I have a good friend who started with Roadway in 1966. I'm a Gen-Xer, and got my CDL in 2000. He's been decent enough to share the rich history of trucking THEN with me, and never held me in any kind of contempt as a steering wheel holder. He's a superb ho scale model builder, and I have many of his creations. I've been lucky enough to have a few guys like him from that era as friends.
Every American should watch this! Why? Because without companies like you we would not eat, or anything else for that matter. For my part a big Thank You.
I was at BIG R 27 years retired in 2000 and there isn't a doubt in my mind that BIG R was the best freight company to work for. Do your job, get paid well and no bull shit from the company. I worked out of 430 White Pine Tennessee.
My father retired from Roadway Express and collected Roadway Minatures from toy firm by the name PIE. I still have his collection and willing to part with some of the trucks, including the famous "Circus" trailer used during one of the anniersaries.
Good history lesson. Retired 30 years service in 2000 from Columbus, Ohio. . Best decision I could have made in 1970 to drive for Roadway. Lots of good memories. Drivers worked together with the company and dressed professional furnished by the company if you drove safely. When drivers had a problem with dispatchers or company personnel and Galen Roush showed up , heads would turn. He took care of the problem. Thanks for the video.
I worked for Trans Con , Consolidated Freightways ( CF ) Northwest NW, but I remember they last of the Teamsters Golden years, when you would see all or close to it of Union carriers on the road. System 99, Willig, Transcon. PIE, Milne Truck Lines, only ABF Arkansas Best Freight is the last of the Mohicans.
Walt Stovall yes they may of been the slowest trucks on the road but the drivers had more fun than most of the other truckers and had plenty of time to sweet talk the ladies in the truck stops
Walt Stovall Not always... Back in the day RoadWay trucks would pass a Greyhound bus I know some folks don't remember it. But the old man said if they pass is on the road today they will have our freight tomorrow... and RoadWay trucks ran. They only got slow when when the old man died and the price of fuel went up..
I was employed in Operations as a Roadway Express Dock Supervisor and Truck Dispatcher at one of their small trucking terminals during the early 1970’s, which I was successful at and enjoyed working there. My goal was to start in this employment operations position to learn the trucking industry, Roadway procedures, and prove myself, and seek a sales position with them, as my career calling. While I was in their Operations Supervisor Position, I had great Terminal Manager, a team of Teamster dock workers and drivers that worked on my crew, that I was responsible for. They are a greatly respected Company, a Trucking Industry Leader, and successful innovator. I learned a lot while I worked there, including their Rexan System, as a young man. I kept trying to pursue obtaining a sales position with Roadway, as I thought that was my career calling, but was refused by the Company. Subsequently, I resigned from them to start as a Sales Representative for a large Chemical Company instead, which I succeeded with. If Roadway had offered me a sales position, I would have been a Roadway Employee lifer with them. Thank you Roadway Express for the opportunity to allow me to work for your fine Company in those yesteryears of my early working life.
My father in law drove for Eastern Freightways out of Uniontown Pennsylvania. He started driving a new Brockway with factory sleeper and a new Fruehauf stainless steel trailer. We still have his picture hanging up in our home.
I viewed this about 2-3 years ago and will probably enjoy watching it again in another 3 years if fortunate to still be here. History is all over these old films, beginning to end. It's great that technology has enabled such access to so much, as well as film restoration capabilities. Only, it's a bummer sometimes, to come to the realization of how old I'm getting when I see the 'old videos' have things shown in them that were brand new to me at one time.
I worked for Roadway for a short time. It was a good experience. At the time I was also working for another Teamster organized company which hired me on regular before Roadway could.
I ran the road for Yellow Freight for fifteen years and when they bought Roadway I got laid off the day before Christmas Eve so when I turned 65 I grabbed my pension and my SS. Best job I ever had
I got laid off a couple of times. When the companies integrated operations, I went from 14 back down to 33. When I reached 63 1/2 I retired. I think I'd climbed back up to 19.
so what yr,. did yellow buy roadway.....? & for how much then...... is yellow still around on the rds,. as of 1/2019..... any one know.......???? & how's yellow doing still or did they buy any more trucking company's or did they get bought out yet.... if yes to whom... & what yr,. ... & how much .....??
Jimmy B, thanks for this great video. It brought back some fun memories. My first 8 years were with Roadway. That experience propelled me through the next 32 years. Still standing.
I worked for Roadway R72 / 242 in Columbus Ohio from 4/29/92 to 1/13/99 I miss the people I worked with. Great people. The bosses on the other hand I do not miss. They were on you all the time. It was just too much stress all the time. I think when you work at a company everybody knows who the bosses are but when you work at a company and they’re always showing you who the bosses are. It makes for a hard place to work.
Very interesting and informative. I was raised in a small Arizona Town and we had one local driver and a medium size truck in town and I would see him every day on his deliveries and he knew everyone in town and drank coffee with us when he could. Good show~!!!
And Yes Yellow Freight System is one of the biggest and best companies to work for and with I drove for Yellow for over 28 years and retired December 31,2004 and I sure miss working with some of the best Truckers in the nation
Ahhhhhh Roadway. My earliest memories of Roadway are riding with my dad in the 70s and 80s. He was an owner operator leased to a local company as I am today. Back then, if memory serves, they were running C series Ford tractors and the saying was "Roadway, always on the road and always in the way". Roadway lives on today as part of YRC Companies. Personally, I could NEVER do LTL like those guys do!
My Dad drove for Roadway back in the early 1950s. Switched to Yellow in the early 1960s and also drove for Swift.. Dad always said you needed a sixth sense in order to drive a truck. Always had to "know" what the other (dummies) people were thinking and what they might do next. He taught me well. Started driving in 1974 and retired in 2014 with a accident free record.
Sounds like your dad was a smart man. I’ve trucked all my life and that’s been my philosophy. If you plan for dummies, then you’re way ahead of the game. Matter of fact, when my daughters started driving, that’s a lesson I always preached to them in their cars, always expect someone to do something stupid.
Worked in a Roadway garage in 1989. While there, found that the owner at the largest privately owned freight carrier in the world was a former Roadway driver; R.Y. Sharpe, Pilot Freight.
My father drove for Pilot Freight Carriers in the 1950's. He ran out of the terminal in Winston-Salem, NC. They had a huge terminal just outside of Winston in Kernersville, NC. It is still there. Roadway had a huge terminal next door. NC was the trucking capital of the USA due to it's central location on the east coast. Associated Transport, which became the largest trucking company of all was based in Burlington, NC. McLean Transport was huge also and they were based out of Winston-Salem also. They were all union jobs. They all started folding beginning in the 1960's and 70's.
In my wearhouse, receivers moan at the morning meeting when assignments are given out and they get a Roadway to unload...the pallets are almost always damaged as with alot of the product. The Vans are filty and show adnormal wear and tear. As I drive down the highway and see a Roadway truck, nine out of ten times that truck looks like it is not maintained with any care or pride whatsoever! In ending, Roadway might have been a giant in the industry back in the day...but is only a sad represented remonance of the past today. Great video all the same! Really shows the growth and transition of the industry!
6 years ago Roadway didn't exist, it had been bought out by Yellow Freight. Now if it was one of THEIR trucks you meant, I can see the point. Yellow Freight wrecked everything it ever touched until it ate its own economic gun.
Over the past 25 years I've heard a lot of stories about them. Drivers never had a day off because they were always on call so they couldn't go far from home. Back in the 60s my uncle worked at a furniture place and Jackie Gleason order a special table from PA, it was shipped by big R to CA but they lost it or broke it and they had make another one. I think the most famous blunder they made was when they lost the Oscar trophies..
Thank God for yellow freight buying out roadway or they with be out of business the worst thing yellow freight did they should let roadway go out of business
Galen Roush bought a mower from my dad in the 1940's for his home in Peninsula, Ohio. I made at least one service call to his residence and met Galen. His house was anything but special. His wife came into our shop in Cuyahoga Falls on occasion to buy parts so Galen could fix his mower. My guess is and I've heard it from numerous others that Galen, although a multi-millionaire was very cheap.A guy that ran probably the only gas station in Peninsula at the time told me about Galen coming in to buy gas and wanting to trade the Goodyear Double Eagle tires that were on his new Lincoln automobile on recapped tires and cash back. We both laughed about that.
I wonder if that was a second home for Mr.&Mrs. Roush in the 1940!s In Peninsula. I know by the early 60’s they lived on Major Rd. in an old farmhouse and there was a barn on their property. I’m pretty sure at least some of their children went to Buchtel High School in the 1950’s when the Roush family lived in west Akron, on Storer Ave. I believe.
When I started driving in 1980 roadway was simply known as big R. There was other successful ltl trucking companies then but roadway was king. All those other companies have either gone out of business or been absorbed into other companies. I’m still driving but it’s been a long, long time since I’ve heard anyone call out for Big R on the two-way.
I bet no one at Roadway remembers John McCall... He was a strong reason in getting Roadway into the textile mills in the South...he retired as a salesman at Roadway...
I liked hearing about the history...I like that 2 brothers got it started and continued, even though they had a different way of operating the company. I think that deregulation was meant to help the trucking industry, but it backfired! It hasn’t been the same since! Thanks for sharing! 🥰
Similar things happened with airline deregulation. The excitement and romance of air travel quickly disappeared when so many of the start-up carriers began packing people into those aluminum tubes like the New York subway at rush hour.
@@douglasjackson5007 🇺🇸 Yeah, I can imagine that. I was able to ride the Ford Tri motor…what a thrill to look at & ride! I appreciate the companies that have stuck with it all these years. 🥰❄️✌️
My father retired in 77 from Cincinnati. I can remember when he drove sleeper teams, I was surprised they made no mention of the sleeper teams they used to keep the Freight moving.
I live by the Chicago heights terminal and have seen a lot of different Roadway power. The Detroit powered tractors bring back loud memories. US RT 30 through my small state line town was narrow and busy always lots of Roadway doubles
At around 14:15 the narrator describes the company using an IBM 7070 mainframe in 1962 in their new office. What's pictured however is an RCA Spectra 70 which wasn't available until 1965.
Hello very interesting video of roadway express lot of history about roadway express over 75 years of real service to customer's one real trucking company still in business as of the year 2022👍
I remember the Ford C Cabs one used to pass by the house 3 days a week to drop off paper stock to a dairy down the street from my parents home when I was kid in the 1980's
Worked on a Roadway Louisville with Hendrickson suspension and tag axle back late 70s. No traction in weather. Liked low mud flap between axles to cut down on flats.
I hear ya. In 2018 I went to work for USF Holland.... not knowing they'd been bought by yrc. Before I knew that, I thought that I would finally become a Union driver, just like Dad. It didn't take long to find out otherwise. Turned out the Union was so weak nothing got done. They cheated us out of part of our pay every week, and since you only got a day off each week on the open board, you either wasted several hours with your Union steward filing grievances, or you ate loss. Equipment was so lousy you felt like you were taking your life into your hands just driving it. 2019 was the first time I had trouble during the D.O.T safety blitz, thanks to the sorry excuse for shop mechanics. Once, I had all the bolts come loose on my grill until it was hanging by one, luckily just shy of the Toledo terminal. I wrote it up, and that night, they put it on the ready line with two sets of bolts, nuts and washers so undersized that they just set loose in there. When I breached the mechanic about it he told me that dispatch didn't approve the repairs necessary. A few bolts, nuts and washers that fit?! But they could approve what didn't work? Then the mechanic gave me a regular laundry list of things that those trucks rolled out the gate with each night. It wasn't long after that that I quit. They had told me that I "just had to wrap my head around the mentality of the way yrc ran Holland". Sorry, but I had no desire to get myself or someone else killed because these clowns wouldn't maintain the equipment.
My freinds dad who was like a dad to me drove for roadway for over 40 years had diamond ring for no accidents and 3 didgit id number great guy was proud as fuck of his ring wish his kids missed him as much as me
Every so often I still see one of those 1950s era Roadway trailers being hauled on the road. No idea if it has a load in it or why it's on the road, but it's very interesting to see such an old trailer rolling down the road.
Puros recuerdos me recuerda mi compa el jeff teylor travajava en fremont. Corriamos juntos sejido para yucaya ca y mas pueblitos del norte de california 👍🙏
The video mentioned the primitive roads of the 1920's, but made no mention of the Interstate Highway System started in the 1950's. The government designed and financed interstates were the greatest thing that ever happened to the long haul trucking business, and therefore almost every business in the country as well. Of course, after a while it was decided by many that government was the problem and our infrastructure was allowed to age and crumble. So sad.
RPS, Roadway Package System became FDX or FedEX Ground in 1998. I joined then and retired in 2008. They were very very good to me. More money in this than robbing banks.
I worked for Roadway the last 5 years of my career, retiring in 2007. Worked for most all the LTL lines of the day during my 30 years. I hate to say it but Roadway was definitely the worst company that I ever worked for. Management was trained to be assholes and became very proficient at it. They couldn’t care less if you were a go getter or a deadbeat and constantly instigated discontent among employees. I was there when Yellow bought them out and thinned out the dead weight in management, especially at the end of the line terminals. Appreciated having the job, it’s just that they didn’t appreciate the job that most of their employees did. That’s my experience with Roadway coming off of working for Consolidated Freightways for 13 years until their closing in 2002.
I ran all "Lower 48 States" for Global Van Lines in 1979 & 1980 and routinely stopped at truck stops along the way. There was nothing quite like waking up early in the morning when some guy with an air-starter would light that sucker off in the next parking space. Nobody needed an alarm clock if one of those was nearby. That was no place for a driver with a heart condition!!!! The coffee in the restaurant was for steadying your nerves, you didn't need any help waking up. ;^)
I fell in love with air starters back in the early 90's. I was roughly 5 yrs old when I first seen "Maximum Overdrive". Alot of Brockways & Autocars, lol. Little did I know International Transtar II, Mack Ultraliners, & RS-600/700 Macks were already going the way of the dinosaurs.
I was a mechanic at roadway. I never once seen one of those air starters fail. And if it ran out of air you could hook a gland hand from another tractor to it and refill the tank. only required one battery to operate the rig. We re powered many of the old WCL tractors with series 60 engines. This truck line was very well ran, it really surprises me they were absorbed. Now the freight companies invest in equipment instead of people.
LOL. My first experience with air starters was driving for Schwerman hauling bulk cement when they were building I - 69 near the Indiana Toll Road . Hit it when someone was right in front of your truck. I scared more than one person. Guaranteed to wake up sleepy people.
I worked for Roadway Express at the Fort Collins, Co. terminal 893. It was a sad day when they sold out to Yellow. Yellow quit the Teamsters Pension Plan and I lost out of being able to take a full early retirement ( eighty and out) by 2 years.
I remember running across Pennsylvania on I 80 in the late 70s when Roadway had those long nose Whites… they would fly down snowshoe Mountain like it wasn’t there… I think they didn’t have front brakes on the front axle no trolley break in the cab and only a single seat… they had air starters and the battery was in the cab…. i’m going to say they didn’t have power steering also but I’ll be huge steering wheel I sat in one one time up in Maine in a garage… It was like a stripped down hot rod!!!!
I worked for YRC the pay and benefits where great and the guys on the day shift where great however I was an apprentice mechanic and I had only one co worker on my shift and that was a drunk 🥴 who did not want me there and the afternoon shift made me feel the same I quite it was hard for me to give up a good paying job like that but not being wanted and no it’s one to train me I was forced out I wish I could have made it a career
I was making $17 change back in 92' in the union, when I retired in 2015 I was only making $21, non union.. & we had a decent pay rate compared to HUNT & other like them, at least we got paid for all time at a stop, no wait time. Always had new trucks, always clean & maintained. Hauling groceries to stores.
@@neilpuckett359 That's the mistake I made going in. I got my CDL in 2000, and was told by my instructor in school that I would be looking at a job that largely resembled what used to be there. I found out on my own years later that the reason I couldn't find a decent company or decent wages was because of Deregulation. For years I was like a blind man groping around in the dark.
Just think what the industry would be like today if you could bring them drivers and employees into the current time with their work ethic and access to the advanced technology I bet things would be a lot better than they are now...
We would need Big R to be owned by the employee's instead of the jackasses that were supervision after the Rouches passed the company along to Yellow. After that Big R got taken down by Yellow. I've been retired since 2001 and am totally disabled so no way I can go back to work and facing the prospect of losing my paltry pension in a few years. Yellow stole pension funds that should have been paid to the retiree's and future retiree's by begging the union to let them stop paying into the fund plan's. Guys I've been able to talk with who were still working said things got worse after Yellow took over. And deregulation was only the start of the down fall of Roadway and all the other, now deceased union companies. So not only did the government screw the pooch, so did the union and YRC. And now the Mexican and more so the non-union Canadian companies take over trucking with NAFTA. At least with the union's, drivers had a better income and benefits, although I have to say some union's like the AFL-CIO went overboard in hourly pay. People working on auto lines are getting way too much per hour for what they do. But that's another story...
They wouldn't stick around very long. They'd find better pay, benefits, and working conditions somewhere else. I was a long-haul tanker-yanker and virtually lived in my tractor. Remember seeing a lot of good deals on the bulletin boards in the company's O.C.s on recreational toys bought by drivers who never got the time off to use them!
Dont see them any longer but in the past there was motor courts called Roadway Inns. Usually they had lounges and some instances, resturants. Wonder if the two were connected in someway?
2 completely different companies. Spelled Rodeway Inn and Roadway Express. I worked for the latter. Women in the office would tell me about people calling to make reservations for a room. Lol
I've been driving 36 years last twenty in the teamsters.the equipment has come along way since I started.the biggest trailer we had at the time was a 45'
Big R diesel car. Single stack mack with a window in the back. Every truck the driver would claim on the radio had 44,000 (on the front passenger seat). My Uncle Gene worked Chicago Heights dispatch as a coordinator 15 years. Then went to Barstow working for Yellow Freight. Norm Mayor, a well known driver for both companies. Both good guys, gone now, would do anything for anyone.
What , you don't believe we were hauling 44 ? Just ask us , we'd tell you the " truth " . There used to be a song that went like this," Listen to the rattle the rumble and the roar as I drive my Big R diesel car down the road to Baltimore. With my arm hung out the window and my peddle to the floor , if you ask me how much I'm hauling , I'll tell you 44 " . I learned that song before I drove for Big R . It must have been back in the 1970's.
Larry Be I'd think the Interstate highway would make trucking more efficient. I recall when I was a little kid living in Mount Carroll, Illinois they built a new highway Route 52 that bypassed the town and trucks didn't have to go on narrow streets or difficult corners to get through town. They could bypass Mount Carroll altogether. That should have made the trucking companies more efficient. No doubt that there were other places that had the same deal with the new roads. Sadly some places died when the New roads were built, Mount Carroll was one of them
Glenn Lego You are most correct about modern roads impacting rural communities. The diners that used to serve truckers lost that traffic but travelers could bypass the congestion of towns as well getting to their destinations no longer seeing retail stores either. Locally, bypasses occur today that hurt local economy just to bow to the needs of commuters and retail needs that mainstreet can no longer change to accommodate (shopping centers and big name retailers).
I liked the video but there was some 'spin doctoring done in the section about the Roadway-Yellow merger. I remember stock values tanking and Teamsters took multiple wage and retirement pay cuts and management, who's benefits were in the form of company stocks, took a beating too. I didn't know of anyone who was happy with the merger. Maybe the top echelon of management.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
My grandfather drove for Roadway when he came home from WWII. He was a proud man and spoke highly of Roadway and its practices. Great video
An I so did they was great until yellow so sorry for all
I have a good friend who started with Roadway in 1966. I'm a Gen-Xer, and got my CDL in 2000. He's been decent enough to share the rich history of trucking THEN with me, and never held me in any kind of contempt as a steering wheel holder. He's a superb ho scale model builder, and I have many of his creations. I've been lucky enough to have a few guys like him from that era as friends.
XER CDL? Greek! ?
@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe Trust me, it's Greek to me, too.
Always on the road and always in the way,as we used to say
Every American should watch this! Why? Because without companies like you we would not eat, or anything else for that matter. For my part a big Thank You.
True, as a driver all new drivers should watch this to know the history of how it used to be
My dad drove for roadway in the 40s we lived in Conneaut Ohio
I was at BIG R 27 years retired in 2000 and there isn't a doubt in my mind that BIG R was the best freight company to work for. Do your job, get paid well and no bull shit from the company. I worked out of 430 White Pine Tennessee.
Hello!
I remember a roadway driver getting killed in the snowstorm he was out of white pine I think it was 79 or 80
My father retired from Roadway Express and collected Roadway Minatures from toy firm by the name PIE. I still have his collection and willing to part with some of the trucks, including the famous "Circus" trailer used during one of the anniersaries.
It's absolutely INSANE to see how far trucking has come!
@@thehunterstruck Or rather, how low it's gotten. I was born too late.
Good history lesson. Retired 30 years service in 2000 from Columbus, Ohio. . Best decision I could have made in 1970 to drive for Roadway. Lots of good memories. Drivers worked together with the company and dressed professional furnished by the company if you drove safely. When drivers had a problem with dispatchers or company personnel and Galen Roush showed up , heads would turn. He took care of the problem. Thanks for the video.
Your welcome.
They were good jobs back then , We had 25 union cos on a 6 mile stretch of rte 1 in Ct back then. There weren't many long haul co's like today .
Hi
@ Paul Mick Reed : Did you know an ole ratchet jaw highway hero out of Morrow county by the name of Fisher?
I worked for Trans Con , Consolidated Freightways ( CF ) Northwest NW, but I remember they last of the Teamsters Golden years, when you would see all or close to it of Union carriers on the road. System 99, Willig, Transcon. PIE, Milne Truck Lines, only ABF Arkansas Best Freight is the last of the Mohicans.
They are definitely Last of the Mohicans. Yellow took all others to the grave with them
Spared at Roadway in the early '80s. greater Boston. Show up, work get paid! Great people to work with.
Always on the road, Always in the way, Roadway.
Walt Stovall yes they may of been the slowest trucks on the road but the drivers had more fun than most of the other truckers and had plenty of time to sweet talk the ladies in the truck stops
That’s what I’ve always said lol
Stfu
Walt Stovall
Not always...
Back in the day RoadWay trucks would pass a Greyhound bus I know some folks don't remember it.
But the old man said if they pass is on the road today they will have our freight tomorrow... and RoadWay trucks ran. They only got slow when when the old man died and the price of fuel went up..
The only difference between Roadway and Schneider is blue fenders .
Drove for Roadway for 18 yrs In SLC.
The first five minutes of truck photos is amazing. Its a darn shame there aren't many of those old truck still around.
I was employed in Operations
as a Roadway Express
Dock Supervisor and Truck Dispatcher
at one of their small trucking terminals
during the early 1970’s, which I
was successful at and enjoyed working there.
My goal was to start in this
employment operations position
to learn the trucking industry,
Roadway procedures,
and prove myself, and seek
a sales position with them,
as my career calling.
While I was in their Operations
Supervisor Position,
I had great Terminal Manager,
a team of Teamster
dock workers and drivers
that worked on my crew,
that I was responsible for.
They are a greatly respected Company,
a Trucking Industry Leader,
and successful innovator.
I learned a lot while I worked there,
including their Rexan System,
as a young man.
I kept trying to pursue obtaining
a sales position with Roadway,
as I thought that was my career calling,
but was refused by the Company.
Subsequently, I resigned from them
to start as a Sales Representative
for a large Chemical Company instead,
which I succeeded with.
If Roadway had offered me
a sales position, I would have been
a Roadway Employee lifer with them.
Thank you Roadway Express
for the opportunity to allow me
to work for your fine Company
in those yesteryears
of my early working life.
My father in law drove for Eastern Freightways out of Uniontown Pennsylvania. He started driving a new Brockway with factory sleeper and a new Fruehauf stainless steel trailer. We still have his picture hanging up in our home.
Big thanks to all you truckers out there!
Good stuff...trucks bring it!
Eastbound and Down! 😊
i'm a former over the road truck driver, this is a great video. Roadway contributed a lot to the industry, very educational.
Hello
I viewed this about 2-3 years ago and will probably enjoy watching it again in another 3 years if fortunate to still be here. History is all over these old films, beginning to end. It's great that technology has enabled such access to so much, as well as film restoration capabilities. Only, it's a bummer sometimes, to come to the realization of how old I'm getting when I see the 'old videos' have things shown in them that were brand new to me at one time.
I agree. At least we have good memories of times when we worked harder but had more fun.
I worked for Roadway for a short time. It was a good experience. At the time I was also working for another Teamster organized company which hired me on regular before Roadway could.
I worked for RDWY years ago, over 600 terminals at it's peak.
Hello Peiper!
If wasn't for truckers this country will go down. Keep your thumbs up! RETIRED
those R model Macks with the twin stacks and window in the back were Detroit 8v71 powered
I ran the road for Yellow Freight for fifteen years and when they bought Roadway I got laid off the day before Christmas Eve so when I turned 65 I grabbed my pension and my SS. Best job I ever had
I got laid off a couple of times. When the companies integrated operations, I went from 14 back down to 33. When I reached 63 1/2 I retired. I think I'd climbed back up to 19.
so what yr,. did yellow buy roadway.....? & for how much then...... is yellow still around on the rds,. as of 1/2019..... any one know.......???? & how's yellow doing still or did they buy any more trucking company's or did they get bought out yet.... if yes to whom... & what yr,. ... & how much .....??
@@jamieround2072 try a search.
They didnt buy Roadway they Merged that is why ist where Dove Tailed rather then placing Roadway at bottom as that is what Contract Callled for,
@@brucewelty7684 Hello any answers yet?
Jimmy B, thanks for this great video. It brought back some fun memories. My first 8 years were with Roadway. That experience propelled me through the next 32 years. Still standing.
Hello!
I worked for Roadway R72 / 242 in Columbus Ohio from 4/29/92 to 1/13/99
I miss the people I worked with. Great people. The bosses on the other hand I do not miss. They were on you all the time. It was just too much stress all the time. I think when you work at a company everybody knows who the bosses are but when you work at a company and they’re always showing you who the bosses are. It makes for a hard place to work.
Charles Lacy how are you doing today with the nature?
Very interesting and informative. I was raised in a small Arizona Town and we had one local driver and a medium size truck in town and I would see him every day on his deliveries and he knew everyone in town and drank coffee with us when he could. Good show~!!!
This was a blast. my father worked for PIE in the 60s-80s in oakland.
I worked for Roadway in Oakland, Ca. I started on the docks, then began driving LTL
My late uncle worked in the trucking business. As long as I can remember he did a good living doing it. Most of his business was in the Carolinas.
And Yes Yellow Freight System is one of the biggest and best companies to work for and with I drove for Yellow for over 28 years and retired December 31,2004 and I sure miss working with some of the best Truckers in the nation
@Hello Lee Barnes how are you doing
@@jennifercapps105 I’m doing okay here just north of Nashville Tn how about yourself? My email address is redtexan49@gmail.com
Write me
Hello lee Barned
This aged like milk.
Ahhhhhh Roadway. My earliest memories of Roadway are riding with my dad in the 70s and 80s. He was an owner operator leased to a local company as I am today. Back then, if memory serves, they were running C series Ford tractors and the saying was "Roadway, always on the road and always in the way". Roadway lives on today as part of YRC Companies. Personally, I could NEVER do LTL like those guys do!
Hello Mike!
My Dad drove for Roadway back in the early 1950s. Switched to Yellow in the early 1960s and also drove for Swift.. Dad always said you needed a sixth sense in order to drive a truck. Always had to "know" what the other (dummies) people were thinking and what they might do next. He taught me well. Started driving in 1974 and retired in 2014 with a accident free record.
The other "Dummies" must have been Swift drivers.
@@michaelmacluskie6089 lol funny
BOB PEG Swift = Sure Wish I Finished Training.
Sounds like your dad was a smart man. I’ve trucked all my life and that’s been my philosophy. If you plan for dummies, then you’re way ahead of the game.
Matter of fact, when my daughters started driving, that’s a lesson I always preached to them in their cars, always expect someone to do something stupid.
BOB PEG Liar! 😏
Worked in a Roadway garage in 1989. While there, found that the owner at the largest privately owned freight carrier in the world was a former Roadway driver; R.Y. Sharpe, Pilot Freight.
Hello there?
My father drove for Pilot Freight Carriers in the 1950's. He ran out of the terminal in Winston-Salem, NC. They had a huge terminal just outside of Winston in Kernersville, NC. It is still there. Roadway had a huge terminal next door. NC was the trucking capital of the USA due to it's central location on the east coast. Associated Transport, which became the largest trucking company of all was based in Burlington, NC. McLean Transport was huge also and they were based out of Winston-Salem also. They were all union jobs. They all started folding beginning in the 1960's and 70's.
Im a mechanic for yrc freight and we continue to put new roadway emblems on all the roadway trucks out of respect
This didn’t age well one bit. Hope all is well for you boss.
@markroman9007 I got out of there as soon as I could brother. Hope all is well for you too
@@markroman9007watching this August 2024, and I was thinking the same thing.
In my wearhouse, receivers moan at the morning meeting when assignments are given out and they get a Roadway to unload...the pallets are almost always damaged as with alot of the product. The Vans are filty and show adnormal wear and tear. As I drive down the highway and see a Roadway truck, nine out of ten times that truck looks like it is not maintained with any care or pride whatsoever! In ending, Roadway might have been a giant in the industry back in the day...but is only a sad represented remonance of the past today. Great video all the same! Really shows the growth and transition of the industry!
This is BS, Yellow Freight bought Roadway years ago. The company this is about hasn't been in business for years.
The Yellow plague destroyed Roadway, you still see a lot of Roadway equipment on the highways, most of it was wore out years ago.
@@williamevans2176 Roadway was Debt Free till Yellow Merged with them that is a fact.all though bussiness was in decline
Always on the Road and always in the Way..... Roadway.
6 years ago Roadway didn't exist, it had been bought out by Yellow Freight. Now if it was one of THEIR trucks you meant, I can see the point. Yellow Freight wrecked everything it ever touched until it ate its own economic gun.
Over the past 25 years I've heard a lot of stories about them. Drivers never had a day off because they were always on call so they couldn't go far from home. Back in the 60s my uncle worked at a furniture place and Jackie Gleason order a special table from PA, it was shipped by big R to CA but they lost it or broke it and they had make another one. I think the most famous blunder they made was when they lost the Oscar trophies..
Hello
The oscars were stolen by a dock worker and got caught and lost his job…. What a jackass
The Oscars were not lost , they were stolen by some dock workers in L. A .
God Bless YRC! Keep on trucking!
Thank God for yellow freight buying out roadway or they with be out of business the worst thing yellow freight did they should let roadway go out of business
Good stuff! I know it's corporate public relations, but very satisfying to see the history of the company. Long live LTL!
EXACTLY
I remember my Dad taking me to the terminal in East Brunswick, NJ. My Grandfather drove for White Motors in New Brunswick NJ.
Hello
Galen Roush bought a mower from my dad in the 1940's for his home in Peninsula, Ohio. I made at least one service call to his residence and met Galen. His house was anything but special. His wife came into our shop in Cuyahoga Falls on occasion to buy parts so Galen could fix his mower. My guess is and I've heard it from numerous others that Galen, although a multi-millionaire was very cheap.A guy that ran probably the only gas station in Peninsula at the time told me about Galen coming in to buy gas and wanting to trade the Goodyear Double Eagle tires that were on his new Lincoln automobile on recapped tires and cash back. We both laughed about that.
I wonder if that was a second home for Mr.&Mrs. Roush in the 1940!s In Peninsula. I know by the early 60’s they lived on Major Rd. in an old farmhouse and there was a barn on their property. I’m pretty sure at least some of their children went to Buchtel High School in the 1950’s when the Roush family lived in west Akron, on Storer Ave. I believe.
great video and photos these are the backbone of the nations
Hello!
Just love them ol c.o.e trucks,,,, I want one
When I started driving in 1980 roadway was simply known as big R. There was other successful ltl trucking companies then but roadway was king. All those other companies have either gone out of business or been absorbed into other companies. I’m still driving but it’s been a long, long time since I’ve heard anyone call out for Big R on the two-way.
I bet no one at Roadway remembers John McCall...
He was a strong reason in getting Roadway into the textile mills in the South...he retired as a salesman at Roadway...
Hello!
No matter how much technology advances........you will ALWAYS need a human being to adjust something
I liked hearing about the history...I like that 2 brothers got it started and continued, even though they had a different way of operating the company. I think that deregulation was meant to help the trucking industry, but it backfired! It hasn’t been the same since! Thanks for sharing! 🥰
Hello porter
Similar things happened with airline deregulation. The excitement and romance of air travel quickly disappeared when so many of the start-up carriers began packing people into those aluminum tubes like the New York subway at rush hour.
@@douglasjackson5007 🇺🇸 Yeah, I can imagine that. I was able to ride the Ford Tri motor…what a thrill to look at & ride! I appreciate the companies that have stuck with it all these years. 🥰❄️✌️
@@milaelizabeth2237 🇺🇸 Howdy from the Porters. 🤩❄️✌️
@@the.porter.productions Deregulation helped the industry the same way giving a sandwich to a guy dying of thirst in the desert helps.
My father retired in 77 from Cincinnati. I can remember when he drove sleeper teams, I was surprised they made no mention of the sleeper teams they used to keep the Freight moving.
Hello John!
You don't see many Roadway trucks out here in Arizona but I do see them pulling double trailers on Interstate 10 every once in a while.
Great video. I remember those Detroit powered long hood R model Macks from the 70's like the one @ 12:02.
My old boss bought one, put a hyd. tank & pto on it,, we hauled trailer dump with it.
Captain Morgan www.awesomediecast.co
I live by the Chicago heights terminal and have seen a lot of different Roadway power. The Detroit powered tractors bring back loud memories. US RT 30 through my small state line town was narrow and busy always lots of Roadway doubles
Mack's were powered by mack.
No R model was powered by a Detroit.!
Awesome video! I liked seeing the old orange trailers.
Hello Stevens!
At around 14:15 the narrator describes the company using an IBM 7070 mainframe in 1962 in their new office. What's pictured however is an RCA Spectra 70 which wasn't available until 1965.
I noticed that as well.
My. Dad retired from big r after 30 some years knew galen worked out of camphill then Carlisle went by Gene hess
Great historic video, I could watch this stuff all day..👍🏻 Ha, they wore bus drivers hats back than, so did the UPS Drivers..wow
the only part of uniform UPS has lost is Ties and hats, but still nice pants and shirts :-)
Hello very interesting video of roadway express lot of history about roadway express over 75 years of real service to customer's one real trucking company still in business as of the year 2022👍
Legend has it , they still use some them old trucks as spares
They definitely do.
I'm thinking it may be time to update this video - if my arithmetic is correct, Roadway is now at or approaching 91 years. Good company. Great people.
The original video this video is showing was produced for the 75th anniversary.
For real
Very well done. I learned alot. Thankyou.
I remember the Ford C Cabs one used to pass by the house 3 days a week to drop off paper stock to a dairy down the street from my parents home when I was kid in the 1980's
Me too. They were in Colorado springs, in late 80's/ early 90's when I was young. Used to pass by their hub all the time.
Thanks for your service,
Hello there?
Great vid very interesting to see where it all started from
I remember the Ford C Series Gas & Diesel in Ontario Cal when I was a kid
Worked on a Roadway Louisville with Hendrickson suspension and tag axle back late 70s. No traction in weather. Liked low mud flap between axles to cut down on flats.
Hendrickson suspension...also known as the killer suspension! Dangerous
Good ol' YRC. Fucked over everybody from the dock to drivers to middle management!! Todd the retired trucker .
Indeed they did. Haven’t I seen you on Trucking with Schmidt’s channel? Or was it Twinsticks channel??????
I hear ya. In 2018 I went to work for USF Holland.... not knowing they'd been bought by yrc. Before I knew that, I thought that I would finally become a Union driver, just like Dad. It didn't take long to find out otherwise. Turned out the Union was so weak nothing got done. They cheated us out of part of our pay every week, and since you only got a day off each week on the open board, you either wasted several hours with your Union steward filing grievances, or you ate loss. Equipment was so lousy you felt like you were taking your life into your hands just driving it. 2019 was the first time I had trouble during the D.O.T safety blitz, thanks to the sorry excuse for shop mechanics. Once, I had all the bolts come loose on my grill until it was hanging by one, luckily just shy of the Toledo terminal. I wrote it up, and that night, they put it on the ready line with two sets of bolts, nuts and washers so undersized that they just set loose in there. When I breached the mechanic about it he told me that dispatch didn't approve the repairs necessary. A few bolts, nuts and washers that fit?! But they could approve what didn't work? Then the mechanic gave me a regular laundry list of things that those trucks rolled out the gate with each night. It wasn't long after that that I quit. They had told me that I "just had to wrap my head around the mentality of the way yrc ran Holland". Sorry, but I had no desire to get myself or someone else killed because these clowns wouldn't maintain the equipment.
Great video Jimmy...Krooser from Hank's.... don't forget... "Roadway Always on the road /Always in the way"
Hello!
My freinds dad who was like a dad to me drove for roadway for over 40 years had diamond ring for no accidents and 3 didgit id number great guy was proud as fuck of his ring wish his kids missed him as much as me
Every so often I still see one of those 1950s era Roadway trailers being hauled on the road. No idea if it has a load in it or why it's on the road, but it's very interesting to see such an old trailer rolling down the road.
I can remember when Yellow was all most bankrupt.
That was fun no bullshit I enjoyed thanks for posting
Hello!
Puros recuerdos me recuerda mi compa el jeff teylor travajava en fremont. Corriamos juntos sejido para yucaya ca y mas pueblitos del norte de california 👍🙏
The video mentioned the primitive roads of the 1920's, but made no mention of the Interstate Highway System started in the 1950's. The government designed and financed interstates were the greatest thing that ever happened to the long haul trucking business, and therefore almost every business in the country as well.
Of course, after a while it was decided by many that government was the problem and our infrastructure was allowed to age and crumble.
So sad.
Ahhh the good old days when you could only go 35 mph if your truck would run that fast! Hahaha!!!!
35 miles an hour but built to last; Mack!
Old days? They still are like that out here! LOL
RPS, Roadway Package System became FDX or FedEX Ground in 1998. I joined then and retired in 2008. They were very very good to me. More money in this than robbing banks.
I worked for Roadway the last 5 years of my career, retiring in 2007. Worked for most all the LTL lines of the day during my 30 years. I hate to say it but Roadway was definitely the worst company that I ever worked for. Management was trained to be assholes and became very proficient at it. They couldn’t care less if you were a go getter or a deadbeat and constantly instigated discontent among employees. I was there when Yellow bought them out and thinned out the dead weight in management, especially at the end of the line terminals. Appreciated having the job, it’s just that they didn’t appreciate the job that most of their employees did. That’s my experience with Roadway coming off of working for Consolidated Freightways for 13 years until their closing in 2002.
Something I just remembered those old loud noisey air starters,scare you to death if it's fairly quite around you when they used them!!!!!!!!
I ran all "Lower 48 States" for Global Van Lines in 1979 & 1980 and routinely stopped at truck stops along the way. There was nothing quite like waking up early in the morning when some guy with an air-starter would light that sucker off in the next parking space. Nobody needed an alarm clock if one of those was nearby. That was no place for a driver with a heart condition!!!! The coffee in the restaurant was for steadying your nerves, you didn't need any help waking up. ;^)
I fell in love with air starters back in the early 90's. I was roughly 5 yrs old when I first seen "Maximum Overdrive". Alot of Brockways & Autocars, lol. Little did I know International Transtar II, Mack Ultraliners, & RS-600/700 Macks were already going the way of the dinosaurs.
I was a mechanic at roadway. I never once seen one of those air starters fail. And if it ran out of air you could hook a gland hand from another tractor to it and refill the tank. only required one battery to operate the rig. We re powered many of the old WCL tractors with series 60 engines. This truck line was very well ran, it really surprises me they were absorbed. Now the freight companies invest in equipment instead of people.
@@MrGaryGG48 hello!
LOL. My first experience with air starters was driving for Schwerman hauling bulk cement when they were building I - 69 near the Indiana Toll Road . Hit it when someone was right in front of your truck. I scared more than one person. Guaranteed to wake up sleepy people.
It's all history now--YRC
yrc canada owns my company too
Yeah that's sure. Hi R.B Holmes!
Always on the road
Always in the way.
I worked for Roadway Express at the Fort Collins, Co. terminal 893. It was a sad day when they sold out to Yellow. Yellow quit the Teamsters Pension Plan and I lost out of being able to take a full early retirement ( eighty and out) by 2 years.
I remember running across Pennsylvania on I 80 in the late 70s when Roadway had those long nose Whites… they would fly down snowshoe Mountain like it wasn’t there… I think they didn’t have front brakes on the front axle no trolley break in the cab and only a single seat… they had air starters and the battery was in the cab…. i’m going to say they didn’t have power steering also but I’ll be huge steering wheel I sat in one one time up in Maine in a garage… It was like a stripped down hot rod!!!!
I worked for YRC the pay and benefits where great and the guys on the day shift where great however I was an apprentice mechanic and I had only one co worker on my shift and that was a drunk 🥴 who did not want me there and the afternoon shift made me feel the same I quite it was hard for me to give up a good paying job like that but not being wanted and no it’s one to train me I was forced out I wish I could have made it a career
Drivers will never see middle class wages and benefits again.
I was making $17 change back in 92' in the union, when I retired in 2015 I was only making $21, non union.. & we had a decent pay rate compared to HUNT & other like them, at least we got paid for all time at a stop, no wait time. Always had new trucks, always clean & maintained. Hauling groceries to stores.
@@neilpuckett359 That's the mistake I made going in. I got my CDL in 2000, and was told by my instructor in school that I would be looking at a job that largely resembled what used to be there. I found out on my own years later that the reason I couldn't find a decent company or decent wages was because of Deregulation. For years I was like a blind man groping around in the dark.
Just think what the industry would be like today if you could bring them drivers and employees into the current time with their work ethic and access to the advanced technology I bet things would be a lot better than they are now...
We would need Big R to be owned by the employee's instead of the jackasses that were supervision after the Rouches passed the company along to Yellow. After that Big R got taken down by Yellow. I've been retired since 2001 and am totally disabled so no way I can go back to work and facing the prospect of losing my paltry pension in a few years. Yellow stole pension funds that should have been paid to the retiree's and future retiree's by begging the union to let them stop paying into the fund plan's. Guys I've been able to talk with who were still working said things got worse after Yellow took over. And deregulation was only the start of the down fall of Roadway and all the other, now deceased union companies. So not only did the government screw the pooch, so did the union and YRC. And now the Mexican and more so the non-union Canadian companies take over trucking with NAFTA. At least with the union's, drivers had a better income and benefits, although I have to say some union's like the AFL-CIO went overboard in hourly pay. People working on auto lines are getting way too much per hour for what they do. But that's another story...
They wouldn't stick around very long. They'd find better pay, benefits, and working conditions somewhere else. I was a long-haul tanker-yanker and virtually lived in my tractor. Remember seeing a lot of good deals on the bulletin boards in the company's O.C.s on recreational toys bought by drivers who never got the time off to use them!
Extraordinaire 👍👍👍 historiquement c est bien présente c est aller vite good 😁😁😁❤❤🙋♀️🙋♀️
Bring it back HIGH & TIGHT, lol i was city driver in san francisco, local,#85 , funkiest equipment,
Great video Jimmy.
I recall the White Tilt cabs from when I was a small kid
My dad drove a White tilt cab when I was a small kid.
Dont see them any longer but in the past there was motor courts called Roadway Inns. Usually they had lounges and some instances, resturants. Wonder if the two were connected in someway?
2 completely different companies. Spelled Rodeway Inn and Roadway Express. I worked for the latter. Women in the office would tell me about people calling to make reservations for a room. Lol
I've been driving 36 years last twenty in the teamsters.the equipment has come along way since I started.the biggest trailer we had at the time was a 45'
Trucking industry...
Kicking rails ass since 1930.
08:45 Here you go, we all know what you are here for! You're Welcome!
Big R diesel car. Single stack mack with a window in the back. Every truck the driver would claim on the radio had 44,000 (on the front passenger seat). My Uncle Gene worked Chicago Heights dispatch as a coordinator 15 years. Then went to Barstow working for Yellow Freight. Norm Mayor, a well known driver for both companies. Both good guys, gone now, would do anything for anyone.
What , you don't believe we were hauling 44 ? Just ask us , we'd tell you the " truth " . There used to be a song that went like this," Listen to the rattle the rumble and the roar as I drive my Big R diesel car down the road to Baltimore. With my arm hung out the window and my peddle to the floor , if you ask me how much I'm hauling , I'll tell you 44 " . I learned that song before I drove for Big R . It must have been back in the 1970's.
@@johnruetz3849Thanks I'm convinced now! Roll on big momma!
Thk you for the download
I work in canada as an owner operator for a company that is owned by the original founders of Riemer.
My Dad drove 39 years I’ve got some of these pics
Was any credit or mention given to the interstate road system by Eisenhower? This may have impacted long haul trucking more than anything.
Larry Be I'd think the Interstate highway would make trucking more efficient. I recall when I was a little kid living in Mount Carroll, Illinois they built a new highway Route 52 that bypassed the town and trucks didn't have to go on narrow streets or difficult corners to get through town. They could bypass Mount Carroll altogether. That should have made the trucking companies more efficient. No doubt that there were other places that had the same deal with the new roads. Sadly some places died when the New roads were built, Mount Carroll was one of them
Glenn Lego
You are most correct about modern roads impacting rural communities. The diners that used to serve truckers lost that traffic but travelers could bypass the congestion of towns as well getting to their destinations no longer seeing retail stores either. Locally, bypasses occur today that hurt local economy just to bow to the needs of commuters and retail needs that mainstreet can no longer change to accommodate (shopping centers and big name retailers).
@@larrybe2900 I agree, while the interstates was good for trucking, it made Ghost Towns out of a lot of cities.
I drove for roadway, until 2009,when they went with yellow. Roadway was a Co.
Giddy-up, Go daddy...giddy-up , Go....
I liked the video but there was some 'spin doctoring done in the section about the Roadway-Yellow merger. I remember stock values tanking and Teamsters took multiple wage and retirement pay cuts and management, who's benefits were in the form of company stocks, took a beating too. I didn't know of anyone who was happy with the merger. Maybe the top echelon of management.
Hello Glenn, you there?
ROUTE 66 time period
Have never heard of Roadway before today. Mustn't be active in Atlantic Canada...
Are you kidding me the Created the LTL Industry
For real!!!? there are good and very intelligent. How is Canada?
Roadway was bought by yellow freight which went into bankruptcy ?