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

TNT was kind of like Central Transport of yesteryear. Every contractor or customer they had they seemed to set up a new company for. Newsfast was there news paper and news print delivery division hence the name TNT Newsfast. This was in Brittan and Europe not really the USA.

 

Check out tnt.com, apparently they just got bought by Fedex.

One of their parcel notes...

 

This discussion is good, but please do a discussion on Con-way; Best paint jobs in LTL history in my opinion. Overnite wasn't bad either when we were overnite.

 

Yes TNT's management here in North America in the late 1990s went through a break up and then in Europe TNT ran as mostly a mail and small parcels company KNG Group Inc was the company that bought out TNT management and moved the headquarters from Australia to the Neatherlands and then FedEx bought out TNT.

 

I will maybe I'll start a new thread and do a short I have the Con-Way Book. TNT is so big and vast biggest transport company in the world at one time. TNT was what CF wanted to be.

 

TNT and the 1986 Wapping U.K. Dispute




In 1986 News International owned by Rupert Murdoch opened a news paper plant in Wapping, in the U.K. It was a big plant to because it produced The Sun, News of The World, The Times and The Sunday Times.

Well this plant was brand new and it was using computers for type setting instead of the lithograph.

The news paper print workers union didn't care for the new computer system they wanted the old lithograph system more or less. The computers made it so editors and journalists could just upload there story and reports to the computer and it would fit with in the news papers format and go to print. The old days everything had to go through the lithograph which means the editors and whoever else had to go down to the actual printing plant run it through the printing workers. Well that all went away with the computer. So the print workers tried to stop the computer system and that didn't work.

News International fired 6000 employees who worked at the Wapping Plant.

TNT Newsfast had the distribution contract for the Wapping Plant in June of 1985 when News International signed the contract for TNT Newsfast to purchase vehicles for distribution for 7 million pounds.

Now, the union figured that even if "scabs" were going to be working in the news plant the papers couldn't be distributed because they figured the union workers at this company:

would back them. Well News International didn't ship with British Rails they shipped with TNT and TNT for a year basically went in and out of the picket lines and in 1987 the news print workers union was starved out and collapsed and the strike at times was bloody and violent, but between the plant workers and TNT the print workers union failed in there strike and the news paper did not lose any production or distribution schedules. TNT was picketed and also subject to trouble during the times of the strike.

 

Next will talk about one of my favorite TNT Companies. TNT Olex

 

TNT Europe from 1993 TNT Express. This must have been small parcels and mail. TNT had to eventually consolidate because they had to many companies that I swear were splitting hairs.

 

HI guys I'm back. Renewal by Andersen is here right now installing after 10 weeks of waiting my new back door and front door way really exciting to get a new door. There redoing the doorway and everything.

I've been on vacation all week and for the most part it's been very relaxing except for the small bit of worthless dating that I've done and anymore I dislike deliberately meeting people for meeting peoples sake which is what ends up happening. God, small talk is so awful. Anyhow it's time for me to really consider hanging up dating my best years are behind me and it isn't what it isn't and isn't going to be again and I missed the boat on all that, and that's how that goes. Just isn't panning out sometimes despite efforts things just don't work out, it's how it goes. But I'm trudging forward and so this thread also needs to trudge forward LOL!

 

TNT OLEX

As you all know TNT was the world wide transportation company and they had a gazillion subsidiary companies and I can't totally go over all of them world wide, because there's to many and there brand as @speedyk said was probably diluted. But, we can talk about what business TNT was really big into.

As far as North America was concerned because we went over Europe already, but as far as North America is concerned TNT was big into LTL Freight and Expedited and Contract Auto Parts Hauling which Auto Manufacturers are big buyers of Expedited Freight.

TNT was very big in the great lakes Michigan, Ohio and Ontario Canada auto belt. Most of TNT's work was in Canada. TNT them selves while there was a management buy out and change in the US in 1996 which caused TNT to become USF that was only in the United States. TNT company was not bought out in Canada and the old TNT logo was still flying in Canada until 2003ish.

While TNT was a fallen flag in the US if we went up into Toronto in 2000 we would have still seen TNT company trucks.

One of TNT's biggest subsidiaries was TNT Olex which was TNT's Expedited Red Hot Emergency Delivery Freight Division. As you all know Expedited Freight heavily favors and is used by Auto Manufacturers for just in time shipments and emergency shipments. Which is why all the Expedited Freight companies are located in Ohio and Michigan for the most part.