History of Pilot Freight Carriers, Inc.

EdCraddock

3820F046-C431-4081-A85F-7A02219AA2D6Six days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, RY Sharpe purchased a small trucking company called Pennie Transportation that was going under. Mr Sharpe was no stranger to the trucking industry as he had been leasing his now fourteen truck fleet to Roadway Express. He renamed the business he just bought Pilot Freight Carriers and what began in 1941 was the start of what would later be one of the top 37 trucking companies in the nation.

Pilot began hauling general commodities between Winston-Salem, North Carolina and New York, New York. On December 22, 1943 the ICC approved the purchase by Pilot of certain operating rights and property of Joseph Meltzer Transfer & Express, Inc. ( from ICC Reports, Volume 38 page 803). R Y Sharpe had a brother with another Winston-Salem based carrier named Mitchell Motor Lines that in October  1946 merged with Pilot. By this time Pilot had terminals in   Winston-Salem, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City and Paterson, New Jersey. Mitchell contributed terminals in Charlotte, NC, Spartanburg and Batesburg, SC and Atlanta, Ga. By 1950 additional terminals were added in Greenville, SC and Hoboken, NJ. Growth in business meant expansion in the state of New York and by early 1953 there were six terminals in the state since about 20% of its yearly $6 million in revenues came from New York.

In 1957 Pilot bought 13 acres of land on Moonachie Avenue in Carlstadt, New Jersey. A 46 door terminal was built to combine facilities in Paterson, Hoboken and New Brunswick. The new location was Pilot’s largest terminal in the Northeast.

Aerial view of the present day building in Carlstadt, New Jersey where Pilot Freight Carriers once had their largest terminal in the Northeast
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Map of Pilot routes before the Arlington Transportation acquisition.

During the decade of the 1960’s Pilot Freight Carriers grew by making more acquisitions and building terminals. In 1959 the ICC granted temporary management control of Arlington Transportation, Inc. a New England based carrier with terminals in Cranston, Rhode Island, New York, NY, Boston, Mass and New Haven, Connecticut. Here is a list of points served by Arlington Transportation that was added to Pilot Freight Carriers territory: Connecticutt: Arlington, Branford, Bridgeport, Center Groton, Clinton, Coscob, Darien, Devon, East Haven, East Lynne, East River, Fairfield, Flanders Village, Greenwich, Guilford, Madison, Milford, New Haven, New London, Norton, Norwalk, Old Mystic, Old Saybrook, Stamford, Stratford, Westbrook, and Westport. Rhode Island- Abbotts Run, Albion, Anthony, Apponaig, Arkwright, Arnolds Mills, Ashton, Auburn, Barrington, Berkeley, Bridgton, Bristo;, Buttonwoods, Centerdale, Center Falls, Chepachnet, Clayville, Clyde, Conimicut, Coventry, Cowesett, Cranston, Crompton, Cumberland Hill, Daulsville, Diamond Hill, East Greenwich, East Providence, Esmond, Fiskeville, Forestdale, Foster, Georgiaville, Gendale, Grants Mills, Greenville, Greenwood, Greystone, Harmony, Harris, Harrisville, Hillsgrave, Hope, Hope Vally, Hopkinton, Hughesdale, Lakewood, Lincoln Park, Lunsdale, Lymansville, Manton, Mapleville, Mohegan, Mount Hope Point, Nasonville, , Natick, Nayaytt, Nousemeck

Another carrier taken over was Bison Fast Freight, with authority between Akron, Ohio and points in North and South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. In the early 1960’s the largest terminal in the Pilot System was built in Kernersville, North Carolina, a small city near Winston-Salem that also had a huge breakbulk terminal for Roadway Express next door to the massive Pilot facility.

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Aerial View of the terminal that Pilot Freight Carriers built in Kernersville, NC between Winston-Salem and Greensboro.

In February 1983 Pilot acquired Schuster Express inc of Colchester, Connecticut. After Schuster lost $1 million the year before they were faced with sharply higher federal taxes resulting in the need to sell out. With the combined company, Pilot would now have 82 terminals.

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After 1970 Pilot was granted authority to serve all points in Florida east and south of Tallahassee. Note the color scheme on trucks have changed from red to white.

Heavy losses, increased competition from new lower cost carriers and the recession caused Pilot to be acquired in the early 1980’s to TNT, an Australian Shipping Company. By September 1987 heavy spending made TNT Pilot the biggest money loser on TNT’s list of 33 US holdings. But the spending thoroughly modernized the carrier after what some called years of neglect under previous ownership. TNT sold a controlling interest in Pilot to Taggart Group.

In December 1988 US Truck Lines bought Pilot and within months closed terminals, laid off employees and began selling assets. At one time the major terminal in Kernersville, NC had 550 employees and by March 1989 only 83 remained. Shortly after that, Pilot Freight Carriers shut down and ceased to exist.

18 thoughts on “History of Pilot Freight Carriers, Inc.”

  1. Looking for Pilot Freight Carriers belt buckle. I will pay your price. Randy Thomas 704-296-0113. P.s. I prefer one from late 60s to 1970 please. Two would be better. Leave message …call 24/7

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    1. I have a brass TNT pilot SAFETY award buckle if you are interested. I also have a PILOT Lapel pin. Call Gary at 770-595-3891

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  2. I broke in to trucking with Pilot in Rochester, NY. After weeks of learning to drive semis, I took my road test, driving a Diamond T 931c sleeper. Passed the test for one reason that was the the test examiner told me he’d never been in a COE sleeper. Piece of cake, and lucky enough to use the Cadillac of road tractors for the test, with lots of hours using that equipment for local deliveries.
    Give an arm to have one of those fine tractors.

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    1. What a memory. I stopped by this fine site and saw my comment from nearly two years ago! I had completely forgotten it, which is no surprise these days. I retired from CF twenty years ago, still working in Rochester. I still miss driving, but the labor needed for the job is probably against me. Besides, driving Freightliners can’t compare to Diamond T 931Cs.
      Rick

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    2. My dad “Candyman” worked for them out of Camp Hill, PA. Leo was his name. Anyone remeber him? He passed several years ago.

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  4. Hello,
    My dad worked for Pilot Freight Carriers, I was wondering if anyone had any copies of the “Pilot Wheel” magazine.
    I would like to get a copy of one made. I would gladly pay for it or maybe it could be just scanned on-line. Also there was an article about “FAW Brothers” my daddy, Uncle Charles, and Uncle Rudd all driving for Pilot. I appreciate any help. Thank you! Kimberely_Faw@msn.com

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  5. One small correction. It wasn’t due to economic difficulties that Sharpe sold Pilot to TNT. It was because neither of his children were interested/capable of taking over control of the operation. He sold to give them a nest egg.

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  6. Worked with Pilot Freight Carriers from 1964 to 1989 with TNT and US Truck Lines taking the company to the cleaners. Tax breaks and sell offs . Went from Diamond T to Ford truck’s during those years. Pilot was a good company to work for. A year or so before Mr Sharpe sold his company he came to the Durham Terminal for a cake cutting and silver tray presented to Mr Cheatem Lee on his retirement. After the presation we asked him how much longer he planned on running the company since he was getting up in years. Without missing a beat he said that he was thinking about selling because he had Daughters and Son In Laws and none of them had enough scenes to run the company. He told us not to worry about our job that he would sell to someone in the freight business that would be a secure company. He did the best he could for his employees by selling to Transportation Company TNT.
    A large leader in the freight business. Tax breaks and moving Pilots business to it’s non union companies, just my thoughts, wasn’t what Mr Sharpe had in his plans for sure. I knew when TNT sold Pilot Freight and some Dude came to the Durham Terminal and said his name was Big Al Facillo from New Jersey the new owner of Pilot Freight, that we were history. I guess money can be made running trucking companies out of business. It started with Associated Trucking Company. I was told by many of Associated Truck Drivers that five men borrowed enough money to get control of the company. They let the company go broke and filed bankruptcy. Wonder how much money they put in their pockets during that time and let the bank sell off Associated to get their money back, plus.

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    1. Broke in at Pilots dock on Buell Rd. In Rochester, NY. A great bunch of guys to show me the ropes, but unfortunately a fair number are gone. Practiced backing to the docks using a road unit which turned out to be a Diamond T 931C which I used in my road NYS road test. The test examiner was crazy because he’d never been in a sleeper. (I passed!)A beautiful piece of road equipment, powered with Cummins V8. Moved on to CF, peddling freight with a Freightliner. Retired in ‘99, about three years before bad management shut the doors.

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  7. My Father, J R McLeroy Managed the Terminal in Clearwater, SC in the late 1950;s.
    I worked on the dock loading and unloading trailers while I was in high school in 1956-1958. My dad was well known within the Pilot system and was friends with Mr. R Y Sharpe. My dad gave Warren Taylor his start with the Co. Mr Taylor was promoted to the Corporate Office prior to my dad retiring. I’m 83 years old now but I fondly remember the days of Pilot.

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