Freightways

Foundation and early history

Consolidated Freightways was founded on April 1, 1929 by Leland James in Portland, Oregon. Originally a single truck LTL operation, in the early days James combined four local short-haul carriers in the Portland area into a single carrier. At the beginning, the company primarily focused on the Portland area before expanding into the region.James was an innovator focused on improving the product capacity of his truck and trailer combinations. Length laws were stringent in the 1930s, so if a company were to survive they had to be innovative. James purchased his custom power units from Freightways Manufacturing Company and helped to design the first Cab Over Engine power units used in the US. These COE power units were lightweight and short, allowing for an additional freight box mounted on the frame of the truck behind the cab for single trailer units. Shorter COE units without the frame-mounted freight box could haul longer than normal short trailers hitched as doubles. Both of these configurations allowed each combination to haul more freight than standard configurations.

These innovations in truck and trailer design and configuration led to CF founding Freightways Manufacturing in 1939. It was later re-branded as Freightliner Manufacturing. Over the subsequent years, CF acquired additional manufacturing companies including railroad equipment manufacturer Transicold Corporation and glass fiber product manufacturer Technic-Glas Corporation.In the late 1930s, CF began serving the Northwest US region and down the West coast into California but by the late 1940s had routes as far east as Chicago. The company operated about 1,600 pieces of equipment by 1950 with revenues of US$24 million. The company went public in November 1951, opening on the New York Stock Exchange at $1.80.

Under strict regulation in the 1950s, CF grew primarily through acquiring smaller competitors, totaling 53 by the end of the decade. This was carried out under the leadership of CF president Jack Snead who took the position in 1955. By 1959, the company was the largest common carrier in the US with revenues of US$146 million and almost 11,000 employees. Its operations covered 34 states plus Canada and included 13,800 pieces of equipment.

Restructuring and refocus

Following a half-decade of expansion through acquisitions, most of which were not integrated with one another, the company's financials were unstable and it reported a US$2.7 million loss for 1960. This led to a change in leadership at CF with William White replacing Snead as president in 1960. Under White's leadership, CF underwent restructuring or sale of many of the company's subsidiaries, including a small parcel company, with the goal of restoring the company's focus and centralizing management.These moves resulted in a turnaround in financial performance and by 1969 the company had US$451 million in revenue.CF created specialized truckload division, CF Arrowhead, in 1980 based in Menlo Park CA. This subsidiary was a union owner-operator company with specialized trailers, such as flat beds, drop decks and heavy haul, to service their existing customers with freight that couldn't be transported in CF's van trailers.

By 1981, the company's stock was valued at $38.00/share. Also in 1981, CF won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Kassel v. Consolidated Freightways Corp. The court found that Iowa's length restriction on tractor-trailers violated the Dormant Commerce Clause.

CF ventured into regional trucking in 1983 with its Con-Way carriers. Consolidated Freightways' drivers and dockworkers were unionized, and the new Con-Way companies , Con-way Western Express , Con-way Eastern Express , etc.) were nonunion, creating tense relations with CF's Teamsters. CEX was the former Penn-Yan Express, and was union, but Conway dissolved the company and later allowed CCX to assume its routes, thereby eliminating all union affiliation with the company.

On April 3, 1989, CF purchased Emery Air Freight Corp., and its subsidiary Purolator Courier Corporation. CF merged its pre-existing air freight operation, CF Air Freight, into Emery which it renamed Emery Worldwide. This division was union. However, Purolator carried significant debt meaning Emery as a whole was losing almost US$1 million a day at the time of acquisition.By the early 1990s, the Con-way companies were doing well, representing about US$600 million of CF's revenue, and CF's long-haul operation, CF MotorFreight, was successful as well. However, they were dragged down by Emery leading CF to a company-wide loss of US$41 million with a debt load of US$614 million in 1990.As it had in the 1960's, CF again put in place new management and restructured and refocused the company in the early 1990s, this time with specific attention to the Emery division. The changes, including a complete restructure of Emery's overnight service, were successful at bringing Emery to a better financial position and by 1995 it was the most profitable company in the air freight industry.

Company split

In 1996, Consolidated Freightways, Inc. spun off its unionized long-haul trucking business, CF MotorFreight and four other long-haul subsidiaries, from its non-union LTL operations and related businesses creating two separate publicly traded companies. The long-haul group was renamed Consolidated Freightways Corporation and the former parent company, Consolidated Freightways, Inc., was renamed CNF Transportation Inc. The name was chosen to reflect the company's long-time stock ticker symbol, CNF.CNF retained the Con-Way regional LTL companies, Emery Worldwide, and the growing logistics business, Menlo Logistics. The spinoff long-haul trucking company, now called Consolidated Freightways Corporation, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 3, 2002, and ceased operations.Due to poor fleet maintenance, Emery shut down aircraft operations in 2001. Emery subsidiary Emery Worldwide Forwarding was put under Menlo Worldwide Logistics in 2002 and later renamed Menlo Worldwide Forwarding. Another Emery subsidiary which continued operating, Emery Global Logistics, was later absorbed into Menlo Logistics. Menlo Worldwide Forwarding was sold to UPS in 2004.On April 18, 2006, CNF Transportation re-branded itself under a new name, Con-Way, and remained in operation until October 30, 2015, when they were acquired by Greenwich, Connecticut-based XPO Logistics, Inc.