Oldest Trucking Company

I believe that mawson&mawson a flatbed company in the Northeast is the oldest company they have a D.O.T number like 65. Ive talked to some of there drivers when I was a local driver in North Alabama. The drivers liked it but that also was when freight was moving.

 

I know Kaplan Trcuking out of Cleveland, OH has been around a long time. They are one of the few that have a 5 digit DOT number.

Kaplan is a good steel hauling company and if the economy was doing better and steel was moving I would be over there right now. Put it to ya this way. A year after I left they caught a error on some of my settlements that even I missed. They called me and sent me a check that included interest. Now how many companies will do that. The last I knew they only had about 4 or 5 company trucks, all the rest are o/o.

 

GATX does not meet the criteria because they are no longer out there as a trucking company, and of course were always concentrated in pipe line terminals and rail car leasing, not trucking. Nevertheless, when I drove for GATX we thought of them as a very old company founded in 1898. They were one of perhaps only two companies on the stock exchange that survived the Great Depression. Originally named German American Transportation, they changed their name to General American Transportation during one of the wars. Their logistics operations were folded into APL in about 2000.

 

Why on earth did u ever leave?

 

You might consider Baggett Transporation out of Birmingham, AL. They opened in 1928. Not sure exactly what you meant by "VETS" but if you are referring to military veterans they do mostly government work and might fit into your background.

 

I thought of Dallas & Mavis as an old carrier. Apparently, they filed chapter 11 in October, 08, and were owned by Great Wide Logistics.

Another old one is Ace Doran founded in 1913, 100% owner-operator.

Willis Shaw Express started in 1938, now owned by Comcar Industries.

 

Mawson and Mawson out of Langhorne, PA was founded in 1895. I don't know anything about them.

UPS was founded in 1907. I'm sure there is a thread on here for them.

Perkins Specialized Transportation out of Noblesville, IN started in 1913. There is already a thread on here about them, too.

Quitlin Tin Plate and Metal Company out of Atlanta, Ga has USDOT #1, but DOT# and MC# may indicate how old a company is, but #1 is not the oldest company as most of the really old companies pre-date the DOT. Most of those really old companies started as dryage companies with teams of horses pulling wagons (thus Teamsters and the horses on the logo).

 

All original equipment too!

 

A friend of mine started his own company and I leased onto him. It was a better deal all around, till the freight slowed and he got tight on money. By that time Kaplan was slow, cause of the iron industry being in the toilet, and I had friends stil running at Kaplan that were and are hurting for freight.