Oldest Trucking Company

West Bend Transit and Service started in 1911 and is owned and run by the great grandson Ben Schloemer. Founded by two cousins Henry E. Schloemer and Henry P. Schloemer And started with two teams of horses. Still
in business today and will be 110 years old next year

 

FCC

 

Jones Motor Express, 1894.

 

My employer was DOT 24812. Which is still active.

Until the "incident" in India, when they thought it would be a good idea to distance itself from the name.
Currently we run under DOT 332037.

I saw a 405xxxx recently.

 

My Google search says UPS is the longest in business..

Some cool history in the link below.
“1896: America’s first truck
The first “truck” was created by inventor Gottlieb Daimler in 1896, when he fitted a horse-drawn cart with a two-cylinder engine. Just a few years later in 1900, two brothers, Jack and Gus Mack, founded the first trucking corporation: Mack”

Read more here..
Trucking Industry History | NTB Trucking.

 

Bophal ?

 

Yes. Don't recall the total killed but was definitely a tragic accident and soiled the name. I think Dow bought them before they became Praxair.

 

I dont remember the details either just a lot of people were killed .

 

It might surprise you, but the lowest I've seen belongs to Aaron's rent to own. 363

SAFER Web - Company Snapshot AARON'S LLC

 

I decided to write a bash script to check the entries of everything lower than that, since that's a reasonable amount instead of 40k or something. It seems saferweb rate limits so I'm checking one a minute. I already found something interesting. Not unexpectedly the FMCSA itself has USDOT 1. Surprisingly they had 2 OOS events in the last year. Also their phone number looks phony.

SAFER Web - Company Snapshot FEDERAL MOTOR CARRIER SAFETY ADMINISTRATION

 

There's one at 44 still ready but not active for Dyers Trucking Service. The lowest still active is 64 for CHEROKEE CULVERT COMPANY INC out of Macon, GA.

so the list from 1 to 363 that have information attached is 1, 44, 64, 111, 113, 119, 174, 198, 206, 222, 227, 230, 234, 239, 254, 261, 264, 265, 285, 306, 323, 334, 337, 344, and 345. You have the link and ability to check them yourselves. I could parse the data I have for who's active and who's not but at this point it seems there is a significant amount of low number companies still in operation. When I see a low number it seems to me like it would be a point of pride. A company in such a competitive environment able to grab a USDOT number when they first appeared and continue operating all these decades later.

Okay I lied. Thought I'd have some fun bash scripting. Here's the ones that are Active:
1, 64, 111, 113, 119, 174, 198, 206, 222, 227, 230, 234, 239, 261, 264, 265, 285, 306, 323, 334, 337, 344, 345