Consolidated Freightways (CF), founded on April 1, 1929, in Portland, Oregon, by Leland James as Consolidated Truck Lines. The name was later changed in 1939 to Consolidated Freightways Inc.. At one time, CF was the nation's No.1 long-haul trucking company, and 3rd largest upon filing for bankruptcy.
In the 1939 CF Inc. started their own truck manufacturing operation, Freightliner. On July 31, 1981, it sold its truck manufacturing business and the Freightliner brand to Daimler-Benz AG now part of Daimler AG.
In 1983, CF Inc. ventured into regional next-day trucking with their non-union start up Con-Way carrier.
On April 3, 1989, CF Inc. purchased Emery Air Freight Corp. merging it with their own CF AirFreight operation and renamed it to Emery Worldwide. This, along with Menlo Logistics, was later sold to UPS.
In 1996, Consolidated Freightways, Inc. spun off its national long-haul trucking company, CF MotorFreight, creating two separate publicly traded companies. Parent company, Consolidated Freightways, Inc. was renamed CNF Transportation Inc., reflecting the familiar stock ticker symbol of the company (CNF). The spin-off, now named Consolidated Freightway Corporation (CFC), had compelling strategic and operational benefits in response to changes in traditional trucking markets, customer distribution patterns, growing competition, technology and public policy issues such as deregulation. These changes increasingly placed the company’s national and regional trucking companies in direct competition with each other. CNF retained the Con-Way (non-union) regional truck companies, Emery Worldwide and a growing logistical systems department.
Consolidated Freightways Corporation (the long-haul trucking company spun off from the parent company in 1996) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, September 3, 2002 (Labor Day) and ceased operations.
April 18, 2006, CNF Transportation re-branded itself under its Con-Way image and continues to do business today.
Famous quotes containing the word consolidated:
“Prestige is the shadow of money and power. Where these are, there it is. Like the national market for soap or automobiles and the enlarged arena of federal power, the national cash-in area for prestige has grown, slowly being consolidated into a truly national system.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)