by 2nd trick op
QB 52.32 wrote:
When I started my carrer in motor carrier transportation in the fall of 1972, Overnite was about halfway up the list of the top 100 truckers as listed by the trade organ Commercial Car Journal, and was considered one of the biggest success stories. However, most of the established truckers of the day (almost all of whom would fall victim to deregulation in about ten years), wouldn't inerchange with Overnite, since it was non-union. It was, at the time, subject to the same economic regulation and limits on its operating authority as its unionized competitors.
At the time of its acquisition by UP. Overnite still operated primarily east of the Mississippi and Missouri, and while I never was able to learn much about its operations, it seems likely that UP may have sought it primarily for delivery of intermodal traffic involving a UP rail haul. UP's sale of Overnite to UPS has a paralell in Fed Ex' 2001 acquisition of Harrison, Arkansas based American Freightways.
When I worked in package freight in 2008, UPS was the only one of the three major players which possessed enough "clout" to effectively use a rail-based network. Fed Ex grew out of a firm originally oriented around higher-value overnight shipments, with an air hub in Memphis as the central feature, and German-based DHL attempted unsuccessfuly to develop a domestic US operation as a feeder for the international business where it remains dominant. Both of the latter two ran highway-centered operations.
One "modern day" case study of how well railroad network economics meshes with LTL network economics was UP's late-80's purchase of national LTL trucking company Overnight.I believe the company you're referring to is Overnite Transportation, formerly of Richmond, Va, and now part of UPS.
When I started my carrer in motor carrier transportation in the fall of 1972, Overnite was about halfway up the list of the top 100 truckers as listed by the trade organ Commercial Car Journal, and was considered one of the biggest success stories. However, most of the established truckers of the day (almost all of whom would fall victim to deregulation in about ten years), wouldn't inerchange with Overnite, since it was non-union. It was, at the time, subject to the same economic regulation and limits on its operating authority as its unionized competitors.
At the time of its acquisition by UP. Overnite still operated primarily east of the Mississippi and Missouri, and while I never was able to learn much about its operations, it seems likely that UP may have sought it primarily for delivery of intermodal traffic involving a UP rail haul. UP's sale of Overnite to UPS has a paralell in Fed Ex' 2001 acquisition of Harrison, Arkansas based American Freightways.
When I worked in package freight in 2008, UPS was the only one of the three major players which possessed enough "clout" to effectively use a rail-based network. Fed Ex grew out of a firm originally oriented around higher-value overnight shipments, with an air hub in Memphis as the central feature, and German-based DHL attempted unsuccessfuly to develop a domestic US operation as a feeder for the international business where it remains dominant. Both of the latter two ran highway-centered operations.
What a revoltin' development this is! (William Bendix)