Wilson Freight

i was told that there is a picture of a wilson freight truck on a billboard in some truckstop in PA. everyone can keep an eye out for it and maybe post it
 
wilson_freight_ford-lnt9000_78.jpg
 
Wow, I'm sure I'm a little late with this. But what a blast from the past. My dad worked for the Flying W for 30 years as a line haul driver out of Elizabeth NJ. I to had a job waiting for me as well. Many of summer nights sneaking along with dad on a old milk crate or lawn chair getting to spend time with my best friend. When truckers were men and they had pride.
 
Wow, I'm sure I'm a little late with this. But what a blast from the past. My dad worked for the Flying W for 30 years as a line haul driver out of Elizabeth NJ. I to had a job waiting for me as well. Many of summer nights sneaking along with dad on a old milk crate or lawn chair getting to spend time with my best friend. When truckers were men and they had pride.
Your dad worked for a completely different Wilson than this forum is about The Wilson here has their home office in Fisherville, Va Your dad probably worked for Wilson Freight that was out of Cincinnati, Oh. They are out of business, but Wilson out of Fisherville is still trucking.
 
Wow, I'm sure I'm a little late with this. But what a blast from the past. My dad worked for the Flying W for 30 years as a line haul driver out of Elizabeth NJ. I to had a job waiting for me as well. Many of summer nights sneaking along with dad on a old milk crate or lawn chair getting to spend time with my best friend. When truckers were men and they had pride.

That terminal in Elizabeth is Corp terminal for New Endland Motor Freight.
 
Tom, those pins would have come from Wilson, not the union. As far as the Dirty W name goes I assumed at the time that it was just the fact that their trucks looked like they never got a wash, but back then everybodies trucks looked like that, they were tools to do a job, not show pieces. Some looked worse than others, especially trucks with the exhaust underneath. Trucks back then blow thick clouds of black smoke and if you had an exhaust leak it didn't take long to turn the rear of the cab or whatever black with a coating of soot. Damn, I miss all those old companies.

Edit: Tom, you might want to check out the link below. The second pic down on the left, that's the classic Wilson truck I remember, click it to enlarge. A good and grimy White 9000 with a 40 footer with the tandems all the way back. I'd give anything to drive that truck today.
David Faust's Wilson Freight Corporation Collection

I remember the mack r models blowing black smoke in the 90's. Why did the trucks blow thick black smoke back then?
 
Tom, just about all freight companies of that era were Teamsters. You really didn't have that manu truckload companies back then because you didn't have the mega-retailer warehouse operations like today. Plus, now we haul finished products made overseas while back then a lot of the freight was hauling nuts,bolts, and various parts to build things. Back then it coould take sometimes 60 shipments to fill a 40' trailer. As far as "how they operated" I assume you are talking about organized crime. Most of us never gave it much thought, trucking was a tough environment back then, you couldn't be thin skinned. Back then your boss would call you a sock cucker and you'd give it right back. The union provided good wages, good benefits, and protected you from being fired on a whim. One thing I can tell you about those times that is telling, just about every driver you ran into at a diner or whatever, no matter who he worked for, had a smile on his face, was friendly, ready to help you out if you needed it, and could tell you a bullcrap story that was so good you didn't care if it was true or not. So if 560 was skimming a little off the top back then, who cared, they took care of the drivers.

Thanks for the memories SuperCourse. You really nailed it with that post. You brought a smile to my face and a tear to my eyes. Yes 560 was mobbed up back then but they really did take care of the members. Those really were the good old day before deregulation crippled the unionized LTL trucking industry.
 
Top