florida.

Dallas Darling was acquainted with my grandfather Matthijs Heyns, a grocer in Grand Rapids. In 1940, when both the Darling and Heyns families were vacationing in Florida, four men took Darling's cabin cruiser to Cuba. There was a storm on the return trip, and only Matt Heyns was well enough to operate the boat.

According to Mike Terebecki's book "The Trucking Pioneers - book II", Dallas Darling got his driving experience in the U.S. Army. He purchased his first new truck in 1919. Early equipment included Biederman, Federal, Nash, Reo, Republic, and Studebaker. The company switched to diesel in the early 1950s with the purchase of 12 used B model Macks. In the early years, Dallas Darling did much of the maintenance on his equipment himself.

 

pile trucking in garden city, ks

 

Monfort, The leftlane company.