From the April 11, 1936 issue of Traffic World magazine came an article entitled “Proposed Rail-Truck System” Three railroads had the idea of creating a large railroad owned system of existing truck lines centering around Omaha, Nebraska and radiating from there to Denver, Kansas City, Minneapolis and Chicago. Union Transfer Company would be the first to be purchased in execution of the scheme. Union operated in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois. The railroad concerns behind the idea were Union Pacific, Burlington and Chicago & North Western. At the time the North Western was in the hands of a trustee due to bankruptcy. Even with that the trustee sought the bankruptcy court for permission to join in the plan. Apparently a study had been made of the public demand for hauling freight by truck. One line in the article said it all, “make more efficient and improve the rail line, improving the revenue earning ability of the North Western, protecting such traffic from further diversion, and regaining some traffic.” That’s all we need to know. Just months after the Motor Carrier Act of 1935 was signed into law, railroads are scared of losing business to trucking companies and were planning another way to saving their hides! 

In the same issue was news of the ICC to consider Barker Motor Freight Lines partnership to be acquired by a newly incorporated business of the same name. The move was the first step in its desire to be bought out by the Pennsylvania Railroad, who had plans of their own to acquire trucking companies all along their tracks. That wasn’t the only reason Barker wanted someone else to own them. On their books was trucks, tractors and trailers with an original cost of over $32,000. As of October 1935 the true value of all the equipment due to depreciation was only $1,300 meaning their equipment was worn out and they could not afford to replace the junk.

Another railroad was set to have a special rate for transporting Keeshin Motor Express trailers on flat cars between Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha and Kansas City. If railroads were that scared of business being taken away from them by motor carriers they had a funny way of showing it! It appeared that railroads were seeking ways to embrace trucking companies in joint ventures or outright ownership. However, when the hearings began as the Interstate Commerce Commission started handing out operating authority to truckers the railroads were there to oppose the truckers in every way.

Railroads were not the only entity against motor carriers. Dr. Harry J McGregor, chairman of the Montana State Highway commission in 1935 said “ The highways were not intended to be railroads and the increasing use of them as roads for heavy freight was placing a heavy burden on the state, in both repair of roads and the lack of paying gasoline tax since most trucks crossing the state were carrying their own fuel.” 

Let’s take a moment to reflect on the state of transportation in the 1930s. An editorial from the publishers of Traffic World magazine provided a clear picture of things in their March 28, 1936 issue. “the railroads had a monopoly on inland transportation in this country…they made money but so arrogant did they become and so many were the financial scandals that the government set up to bail them out.”

Through the decades of early railways quite a few have been bankrupt and been in the control of receivership. Some lines have done it more than once. The major bankruptcy of the Penn Central Railroad resulted in the government creating ConRail and funding it until CSX and Norfolk Southern picking the routes beneficial to their interests. When has the government stepped in to prevent a trucking company bankruptcy from eliminating jobs and keeping a motor carrier alive? 

Did the government help  Associated Transport   In the early 1970s? Did the government prevent  Transcon Lines from being scooped up for a dollar only to see the assets pillaged to nothing? Where was the outrage that Consolidated Freightways abruptly shut down some years ago?

The Motor Carrier Act of 1980 was supposed to make it easier to enter the trucking industry by eliminating the need to prove public convenience and necessity. How many of those “easier entry” carriers have survived? MS Carriers is gone, so is Celadon. The only thing that the terrible 1980 legislation has done is make a handful of LTL carriers “too big to fail”. In my opinion within a few years there will be only four remaining, just like the railroad industry. CSX, Norfolk Southern, BNSF and Union Pacific will handle all the rail traffic, as the generally do now. On the LTL side of trucking it will be Old Dominion, Saia, Estes and XPO.