<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Southeastern Freightways, a major player in regional less-than-truckload (LTL) hauling, is responding to shipper demand for more full truckload transportation as customers look to save money in the we</div>

Southeastern Freightways, a major player in regional less-than-truckload (LTL) hauling, is responding to shipper demand for more full truckload transportation as customers look to save money in the we

<div class="phx-topic">Southeastern Freightways, a major player in regional less-than-truckload (LTL) hauling, is responding to shipper demand for more full truckload transportation as customers look to save money in the weak economy. &amp;ldquo;Truckload is more competitive right now,&amp;rdquo; said Braxton Vick, Southeastern&amp;rsquo;s senior vice president of corporate planning and development. Vick said that while the majority of the carrier&amp;rsquo;s overall growth is carrying direct LTL between the Southwestern and southeastern regions, cheaper truckload rates require Southeastern to partner with truckload carriers that deliver the linehaul portion of the move to regional hubs for final delivery by Southeastern. At the same time, Vick said, other customers are forced by the anemic economy to cut shipment volume, decreasing their ability to move full truckload shipments &amp;ndash; but with enough pricing leverage to push down LTL rates. &amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;re competing on both price and service, but when we can&amp;rsquo;t cover our variable costs, there are some customers we just have to walk away from,&amp;rdquo; he said.</div>

Trucking News

Regional LTL Hauling More Truckload

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">It took more than five years, but Yellow Transportation and Roadway are finally one company.
 
</div>

It took more than five years, but Yellow Transportation and Roadway are finally one company.

<div class="phx-topic">It took more than five years, but Yellow Transportation and Roadway are finally one company.Parent company YRC Worldwide said it successfully integrated the two long-haul national networks March 1. They will now officially do business as YRC.&amp;ldquo;This is a game-changing event for our company and the transportation industry,&amp;rdquo; said William D. Zollars, YRC&amp;rsquo;s chairman, president and CEO, and head of Yellow Transportation when it acquired Roadway for $1.1 billion in 2003.&amp;ldquo;By going to market as YRC, we&amp;rsquo;re making it easier for customers to do business with the industry leader - and harder for the competition to match our network and our capabilities.&amp;rdquo;With nearly 450 service centers, the combined operation offers about 100 more than either Roadway or Yellow did individually, according to the company. It pointed out the integration creates 21,000 additional direct service points and places YRC 20 percent closer to customers in major markets for quicker pickups and deliveries.</div>

Yellow and Roadway Now One Company

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Struggling YRC Worldwide got a breather from its bankers, but its customers and Wall Street are keeping close watch on the carrier as trucking capacity and the rates shippers pay hinge on the trucking</div>

Struggling YRC Worldwide got a breather from its bankers, but its customers and Wall Street are keeping close watch on the carrier as trucking capacity and the rates shippers pay hinge on the trucking

<div class="phx-topic">Struggling YRC Worldwide got a breather from its bankers, but its customers and Wall Street are keeping close watch on the carrier as trucking capacity and the rates shippers pay hinge on the trucking giant&amp;rsquo;s survival. YRC&amp;rsquo;s lenders renewed a $950 million revolving credit line due August 2012 and an asset-backed security that allows financings of up to $500 million that expires in February 2010. The carrier filed the new terms of its credit agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission Feb. 13.&amp;ldquo;In response to economic conditions, we made the decision to preserve cash for operations rather than paying down debt at this time &amp;mdash; a strategic move that many companies are making in the current environment,&amp;rdquo; said William D. Zollars, YRC chairman, president and CEO, in a letter to employees. That strategic move, however, came at a price. YRC&amp;rsquo;s previous terms had been linked to the company&amp;rsquo;s debt ratio. The amended terms are based on minimum earnings, capital expenditure limits and liquidity.YRC must now generate earnings of at least $45 million in the second quarter, $130 million in the second and third quarters combined, and $180 million in the combined second, third and fourth quarters.The new lending terms increased the company&amp;rsquo;s annual interest expense by approximately $43 million, with another $13 million paid to modify the agreements. Zollars said the changes give his company a cushion to allow time for the company to realize anticipated benefits from the integration of Yellow Transportation and Roadway, which were rebranded as YRC March 1, in addition to other cost-saving measures. But the company will have to quickly gain enough speed to outrun a weakening freight economy. Zollar&amp;rsquo;s plan &amp;ldquo;would require a massive reversal in recent losses and trends that have continued into first-quarter 2009,&amp;rdquo; Ed Wolfe of Wolfe Research said in a note to investors.&amp;ldquo;YRC continues to bet on its network integration going flawlessly, leading to a massive cost improvement, which overshadows the current economy and competitive LTL market,&amp;rdquo; Wolfe said. &amp;ldquo;This bet remains a long shot to us.&amp;rdquo;Credit analysts see YRC&amp;rsquo;s odds improving with the new lending terms. Shortly after filing the terms with the SEC, Standard &amp; Poor&amp;rsquo;s revised the implications of its CreditWatch review on YRC from developing to positive. YRC also received a needed cash boost with the Feb. 20 sale and leaseback of a package of less-than-truckload terminals to Estes Express Lines for $122 million. &amp;ldquo;We are pleased that we finalized another significant component of our liquidity initiatives,&amp;rdquo; said Tim Wicks, YRC chief financial officer. &amp;ldquo;It is common practice in our industry to lease facilities from other industry providers, and, in fact, we presently lease other facilities from Estes, and they lease from us. This is a continuation of that relationship.&amp;rdquo;But with demand for transportation dropping faster than excess capacity can bleed out, YRC&amp;rsquo;s freight-starved competitors have done little to quell speculation of a Chapter 7 liquidation that would instantly put YRC&amp;rsquo;s estimated 20 percent LTL market share up for grabs. Carriers privately contend such a scenario would inject stability into rates that have been in steady decline for more than two years. But shippers worry that the loss of a player the size of YRC would take a huge toll on transportation costs. Fred Anderson, director of transportation for fashion and home furnishing retailer Dillard&amp;rsquo;s, is one shipper watching YRC and its subsidiaries &amp;mdash; even though he dropped the company from his LTL supplier mix several years ago. &amp;ldquo;That had nothing to do with the current situation &amp;mdash; they just couldn&amp;rsquo;t meet our service requirements,&amp;rdquo; Anderson said. &amp;ldquo;Transit times are a big issue. Being in fashion retail, shelf life is critical, just like fresh produce.&amp;rdquo;But while Anderson considers FedEx Freight a worthy recipient for much of the $45 million to $50 million the $7.2 billion retailer spends on transportation, he&amp;rsquo;s concerned about what a YRC bankruptcy could do to rates and service. &amp;ldquo;If something were to happen to YRC, LTL pricing would change overnight,&amp;rdquo; Anderson said. And even though FedEx has assured him that its current customers are protected, &amp;ldquo;you can&amp;rsquo;t take a company the size of YRC and expect existing carriers to immediately absorb that business.&amp;rdquo; John Gallagher can be contacted at <a href="mailto:jgallagher@joc.com">jgallagher@joc.com</a>.</div>

Recession Downshift

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">YRC Worldwide sold to and leased back from Estes Express Lines a package of LTL terminals for $122 million in a deal that will provide a much needed boost to YRC's cash reserves.</div>

YRC Worldwide sold to and leased back from Estes Express Lines a package of LTL terminals for $122 million in a deal that will provide a much needed boost to YRC's cash reserves.

<div class="phx-topic">YRC Worldwide sold to and leased back from Estes Express Lines a package of LTL terminals for $122 million in a deal that will provide a much needed boost to YRC's cash reserves."We are pleased that we finalized another significant component of our liquidity initiatives," said YRC Chief Financial Officer Tim Wicks. The deal, which includes terminals operated by YRC regional subsidiaries USF Reddaway and USF Holland, will allow Richmond, Va.-based Estes to grow its investment network of real estate properties, the company said."We have worked with YRC over the years on many real estate transactions that have included the buying, selling and leasing of properties, which is common practice in the LTL industry," said Estes' Director of Real Estate and Economic Development Angela Maidment. "This is a continuation of that mutually beneficial relationship, and now is a great time for us to make this kind of long-term investment."The property sales, expected to close between March and June 2009.</div>

YRC Sells, Leases from Estes

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Old Dominion Freight Line relocated and expanded its Cookeville, Tenn., LTL terminal in an effort to gain market share.</div>

Old Dominion Freight Line relocated and expanded its Cookeville, Tenn., LTL terminal in an effort to gain market share.

<div class="phx-topic">Old Dominion Freight Line relocated and expanded its Cookeville, Tenn., LTL terminal in an effort to gain market share.The new 25-door facility is on a 7.5 acre site at 1541 Maple Avenue South in Cookeville."The relocation and expansion of the Cookeville Service Center will allow us to better serve our customers in the upper Cumberland region of middle Tennessee," said Hugh Morris, Vice President of the Southern region for ODFL. "Old Dominion will be positioned to gain market share in points currently being served."</div>

Old Dominion Relocates, Expands

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The world of LTL is slow to embrace change. Business anachronisms permeate current supply chain processes. These vestiges of the way things used to work define the LTL freight transportation procurement process of many modern shippers.David Knuth, logistics specialist at IEWC, a global supplier of cable and wire based in Wisconsin, is happy to have modernized the RFP process, automating the entire LTL bidding procedure with Bid$ense, SMC³’s automated truckload and LTL freight transportation sourcing solution. But when prompted, he can still recall what once was.In his previous job, a large part of his duties were consumed by creating an intermodal bid package for carriers. In a spreadsheet, Knuth detailed the company’s volumes lane by lane, taking care to delete any errant keystrokes or misleading data. He would then email out the information to each carrier, taking time to respond to detailed technical questions about the spreadsheet data. Finally, he had to compile all the results, create an algorithm that would compare the carriers on each lane, and award the business.“It was a huge undertaking. It took about four months to do,” Knuth said of the old process. “It was almost a full-time job for that part of the year, every year.”In his new job at IEWC, he sat down with Bid$ense on day one and was amazed at the capabilities. Knuth had never before used a bid tool. SMC³’s latest versions of Bid$ense automate the process even further, taking truckload and LTL RFPs entirely online. The tool draws on RFP best-practices protocols to streamline the bidding communication process, enabling bidding carriers to respond accurately and promptly to shipper requests. The solution also does all the distribution work automatically, electronically submitting shipper bid data to carriers based on their actual service capabilities and performance records. Carriers are alerted with timely prompts for RFP deliverables, so shippers aren’t waiting by the phone for responses.Another benefit of automating the process is the data-cleansing assistance. When Knuth sent spreadsheets to carriers, data errors might cloud the bidding process; he might have to resend data or simply accept a price that did not truly reflect the costs of doing business. Data cleansing is incredibly beneficial, he said.The spreadsheet technique also made bidding analysis an onerous task. Since Bid$ense automates and streamlines the entire RFP process, intensive examination is now simple. SMC³ knows that each bid has more than one best outcome. With uniform responses from each carrier, shippers can quickly rank results and create an unlimited quantity of what-if scenarios to make the optimal procurement decision.Jesse Burnett of Central Garden &amp; Pet experiences many of the same benefits. Founded in 1980, Central Garden &amp; Pet has spent the last three decades growing from a small garden supply company to a provider of a range of products from dog chews and bird seed to soil supplements and natural insecticides. For much of its life, the company shipped these disparate goods via LTL and truckload carriers to retailers throughout the country, relying on each business unit to negotiate directly with their freight transportation providers. This arrangement worked fairly well for a small company, but as Central Garden &amp; Pet expanded, leadership decided to consolidate decision making.Burnett helped centralize the transportation decision making in 2015 with SMC³’s Bid$ense. Before Bid$ense, every business unit operated independently as far as negotiating with carriers.“There were a lot of different things just floating around,” he said. “We didn’t have master agreements in place; no national pricing at all. The pricing from carriers was just all over the place, depending on where you were.”The transformations he saw with Bid$ense were immediate. Burnett has been using the tool about every other year since its implementation at the company. Central Garden and Pet’s $19.6 million 2019 LTL bid saved the company just more than 9 percent when compared to its historical average. For Burnett, though, bid automation extends far beyond savings.“We knew that we weren’t getting the best pricing offer from our carriers just because nothing was centralized,” he continued. “We knew that if we combined everything from all these business units and paired it with one corporate offering, then it would drive some cost benefit with it.”When the company initially decided to centralize bid procurement, executives researched a number of different methodologies and technologies. In the end, though, Burnett found that Bid$ense was both widespread and well known, and that his carrier partners already knew how to use the application. Burnett also highlighted the data-cleansing process as a major benefit, saying the rigorous process ensures that carriers always return the best price.“It definitely has helped drive savings,” he said. “Any time you go out there and you drive that competitiveness with the carriers and they know they’re in a bid environment, it seems to sharpen their pencils.”Transportation procurement is an integral part of the modern supply chain. With Bid$ense, shippers can develop a strategic implementation plan that saves them time and money, but also helps them create strong relationships with their carrier partners. These carriers appreciate the solution’s data-cleansing process; when carriers receive a complete shipment history and future volume forecast, they don’t have to guess on pricing. Carriers that receive more data from shippers get a complete picture of that shipper’s freight, allowing them to accurately plan instead of simply preparing for the worst-case scenario. Clean data presented through an automated system can lead to both bigger shipment savings and a lasting partnership between carrier and customer.Whether customers are looking to streamline over-the-road transportation bidding by automating the RFP process or create an entirely new, centralized sourcing process, Bid$ense has the analytical horsepower to get the job done.SMC³ 2020 Customer Case Study

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Shippers save money, time with automated transportation bidding tools

SSA Marine Mexico has made significant strides in modernizing its infrastructure at the Port of Manzanillo, investing $15 million to enhance operational efficiency and sustainability at its facilities. This move is part of the company's broader strategy to remain at the forefront of the shipping and logistics industry. •	Strengthening Sustainability with Advanced Technology <figure class="joc_admin__inline-image-position-left joc_admin__inline-image-size-medium" data-figure-size="medium" data-figure-position="left"><img src="/content-assets/1730488295264_Cranes%20arrival%20to%20TEC%20I.png" alt="Cranes arrival to TEC I" class="joc_admin__inline-image-inherit"></figure> In July, SSA Marine Mexico added seven state-of-the-art E-RTG (Electric Rubber-Tired Gantry) cranes to its fleet, valued at $14 million. These advanced cranes were distributed across its two terminals: four cranes were assigned to the Multipurpose Terminal, and three to the Specialized Container Terminal I. What sets these cranes apart is their dual-operation capability, allowing them to function either on electric power or diesel fuel. This innovation plays a critical role in reducing the environmental impact of operations, contributing to a 7% increase in energy efficiency. This efficiency improvement is equivalent to eliminating nearly 4,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually, underscoring SSA Marine Mexico's commitment to sustainability. Through this acquisition, SSA Marine Mexico not only enhances its cargo-handling capabilities but also reinforces its leadership in integrating cutting-edge, eco-friendly technology in the maritime industry. The company continues to push the boundaries of efficiency and sustainability, ensuring long-term value for both its customers and the environment. •	Upgraded Facilities to Meet Growing Demand <figure class="joc_admin__inline-image-position-left joc_admin__inline-image-size-medium" data-figure-size="medium" data-figure-position="left"><img src="/content-assets/1730488350634_Multipurpose%20terminal.png" alt="Multipurpose Terminal" class="joc_admin__inline-image-inherit"></figure> In addition to the new cranes, SSA Marine Mexico has completed crucial modernization and repair work across its Multipurpose Terminal and Specialized Facility at the Port of Manzanillo. This $1 million investment targeted critical infrastructure enhancements, focusing on both structural integrity and operational functionality. Key improvements included leveling approximately 12,000 square meters in the dock area, along with the removal of outdated concrete curbs and asphalt layers. The upgraded space now features high-resistance pavers designed to optimize water drainage and prevent pooling, ensuring safer and more efficient operations. Moreover, the Specialized Facility saw significant upgrades, including the leveling of key warehouse areas to facilitate smoother cargo handling processes. These infrastructure improvements directly enhance the handling of TEUS (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit containers), further demonstrating SSA Marine Mexico's unwavering commitment to continuous modernization, operational safety, and efficiency. With these initiatives, SSA Marine Mexico is well-positioned to meet the growing demands of the global shipping industry while setting new standards in sustainable port operations. LINK:<a href="https://www.ssamarine.mx/ssa-ing/index" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link"> https://www.ssamarine.mx/ssa-ing/index</a>

Cranes arrival to TEC I.png

Maritime

SSA Marine Mexico Modernizes Facilities with $15 Million Investment 

If there’s one immutable truth in the world of logistics, it’s this: LTL is an inherently complex form of transportation. Tariffs, rates, DIM weights, transit times — it’s enough to confuse even seasoned logistics professionals. The solution to this knowledge gap has historically been on-the-job training or university supply chain education, but for a variety of reasons there is now a pressing need for third-party, remote LTL training that prepares logistics workers for transportation success. Global Scope Can Overlook Local Intricacies In the past, professionals looking to move into a supply chain career learned about the basics of supply chain from universities. However, many of these college supply chain programs are now global in scope, focusing on worldwide supply chain management instead of the intricacies of specialized domestic transportation. And even these programs, which used to be widespread, are becoming less common. LTL is not an industry of broad-brush strokes; supply chain professionals really need a pointillistic understanding of the logistics of LTL in order to excel in the industry. Accelerating Need for Dedicated LTL Education This lack of specified training put the onus on employers to prepare new hires with the LTL knowledge needed to do their jobs. Dedicated LTL study is a necessity, not a luxury. At the same time, changes in LTL and the broader supply chain world are accelerating. The reliance on e-commerce has ballooned since the start of the pandemic, and last-mile LTL shipments and related e-commerce strains on the supply chain won’t diminish once social distancing abates. That genie isn’t going back into the bottle. So supply chain employers need logistics workers that are fully versed in all aspects of the industry, ready to solve unique shipping and delivery problems based on their extensive supply chain knowledge But why care about LTL? It’s been reported that some shippers in today’s world are no longer concerned with what mode is used to ship their goods. A Multimodal Approach Ensures On-Time Delivery This mode agnosticism means supply chain stakeholders have to be well versed in all modes of transportation. As unforeseen weather events and other disruptions, such as protests, become more common, savvy logistics employees will need to be armed with familiarity of all modes, not just the most popular, to ensure that freight is delivered on time, without damage, and in the most financially expedient way possible. Offerings like SMC³’s LTL online education courses cover a wide range of topics from LTL basics and operations to more advanced concepts like pricing analytics and transportation law. The company also has plans to continually refresh content, adding new expert presenters and taking the feedback of students to make the courses even better as time goes on. Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://logisticstrainingcenter.com/smc3-courses/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">SMC³’s LTL Online Education program</a>&nbsp;and view the 2021 hybrid schedule, featuring live industry experts,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smc3.com/onlinelearning2021/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">here.</a>

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Filling the Supply Chain Education Gap with LTL Education Courses

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<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">They may seem an odd couple at first glance: a southeastern less-than-truckload carrier with a hub-and-spoke network and a New Jersey-based carrier with a hybrid LTL-truckload </div>

They may seem an odd couple at first glance: a southeastern less-than-truckload carrier with a hub-and-spoke network and a New Jersey-based carrier with a hybrid LTL-truckload

<div class="phx-topic">They may seem an odd couple at first glance: a southeastern less-than-truckload carrier with a hub-and-spoke network and a New Jersey-based carrier with a hybrid LTL-truckload business model. But Milan Express and New Century Transportation say their differences translate into strengths as partners in a new inter-regional venture. The carriers launched their &amp;ldquo;Lightning Alliance&amp;rdquo; this month to speed LTL freight between Milan&amp;rsquo;s Midwest and Southeast territory and New Century&amp;rsquo;s northeastern home market. It&amp;rsquo;s already helping Milan Express gain freight in a recession. &amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;re nearing 100 pricing proposals, and there are a few dozen already that are up and running,&amp;rdquo; said David A. Kramer, president of LTL at the Milan, Tenn.-based company. Alliances that are important for regional LTL carriers when freight is plentiful and capacity is tight are even more so when they&amp;rsquo;re not. They not only provide access to new markets and customers, but also encourage existing customers to ship more freight. &amp;ldquo;They allow you to grow your revenue without expanding your cost. That&amp;rsquo;s probably your biggest advantage,&amp;rdquo; said Charles L. Hammel III, president of Pitt Ohio Express, a Pittsburgh-based regional LTL carrier operating in the mid-Atlantic region stretching from Chicago in the west to Virginia and North Carolina in the south. &amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;re able to offer our customers a bigger geography so they can spread out farther.&amp;rdquo; Pitt Ohio is part of the Reliance Network, a multicarrier alliance formed last year that connects it with Averitt Express, Land Air Express, Lakeville Motor Express, DATS Trucking and Canadian Freightways and Epic Express in Canada. The alliance is giving Pitt Ohio a much welcome boost in a year when its revenue is down 14 percent from 2008. Shipments that enter Pitt Ohio&amp;rsquo;s system from alliance partners &amp;ldquo;now amount to about 10 percent of our revenue,&amp;rdquo; Hammel said. Hammel expects to see more alliances and partnerships among LTL carriers, especially smaller companies, in the recovery as well as the recession. Carriers are more willing to share information and even develop common technology platforms, he said. &amp;ldquo;You used to never do that unless you had common ownership,&amp;rdquo; Hammel said. It&amp;rsquo;s the result of a shakeout spurred not by the poor economy but by the arrival of new competitors in the LTL market. &amp;ldquo;We used to compete with regional and national carriers, but once FedEx and UPS entered the LTL market, that changed,&amp;rdquo; Hammel said. &amp;ldquo;We no longer have to be as good or better than another LTL carrier, we have to be as good or better than the package carriers. That changed the game substantially.&amp;rdquo; At Milan, Kramer believes much of the new freight its alliance with New Century will generate will come from existing customers. &amp;ldquo;We have focused the entire sales effort so far on current customers,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;re looking for additional density and pickups &amp;mdash; if we can get three shipments instead of two, that&amp;rsquo;s a good thing.&amp;rdquo; It&amp;rsquo;s tough to fatten lanes when freight is thin. &amp;ldquo;Shipment sizes are smaller, freight density is lighter across the board; it&amp;rsquo;s just the economy we live in,&amp;rdquo; Kramer said. &amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;re trying to gain a little extra line of haul.&amp;rdquo;Milan, which had close to $200 million in revenue in 2008, operates in the Midwest from Ohio to Illinois and a part of Wisconsin and in the South from Mississippi to North Carolina. Its relationship with New Century began last year, when the Westampton, N.J.-based company began sending it freight. New Century typically handles heavier LTL freight outbound and backhauls truckload freight to customers in the Northeast. The company doesn&amp;rsquo;t have the cross-dock terminal network typical of LTL carriers; instead, it delivers its freight directly. Many of its shippers, however, had smaller LTL shipments headed to the South and Midwest &amp;mdash; freight New Century couldn&amp;rsquo;t handle on its own. &amp;ldquo;They were saying no to some of the smaller shipments because they didn&amp;rsquo;t have an outlet and they can&amp;rsquo;t run a traditional pedal network for deliveries with their system,&amp;rdquo; Kramer said. Milan became that outlet in the South and Midwest. &amp;ldquo;Instead of just picking up two or three larger shipments, they were picking up one or two large shipments and filling in with smaller LTL freight we would deliver for them,&amp;rdquo; Kramer said. Now Milan is returning the favor, funneling LTL freight to New Century&amp;rsquo;s main facility in Westampton, N.J., from terminals in Columbus, Ohio, and Charlotte, N.C. Inbound freight volumes from New Century have been growing consistently, Kramer said. He expects outbound volumes to rise. &amp;ldquo;Customers told us in no uncertain terms that greater opportunity exists for us if we would handle a larger geography,&amp;rdquo; he said. Contact William B. Cassidy at <a href="mailto:wcassidy@joc.com">wcassidy@joc.com</a>.</div>

The Wind Beneath Their Wheels

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">From one man and a truck to international carrier, Estes' growth spans decadesRICHMOND, VA-E</div>

From one man and a truck to international carrier, Estes' growth spans decadesRICHMOND, VA-E

<div class="phx-topic">From one man and a truck to international carrier, Estes' growth spans decadesRICHMOND, VA-Estes Express Lines commemorates its 75th Anniversary in 2006. The Richmond, VA-based carrier has grown from one man and one truck in 1931 to a full-service, coast-to-coast, North American transportation provider with over 13,000 employees and more than 27,000 tractors and trailers. To celebrate the long and varied history of Estes Express Lines, the company has developed a multimedia presentation of historical photographs on its Web site at <a href="http://www.estes-express.com">www.estes-express.com</a> , as well as a booklet highlighting the last 75 years of the company.The Estes story begins in the midst of the Great Depression. Farmers were among the hardest-hit victims, and though farming was his first love, W.W. Estes found another way to make a living in 1931-trucking. He bought a used Chevrolet truck and began hauling farm products and supplies for both farming neighbors and small businesses all over southwestern Virginia. By 1937, W.W. had built a company that was enjoying growing prosperity along with the rest of the nation.Robey W. Estes, Sr., joined his father's company in 1946 after serving in World War II. Today, Estes Express Lines is led by Robey W. Estes, Jr., W.W.'s grandson. Estes is now the largest family-owned LTL carrier in the nation, and the company has become a prominent leader in the trucking industry."It is only through the dedication and hard work of thousands of loyal Estes employees that my grandfather's dream has been sustained through so many decades of growth and change," said Robey W. Estes, Jr. "We would like to use this occasion to express our gratitude to all those who worked hard to build Estes Express Lines into what it is today."About Estes Express LinesRichmond, VA-based Estes Express Lines is a full-service transportation provider offering coast-to-coast North American coverage. Founded in 1931 by W.W. Estes, the company is still owned and operated by the Estes family. Estes now employs more than 13,000 people and boasts an inventory of more than 27,000 pieces of power equipment and trailers, as well as a network of 177 terminals serving 46 states and the Caribbean. The company has grown from a small local carrier into one of the most respected multiregional, less-than-truckload and truckload transportation systems in the country. Beyond its in-depth direct service, the company also covers major commercial markets in Mexico, as well as all of the United States and Canada, through its membership in the ExpressLINK service network.</div>

Estes Express Lines to commemorate 75th Anniversary

The Journal of Commerce’s trucking news and analysis encompasses full truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL), private fleet trucking, refrigerated trucking, regulation, drayage, and transloading. Reporting centers on pricing, volume demand, capacity, labor, regulation, and service levels in US and Canadian trucking networks.

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Trucking News | Journal of Commerce

The Journal of Commerce’s surface transport news and analysis focuses on landside transport movement — from railroad news to trucking news — including full load trucking, less-than-truckload (LTL), refrigerated (or reefer) trucking, flatbed and domestic and international intermodal rail, and how it connects with seaports, inland rail hubs, distribution centers and transloading operations. Reporting on the surface transport sector covers the movement of domestic shipments within the United States and international cargoes transported via domestic equipment including trailers and 53-foot containers.

Stay updated with our rail transport news and trends. Journal of Commerce covers intermodal news, and port connectivity news in the container rail transport sector.

Rail News | Journal of Commerce

Rail News

Explore the world of ground transport news - from trucks to railroads, intermodal connections, and port ties. Daily insights on US and global shipments.

LTL

The latest LTL News & Analysis