Talkin' Trucks With Mike:A History of the TNT Companies

I suppose it's the digital printing, I was not aware of that until this afternoon; I'm a little bit oudated about the technical possibility of the modern era. However the guy who gives me the information didn't mention Amazon. Your post comes just at the right time, your suggestion is great, Thank you very much. I will discuss of that with my partner. It's very encouraging.

 

To overpass the non access to the two hanoval web sites just search
for ASP Container Express and click on the photos

 

Depends on format. If it's a large book it might not read on a screen well without some reformatting. Amazon published books are not likely to be on high quality paper in large sizes if the original was like that. it sounds like the original was marketed as a premium limited edition, the Amazon prints will likely not be that level. But the cost could come down.

That said, Kindle uploaded my modest text-based books and covers and made decent e-books out of them. I likely won't use them again, they want to control everything and give your work away free as a Prime bonus, once you upload they are looking for ways to give it away rather than sell it.

R. Buron might check with his original publisher to see what their modern options are, he already has arrangements with them.

 

The establishment of TNT Newsfast in 1986 as a challenger of a strike at a News Internationals printing facility located in Wapping (London) was related to a long term frienship and financial interests berween Peter Abeles, boss of TNT and Rupert Murdock who run News Internationals. In front of the strike, Rupert Murdock asked to Peter Abeles to put together 600 trucks and 1,200 people and be ready to take charge of the newspaper distribution.

`` HE (RUPERT MURDOCK) SAID HE WOULD COVERT ANY LOSSES IF IT WENT WRONG ANYWHERE. CAN YOU IMAGINE THE AMOUNT OF MONEY WE HAVE INVESTED PURELY ON HIS SAY-SO ? I WOULD NOT HAVE DONE IT FOR ANYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD. BUT THEN THAT IS THE WAY WE RUN ANSETT.``

Note : Ansett was a joint venture between TNT and News Corp.

Ref : Sir Peter Abeles, Truck magazine, January, 1989, page 18

During the strike, numerous violent incidents was directed at TNT's operations including blowing up TNT's vehicles and some terminals came under attack, over 100 drivers was sent to hospital. The newspaper distribution may have been disrupted but it was never stopped which gave TNT a reputation of tenacity and efficiency which resulted in TNT winning many other distribution contracts.

TNT Newsfast has been also a game changer using trucks and jet freighters to move newspapers instead of rail (the traditional provider) which saw the printers leaving the railroad company one after another. The Australian Group broke definitively the rail stranglehold in 1986.

The next ten years will see the newspaper distribution market dominated by a duopoly consisted of TNT Newsfast and EXEL (later DHL) Newsflow. But after the lost of a huge contract in favour of TNT Newsfast in 1997, EXEL slip out of the market and few years later TNT Newsfast controlled the entire market by 2002. This total domination, unique in the UK logistics sector, lasted seven years.

 

I added few days ago to my TNT truck pictures collection a short story related to Kwikasair Express Canadian operations. The achievements of Kwikasair Express has helped TNT Canada to build its reputation as a different kind of carrier.

Rene Buron Truck Pictures - Kwikasair Canadian Operations

 

Yesterday while driving I spotted a TNT Reddaway pup sitting at the edge of a field along an I-road in an I-state with western climate. The TNT logo was gone, just a faint outline on the metal, while the Reddaway logo was merely fading and peeling a bit.

I thought that it was an interesting symbol of the current state of things, many great companies have come and gone, it is the natural order of things. Jeff Bezos commented the other day about how Amazon will die someday and he hopes that he dies first. I worked for Conrail for a while, the astounding and often subtle excellence of the Pennsylvania Railroad's engineering was still there to admire and utilise.

At one point they were an early player in intermodal; even 30 years after PRR was dead, Conrail intermodal trains still had a TV symbol, which stood for Trail-Van back when PRR was still alive. I'm sure that NS deleted even that small legacy, given how bloodless they are, but the terminals they use are still there, including yards that were engineered so that two trains could arrive and two leave from each end of the yard at the same time, even when on the edge of a river. They built flyovers long before the Interstate system arose, and they are still used every day.

Someday NS will die, even though it doesn't seem likely right now, but their legacy will not be as strong as the railroads they bought up, because they did not invent or innovate, they just ran really hard. In the same way, YRC survives when it doesn't deserve to, those legacy trucks with Roadway and Yellow are still paying for themselves and smoothing YRC's failures. It's not a matter of fairness.

I'd be interested in a clear account of how TNT shrank and went away, what happened to the founders and visionaries (did they innovate in other ways?) and what remains of their legacy of innovation today, even if under other names. Some of the pieces are in other posts, like changes in regs and NAFTA, but not a narrative.

 

TNT has an important legacy in Australia, North-America, Europe as well as at the worldwide scale.

In Australia, the Toll Group ( http://www.tollgroup/ ) bought, in 1997, TNT Australia's general freight divisions. This acquisition was substantial and tripled the revenues of Toll Holdings propelling the Group to the forefront of the Australian transport sector.

TNT Logistics tradind as CEVA Logistics since 2006 is part of the big five global supply chain providers operating around the world.

Through its recent takeover of TNT Express, FEDEX got access to the fourth largest worldwide express network and to the most comprehensive European air/road express network.

In Canada, the TST group of companies (previously TNT Overland, Truckload & Expedited Services) operates as a sub-group inside Transforce.

And of course, Holland and Reddaway are the survivors of the TNT American operations.

About the other part of your questioning, it's not possible to answer in two or three paragraphs. It's the reason why me and my partner have wrote a book of 134 pages which concern precisely the rise and decline of the Group. The challenge about TNT is the fact that its history is not linear but at variable geometry which involve numerous links and the use of many timetables and charts to not mixed up the reader. It's very frustrating not to be able to make the book available for now.

 

Funny thing, I just ran into someone who was there through it and they outlined the fall of TNT in a few uncomplicated sentences. I am extrapolating and rephrasing from those and may have cogitated wrongly, YMMV, may cause nausea and dizziness for corporate biographers, etc ...

TNT had another legacy; they used complexity to hide failures. Perhaps like Enron, if that helps, but maybe not, I'm not a CPA. Not all of their ventures were profitable. That wasn't necessarily openly disclosed in annual reports as would be proper.

They may lingered on in certain ways, some chopped tentacles still twitching gamely, but the high-flying do-no-wrong "innovation" period ended at a shareholder meeting when one brave diligent person who went through their annual report found a financial skeleton and would not be shut up. Which led to the meeting being closed and that person going to the press because of TNT's failure to answer them satisfactorily.

I have not been able to find the reporting, but I have little doubt that it exists. That explanation fits with all the misgivings I've had as I've read about the unending wonders of The TNT That Suddenly Mysteriously Disappeared on here. That their ending would be complex on paper does not surprise me, that's how they rolled.

We're just having a discussion here, I'm not a journalist for the record, just sharing something I heard and my modest thoughts about it. I did a little digging, but the news I can find about "TNT shareholders" is about their try with UPS and then the Fedex deal, "Fake TNT" or not, it has the same ubiquitous name in a search engine. And they release an annual report every year, so lots of those. I didn't bother to inquire about the year that shareholder meeting happened once my light bulb lit up. Maybe JOC has something in their archives if someone has a subscription.

Nearly every time a company seems to be miraculous there are bodies buried. We saw this with Theranos more recently and The Curious Person Named Holmes Who Tested Blood In Not-so-innovative Ways.

In any case, CF look like earnest ham-handed choirboys by comparison. That's what you get for trying to make sense rather than bamboozle.