Never Stand Still

Thanks trucking history is so much fun, it's so colorful and there was so much cool stuff going on. Now a days everything isn't quite as colorful blandness has taken over some.

 

Alright everyone here we are back for more.
The year is 1984 deregulation has taken hold and the trucking industry has turned into the wild wild west.

Cable TV is in it's infancy and CF was the largest thing in LTL freight in the United States of America at the time.
Like I said there was no FedEx Freight, no Estes, Old Dominion was a 3 truck operation in Thomasville, NC they were not even on the map yet. If you wanted it shipped long haul CF was the company.

That's what the highways looked like at the time 3-4 CF sets all traveling in a row.

And in 1984 they had many sets traveling in a row.
While competition was tight, CF had the economies of scale to wedge them selves against deregulation.

CF in the 1980s was busy carrying all the hottest and nosiest brands, CF's executives thought that slashing prices was not the correct thing to do after all everyone was doing that, instead CF worked to simplify the shipping process.

CF had extensive computer capabilities far better then the average "trucking company" and CF had computer capabilities to offer up to the minute data processing which enhanced production and supply chain efficiency for many of it's customers. Which allowed CF to speed product distribution to 60,000 points across the US.

One of CF's major customers in the 1980's was General Motor's specifically Buick. In the 1980's Just In Time Logistics was hot and GM had learned all about it from the Japanese. When Buick went over to JIT in 1985.

CF also set up a just in time logistic program for Snap On Tools and ran most of the freight for Snap On Tools as well.

In 1982 CF Rolled out it's coast to coast air freight service for LTL companies where they combine the LTL trucks and the cargo air planes.

The air frieght LTL combo was a 3 day service and it was priced between air and LTL ground pricing. It was called Superday Saver via Air. CF used the regular city trucks to pick up freight and then used the air planes to do the actual long distance line haul.

Also in the 1980s CF combine with Telecomunications Inc to deliver cable TV converter boxes to the sprawling and brand new cable TV industry. CF air freight control monitored and recorded all shipments to make sure the shipments of cable TV boxes made it out on time.

CCX also did something similar with distribution for Sherwin-Williams where they monitored and worked with there production team in order to ship orders to Sherwin-Williams stores from the factories in Chicago with a days notice.

In addition to these great value added services CF Air Freight also offered warehouse and distribution services. CF's Air Freight divisions first warehouse and distribution customers was a computer parts manufacturer named Racal-Milgo. When an order to ship came in CF would send a copy of the order to Racal-Milgo's purchasing department where they would then order more parts and have them shipped in through standard ground means to keep costs down.

CF also did a lot of work for Abbott Laboratories flying medicine out of Chcago's O Hare Airport. CF had a refrigerated warehouse for Abbott Labs. All this innovation led CF into a logistics supplier.

CF also worked on grouping commodities into few tariffs and consolidated the 150 page tariff book into 15 pages and then put them onto computer disks. This gave customers a better grasp on things.

However one of CF's biggest customers was Mattel Toys. Mattel had two warehouses in the US one in New Jersey and one in California.
CF offered Mattel quantity discount pricing, Mattel used CF for there long haul shipping and when they needed shipped more tonnage they got a better rate. All these services and strategies worked and CF did not have to cut costs or lose any market share.

 

They had some in the late 1990s.

 

Would have been cool to see CF trucks barreling than today's highways and biways.

 

For what it's worth, Old Dominion is taking good care of the old CF terminal in Columbus.

 

I figured Old D would, I don't know if CF had another terminal in Cleveland they may have had one also in the city somewhere, although they may not have I really don't know.

 

Alright here we go for another round of CF Masterpiece Theater and this time were bringing the heat with CF Air Freight so stay tuned!

 

Anyone out there know where the CF terminal in OKC was located. I'm always curious about these old terminals as to who used them before.