Mikes Book Club 2020: Old Dominion Helping the World Keep Promises (2011)

Old Dominion Chapter 1 Trucking Gets Regulated

The evil Railroads had been losing market share to the trucking companies year after year and they were sick of trucking companies run amok so they told the goofy congress to regulate the trucking companies. Which meant the trucking companies had to apply for routes and file a certificate of public convenience and necessity basically the trucking companies had to prove they were needed and Old Dominion was granted a certificate to haul freight originating from or coming out of Virginia basically they ran between Richmond and Norfolk. That was there big route they were permitted to haul import and export freight.

Old Dominion was able to do interline work, like they could haul freight from other carriers, carriers who had authority to go from say Ohio to Richmond, but did not have authority to go to Norfolk.

The regulation of the trucking industry was the first, hiccup Old Dominion ran into. They lost there ability to go all over and had to only haul certain freight between Richmond and Norfolk. Mr. Congdon was not very happy with the changes as it hurt Old Dominion and was very rude to the ICC man who came to grant him his operating certificate. The trouble was, Old Dominion operated between Providence and Atlanta, but could only prove Richmond to Norfolk and so that's all they got certificate and operation wise. However they were able to make it still and after a year the Congdons decided it was time to, move into a real terminal.

 

Chapter 1 Old Dominion Moves Into a New Terminal
After working out of their house for a year, the Congdons decided working at home had to much of it's challenges and it was time to move out of the house.

The first terminal was next to Pender's Grocery Store, in Richmond, VA. It wasn't much of a terminal and Mr. Congdon had to lift freight from the ground up into the truck bed.

The first terminal was not very easy to use or much of a terminal so the Congdons moved Old Dominion to the Tiller Brothers Cartage Agency Building which was an old ramshack building. However Earl Sr, was a jealous man and the sight of Mrs. Congdon going in and out of the office all the time was a bit to much for some of the employees of the Tiller brothers to handle. As Mrs. Congdon was fairly attractive young woman.
Helena Christensen
Would be an example of what would be deemed an attractive woman just so you all know and were all clear.

Anyhow Mr. Congdon didn't appreciate the employees of the Tiller Bros drooling over Mrs. Congdon all day so he moved the terminal once again this time to a better location and that was 20th and Franklin Street in Richmond, Va and that terminal had 2 truck docks.

Old Dominion had 1 truck and they had one bay on the other side the other bay was leased by another small time hauler at the time who would grow up to be very big time as well, at that was Overnite Transport Co.




Back in the 1930s if you worked for Old Dominion that would be the truck you would be driving.

After about a year at the new terminal the Congdons decided it was time to expand the creature comforts at the terminal and they ordered a water cooler. The problem was a new water cooler was $36.00 and they didn't have $36.00 so they financed that water cooler. The Congdons didn't even have $36.00, but in the 1930s the country was in an awful depression and the company was a 2 person operation that was basically started with nothing and ran on nothing.

However 8 months over later the water cooler was paid off and Old Dominion bought a second truck. The Congdon's hired a fellow by the name of Pop Townsend he was the first Old Dominion driver. He died in 1947 he worked for Old Dominion until he died.

At the end of 1936 Old Dominion had six tractor trailer units and 12 straight trucks.

In 1936 Old Dominion outgrew the 1 bay terminal and moved into a 7 bay terminal where they hired family members to work for them.

In 1936 the freight business was hard tough work and the average pay for a driver was $17.00 a week. The company had 6 drivers on the payroll in 1938. The Congdons also hired and brought on board a mechanic as well.

At the time the company hauled dried fruit, burlap, coffee, canned goods and paper.

 

Chapter 1 Continued
In 1937 most of the money earned by Old Dominion was going to pay employee wages and pay for and work on the trucks and equipment. It did not really pay the Congdons much.

Mr. Congdon leased 6 of his trucks to the Manchester Board and Paper Co, which was the company that would make the Congdons pay check for around a decade. Now a days this agreement would be called JB Hunt Dedicated.

The ICC didn't much care for the arrangement the Congdons had with the Manchester Board and Paper Co. However in 1937 Earl wrote the ICC a letter and in 1939 the government approved the agreement between Manchester Board and Paper and Old Dominion.

1939 was also the time that two Old Dominion Drivers tried to unionize however the attempt was thwarted.

 

Chapter 1 Operating in a regulated Environment

In 1939 companies were finally learning how to deal with the regulation of the trucking industry and Old Dominion was no exception to this rule. In an attempt to gain more routes, Mr. and Mrs. Congdon decided to lease operating authority from the Carter Brothers Express Lines in May of 1939. Under the leasing agreement Old Dominion could run between Richmond and Covington, VA and all points in-between.

However the ICC flagged this, while OD did acquire the authority legally Carter Bros never actually registered it's authority and that made ODs operation under Carter Bros Express unauthorized.

So the ICC put the kabosch on that one.

However the Congdon's didn't give up.

In 1939 Old Dominion bought $12,000 worth of equipment.
(2) International D-40 Tractors

and a 28' Trailmobil H-31 Trailer all the equipment was only leased for a year to a year and a half.
By the end of the 1930s Old Dominion had $6,960.00 worth of assets with no debt and profits of $5100 dollars all of this would be important as the country was getting ready to enter into world war II which was going to offer many expansion opportunity for the company.

End Chapter 1

Join us next time for Old Dominion attempts to expand 1940-1949

 

Good morning and happy new year Old Dominioners how are all of you today.

Pretty quiet for New Years Day, which is typically the case. Start of a new decade now and as we start a new decade/chapter this year in 2020 will start a new decade and chapter in our story of Old Dominion 1940-1949.

 

Old Dominion Attempts to Expand Chapter 2 1940-1949

Well here we are 1940 Old Dominion has thwarted a unionizing effort and also for the most part navigated deregulation.

However the company was still struggling, but it was struggling upward. In 1940 Old Dominion had 45 employees and 3 terminals. Richmond, Newport News and Norfolk.

There were 12 drivers on the payroll and the drivers were making about $17.00 a week!

Now in 1940 World War II was starting to take shape and while it wouldn't be till the end of 1941, when the US officially entered World War II, there was a feeling in the air you could say and the country was slowly starting to mobilize and prep for war. This was a very prosperous time for railroads and trucking companies, although it would bring along the beginning of the end of long distance passenger trains, it would also bring upon changes in management to Old Dominion's corporate structure.

"Lean" Business
In 1940 Old Dominion was running with $21,124 worth of assets.

The company balance sheet that was obtained for the book said, the liabilities were $14,539 and a net worth that's profit of $6,585.

Mr. Congdon was a hard worker who was also looking to stretch a buck as far as he could. Back in the day trucks used to need a front and rear license plate. Mr. Congdon would buy one set of license plates and put one plate on the front of one truck and one plate on the front of another truck.

They would also drain the antifreeze out of the trucks at night time to save on antifreeze costs. The reason for this was because profit dollars were constantly plowed back in the company, buy more trucks, buy more trailers, hire another employee.

One day in the 1940s the scale house called up Mr.Congdon and said Hi um sir you only have one license plate on truck 54 and Mr. Congdon said oh the rear plate must have fallen off. The scale house man said Well I'm afraid not, you see truck 55 has the matching plate right on it's front bumper.

 

Unions and Old Dominion

In 1940 a man from Detroit, Michigan named Jimmy Hoffa started to climb to the top of the Teamsters Union. This man Jimmy Hoffa would end up becoming the president of the national Teamsters Union from 1957-1971. The Teamsters Union was formed in 1903 and in 2011 had 1.4 million members* Rodengen, Page 22 Old Dominion Helping the World Keep Promises 2011 Write Stuff Publications

In the 1940s the Teamsters from the north and midwest were working on organizing trucking firms. The way they did this was they would go to union factories and shippers and tell them to boycott non-union carriers like Old Dominion.

Now in 1940 a major customer of Old Dominion's the customer in question was a union shop and they convinced Mr.Congdon to let the Teamsters in at Old Dominion and to let the company organize.

The Congdons did participate in the union and in 1940 Mrs. Congdon got a telegraph from Virginia Governor Jame's H. Price to go and help solve a labor dispute.

 

Old Dominion Attempts to Brand

Modern Day Super Capacity 28' double trailer Old Dominion Trucks in Texas in 2017.

In 1930 Old Dominion attempted to paint the trucks Navy Blue with red wheels, fuel tanks and chassis.
However the company bought a couple new trucks from International in the 1940s and those trucks were dark green. Also at the time all the companies straight trucks were dark green.
This change to dark green would be where the dark green color on Old Dominions trucks comes from today.

 

Chapter 2, Old Dominion During World War II

So here we are we find Old Dominion in the hot seat again. In September of 1941 an Old Dominion tractor trailer was found carrying intrastate Virginia freight in it's trailer without a Virginia license plate. The truck had a North Carolina plate on it. This was a huge problem. The State Corporation Commission of Virginia threatened to take away Old Dominions contract carrier permit and thus Old Dominion would not be allowed to haul any intrastate freight in Virginia.

This trouble that Old Dominion ran into caused the company to think about expanding it's delivery territory.

In 1941 a German man named Karl Lenker who knew the Congdons approached Mr.Congdon and told him that with war on the horizon he was scared he would be thrown in jail for being a German and that he needed to dump his trucking company Dixi Transfer.

Dixi Transfer had good operating authority they could go from Virginia all the way to South Carolina.

Mr. Congdon bought Dixi Transfers trucks and also leased there certificate of operation and in December of 1940 Old Dominion purchased the certificate of operation for $10,000.

Old Dominion could finally run outside of Virginia. Mr. Congdon took the first load over the boarder from Virginia to the Carolinas in 1941.

Trucking During World War II

As the war broke out and Hitler conquered europe the days of silly route game playing and silly regulation would have to be set aside, because well there was work that had to be done.

Federal and State Governments made some concessions to truck companies.

Old Dominion applied for and was given wealth to run over US 60 from Richmond to Norfolk.

Also Old Dominion was able to use routes that competitors were already running. Eventually due to a series of operating license buy out in 1942 Old Dominion for $8,000 bought the route 60 route from Wilson Trucking in 1942. This gave Old Dominion permanent Intrastate Operating Authority in the common Wealth of Virginia.

As freight tonnage due to the war increased Old Dominion was heavier then ever tonnage and miles were up as the company scatted through Virginia collecting and delivering freight for the military.

With tonnage and business growing at breakneck speed the company did not have time and resources to work on there business in the Carolina's and because of that, Old Dominion ended up with a 1 way unprofitable operation taking freight from Virginia to the Carolina's. The company didn't have any sales reps at the time in the Carolina's it was a one way operation freight down and nothing back up.

Also the company was so busy with war work they didn't have time to invest in the Carolina's at the time because they were growing so fast. In December of 1942 Old Dominion let it's permit to run in the Carolina's lapse because it was to much for them to handle and with the boom of the war effort OD was firmly planted and had a nice hold on Virginia.

 

Management Changes and Terminal Expansion

In 1942 Earl Sr. and Lillian Congdon officially became 50/50 business partners in Old Dominion Freight Line. Also the modern day Old Dominion logo would come about.

In 1942 Old Dominion bought a lumber mill that was originally built in 1890. The mill on Graham and Catherine Street became the companies first major terminal. It had a shop, lot across the street for parking and offices and about 7 or 8 doors.

They actually put a small addition on the terminal and another carrier rented space from OD.

This would be the companies flagship terminal and main office for close to 20 years.

Also at this time Lillian Congdon was able to step away from the companies office work as more employees were hired. Mrs. Congdon spent more time raising the (2) sons and working in the garden and also playing golf.

Old Dominion also stopped using cartage agents in Norfolk and New Port News and started using it's own sales people.

In 1942 Old Dominion wanted to expand it's fleet, but had to acquire permission from the government to purchase a new tractor trailer unit.

In1944 the company stats were as follows.

14 Straight Trucks
18 Tractors
25 Trailers
Company had $124,768 Dollars worth of Assets
Liabilities of $54,000
And Networth of $70,768
A Staff of 74

3 Mechanics
13 Linehaul Drivers
5 Terminal Supervisors
13 Local Drivers
16 Dock Workers
5 Terminal Clerks
0 Sales Staff

Earl Sr. and Lillian each made $4800 a year from the company. Which wasn't that good considering the company travelled 587,736 miles as a common carrier and quarter million miles as a contract carrier to deliver 64,000 shipments. However while their salaries were not great, they were higher then the average salary in 1944 which was $2600.00 a year. So they were doing better then the average Joe.
In September of 1945 Japan surrendered Old Dominion could now buy all the equipment it wanted without having to ask the government for permission.

In 1945 Old Dominion also had it's first fatal wreck. 25 year old driver Howard Sprauge Jr, and two passengers he picked up were involved in a collision with a car the Old Dominion truck was driven off the road due to the collision and landed in a ditch and caught fire and the driver and two passengers died.

The Congdons Earl Sr. and Lillian were very displeased with the situation.

*Rodengen Page 27, Old Dominion Helping The World Keep Promises 2011 Write Stuff Publications.