A group of its officers obtained control and changed its name to REA Express about 1970. The business attempted but did not succeed at turning itself into a multimodal operation, and it was liquidated in bankruptcy court in 1975.
Back in the late 50s.or 60s. Railway express Agency disappeared. Why did it go? Through transition and mergers , what it be called today?? Who would have it today? ~~ UPS ? Just curious.
Respectfully, Jim
Y6bs evergreen in my mind
Yes, UPS, United Parcel Service, did begin in Seattle in the early 20th Century with the concept of being a delivery service for small packages purchased at primarily department stores; it grew to have a presence in virtually every major city and metropolitan area by mid Century. It wasn't until the later 50's with the advent of piggy back, a successful suit against the United States Post Office, and the total demise of REA or Railway Express, that it became more involved in intercity and interstate package hauling/delivery. Piggyback and intermodel expanded the company quickly after that and was followed by air services. The air service was as much a necessity of the business as it was a defense against the formation of Federal Express at the purchase of Flying Tiger AIrlines. Fed Ex is seemingly catching up with UPS, on the ground despite there acquisitions of motor freight carriers over the years.
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Its about time FedEx started going intermodal... If anyone has driven across Wyoming in a snow storm, you know that there are usually more FedEx trailers and trucks in the barrow ditch than actually on the road....
RJ
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Standard 53 foot by 102 inches wide. Nowadays anything smaller is a Special order unless it is a Flatbed and will cost you MOre than the 53 foot Trailer.
How long is that trailer in the pic?
WELL, Rader Siding, Looks like I owe you, and Seattle an apology!
Looks like I was misinformed? In 1970 I started as a sorter with UPS in Memphis,Tn. We had two Old package cars that were HAHN Motors products. We were told by the managers that they had come from Phila. Pa. and were built around the time of WWII. They were larger trucks and the unique thing about both of them was they had a machine gun ring mounted opposite of the driver's side of the cab. Just the ring. (EDITED)
THis was the reason I have always thought that they (UPS) was an East Coast that and that they had a Corporate HQ in Greenwich, CT. MY MISTAKE!
Link: http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/h/hahn/hahn.htm
FTA: "...During World War II, Hahn manufactured mobile machine shops and special recovery trucks for the U.S. Engineer Corps. Hahn's only post-war truck production consisted of a large order of delivery trucks built on Ford chassis for United Parcel Service. Since 1948 the firm has limited manufacture to a line of custom fire apparatus..."
samfp1943 wrote:<quote>
UPS is by far the older corporation, Their start was East Coast Department store deliveries (NYC/Phila) and then it built out into the rest of the country; it originally pioneered multiple driver truck relays of its freight on trailers.. <endquote>
As a former Seattle resident, I have to correct this error. UPS was started by James Casey in Seattle Washington in 1907. In 1919 the company made its first expansion beyond Seattle to Oakland, California, and adopted its present name, United Parcel Service.
You can see more about early UPS history here:
http://www.ups.com/content/corp/about/history/1929.html
FedEx started buying motor carriers in about 2001, after it become FDX Corp in 1998. 2001when it acquired American Freightways (nee Arkansas Freightways, Harrison,Ar.).
About 1998 it had acquired the assets of Caliber System,Inc;
.2001 it started its rebranding of its surface units (Caliber System's assets were RPS (need Roadway Package System, Viking Freight, Roberts Delivery, Caliber Logistics, Caliber Technology).
As Beaulieu said they have moulded its surface units into various niche service groups. They have become a powerhouse in surface transportation with the stewardship of these surface assets as an adjunct to the air operations.
What has changed for Fed Ex is that they are now much bigger in the LTL freight business. They bought Watkins and Viking, and I believe that they are now the second largest LTL carrier in the US. They will probably be the largest soon. They have set up a two Tier system for LTL, for shippers for whom time is more importand their is Fed Ex Freight Premium which will use team drivers between terminals where necessary, then there is Fed Ex Freight Economy where speed is less important than price, this is where the Intermodal comes in. In lanes where the railroads Intermodal service meets Fed Ex freights needs Fed Ex Freight Economy trailers (initially) will move on Intermodal trains. Likely this will grow as Fed Ex becomes more comfortable with Intermodal. At this time the package part of the business, Fed Ex Ground, is not part of the deal. Fed Ex does receive brand new trailers by rail but of course they are empty.
greyhounds Bruce Kelly: The movement of loaded FedEx trailers by rail has been happening in limited areas for at least two years. What's new or different according to the News Wire story? FedEx has sporadically used intermodal in the past. Now they're committing to using it on a regular, ongoing basis. That's the difference.
Bruce Kelly: The movement of loaded FedEx trailers by rail has been happening in limited areas for at least two years. What's new or different according to the News Wire story?
The movement of loaded FedEx trailers by rail has been happening in limited areas for at least two years. What's new or different according to the News Wire story?
FedEx has sporadically used intermodal in the past. Now they're committing to using it on a regular, ongoing basis. That's the difference.
Note that the Package Transportation model is as valid for FedEX as it is for UPS. FedEx Global Hub is Memphis Tn. and UPS built their Memphis Hub just across the street. Admittedly, it is on the same airport, but in many cases the two companies have overlaping service facilities.
UPS is by far the older corporation, Their start was East Coast Department store deliveries (NYC/Phila) and then it built out into the rest of the country; it originally pioneered multiple driver truck relays of its freight on trailers..
FedEx was a product of a college term/research paper by Fred Smith, utilizing airplanes It was.started in Little Rock in 1971 utilizing smaller business type jets. Fed Ex was forced out of Arkansas when the Ark. State's Revenue Dept. went after unpaid state taxes (that Tax case forced Fed Ex to move, and Memphis was the location it moved to. For a time Fed Ex aircraft had to avoid flying over Arkansas air space, to avoid confiscation of their airplanes for the State Tax bill.
It was the same type of deal we discussed before on this Forum about some State Revenue Depts putting revenue agents on airplanes, or trains, and then ticketing crew personnel for in-flight service of alcoholic beverages in 'Dry air space'; or for serving those same beverages in a Dry county or state.' as the train transited 'Dry' territory.
Bruce Kelly The movement of loaded FedEx trailers by rail has been happening in limited areas for at least two years. What's new or different according to the News Wire story?
UPS has been a mainstay of rail intermodal service in the US for decades. They're all intermodal and primarily use trailers as opposed to containers. They don't want those packages sitting around waiting for a chassis, ever. I don't think UPS ever used a boxcar.
They were, at one time, the largest intermodal customer for the railroads. They may still be. Their use of rail hasn't declined. But other truckers, such as JB Hunt, have grown their own rail use substantially and may have overtaken UPS as to rail volume. (Hunt is a container system.)
As was stated, FedEx was one of the last truckers to hold out against intermodal use.
What this is is basically a reincarnation of the old railway express/less than carload (LCL)/freight forwarder systems. The railroads operated those services very well until government interferance and/or subsidies to other modes drove the railroads out of the business.
UPS and the railroads figured out a way around the regulations a long time ago. (Plan I TOFC.) The other highway carriers got on the trains after deregulation.
In addition to the regular FedEx Ground Trailers; there have also been a numbr of these trailers ( with the ground effects air deflectors moving on TOFC cars on trains out here on the El Dorado Sub in both directions.
linked from here : http://www.truckingboards.com/forum/fedex-freight/4580-what-fedex-multimodal.html
Robbie:
Almost all of it is intermodal (TOFC, some COFC) using highway trailers mixed-in with other shippers equipment. They also have sattelite firms like Martrac (UPS owned)...Occasionally, UPS ground uses somebody else's equipment in a pinch (Lord knows I saw enough strange stuff go out the UPS gate in LA (Hobart) hastilly re-stenciled UPSZ, but that gets to be kinda rare right now.
I just read the news wire article about the efforts FedEx is putting towards moving some of its long haul freight on rails. I hear that UPS actually does quite a bit of this. This might seem like a stupid question, but what type of car does the freight travel on? Inter modal or box cars? Would these trains be entirely made up of FedEx freight? Can someone just explain the whole thing to me?
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