Cole's Express - Maine -1971

Nah ,Sanborns ran whites and fords with detroits

ABF had Ford conventional cabs for several years with Detroit power. The last Whites were 86 model conventional cabs with Cummins power. Several companies bought used ABF equipment. There was a company called Finast that bought used ABF tractors one year. They painted them red & removed the air conditioners. I haven't heard anything about Finast in many years.
 
After the Teamster strike in 1994, Roadway Services spun off Roadway Express as a stand alone company.
Roadway Services then became Caliper.

I vaguely remember Caliber freight. The 94 strike brought a lot of changes in the freight industry.
 
ABF had Ford conventional cabs for several years with Detroit power. The last Whites were 86 model conventional cabs with Cummins power. Several companies bought used ABF equipment. There was a company called Finast that bought used ABF tractors one year. They painted them red & removed the air conditioners. I haven't heard anything about Finast in many years.
When i worked at CFCC they bought some old ABF tractors and put them in to p&d city use with Cummins power but they still had the side kick a/c units in them and the shop helped the city guys by leaving them working, Told the bossses why not let them go until they quit (side note they never quit working for some reason)
 
I vaguely remember Caliber freight. The 94 strike brought a lot of changes in the freight industry.
Caliber became the new name of the parent company Roadway Services Inc. After Roadway Express went on their own, the parent company was renamed Caliber. RPS and the regionals, Viking, Spartan, Coles and Central Freight plus Roberts Express and some others were under the Caliber umbrella. There was the failed attempt to combine the services of the regionals to make a national service LTL company under the Viking name. It failed, causing the closure of Coles and Spartan and leaving Viking in the West and Central covering its original territory. At some point Central Freight was taken/bought out of Caliber and were on their own.
Fedex liked RPS and ended up buying all of Caliber to make Fedex Ground. Viking and the others were left alone for a couple years then were combined with the purchase of American Freightways to become Fedex Freight. Roberts Express became Fedex Custom Critical. A few years later, Fedex bought Watkins which became the Economy service know as National LTL, which later got folded into the Fedex Freight system.
 
ABF had Ford conventional cabs for several years with Detroit power. The last Whites were 86 model conventional cabs with Cummins power. Several companies bought used ABF equipment. There was a company called Finast that bought used ABF tractors one year. They painted them red & removed the air conditioners. I haven't heard anything about Finast in many years.

Finast may have been First National Stores, Finast was their private brand, the first two letters of each word in their name, a long gone grocery store chain. They along with A&P had a huge presence in New England at one time.

16182246311_d1ff7c81ac.jpg
 
Finast may have been First National Stores, Finast was their private brand, the first two letters of each word in their name, a long gone grocery store chain. They along with A&P had a huge presence in New England at one time.

16182246311_d1ff7c81ac.jpg
Growing up in Stoneham Mass in the 50s we had a new modern supermarket in town called Star market
 
Finast may have been First National Stores, Finast was their private brand, the first two letters of each word in their name, a long gone grocery store chain. They along with A&P had a huge presence in New England at one time.

16182246311_d1ff7c81ac.jpg

I remember seeing some pictures of Finast trucks on one of the truck picture/history sites a while back. Probably the Hank Suderman site or one of the ones he posts pictures for.
 
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When i worked at CFCC they bought some old ABF tractors and put them in to p&d city use with Cummins power but they still had the side kick a/c units in them and the shop helped the city guys by leaving them working, Told the bossses why not let them go until they quit (side note they never quit working for some reason)

I remember those tractors,(Louisville Fords), Carolina replaced the 22.5 tires with 24.5 tires to help with road speed. Some of those made their way back to the LR shop after the Carolina/Worldway acquisition. ABF was on a three year trade cycle back then & sold road tractors instead of transferring them to the city fleet. Back then the company bought new city tractors (class 5 single axle), every year. The small tractors were often overloaded especially on weekends when terminal managers used them as road equipment to move freight between terminals. They were not designed to pull loaded doubles. The shop was replacing differentials, clutches & transmissions with regularity. Back then the LR shop rebuilt all major components & kept an inventory of rebuilt transmissions, differentials etc.
 
Caliber became the new name of the parent company Roadway Services Inc. After Roadway Express went on their own, the parent company was renamed Caliber. RPS and the regionals, Viking, Spartan, Coles and Central Freight plus Roberts Express and some others were under the Caliber umbrella. There was the failed attempt to combine the services of the regionals to make a national service LTL company under the Viking name. It failed, causing the closure of Coles and Spartan and leaving Viking in the West and Central covering its original territory. At some point Central Freight was taken/bought out of Caliber and were on their own.
Fedex liked RPS and ended up buying all of Caliber to make Fedex Ground. Viking and the others were left alone for a couple years then were combined with the purchase of American Freightways to become Fedex Freight. Roberts Express became Fedex Custom Critical. A few years later, Fedex bought Watkins which became the Economy service know as National LTL, which later got folded into the Fedex Freight system.

Thanks for the history.. There have been a lot of changes in LTL because of deregulation & the 94 freight strike.
A person needed a score book to keep up or a computer memory like yours to keep up.
 
Finast may have been First National Stores, Finast was their private brand, the first two letters of each word in their name, a long gone grocery store chain. They along with A&P had a huge presence in New England at one time.

16182246311_d1ff7c81ac.jpg

You are correct. I found some history on the store chain headquartered in Somerville Massachusetts. Apparently the original company ceased operation in 93 after several purchases & business consolidations. I assume the Louisville Fords were purchased for not for hire company operations. As I remember the company bought 50 tractors in the mid 80's. One came back to LR for engine repair. At that time ABF gave a sort of gentleman's business agreement warranty. ABF assured that the tractors were in roadworthy condition at the time of purchase. This one had Cummins power & the cam bearings had turned in the block.. We repaired it & sent it back. The company replaced a few transmissions & repaired several major components over the years. I think a 90 time frame was agreed to excluding abuse/misuse.
 
I was (still am) Viking so I only know how it all went down from the West perspective. It appeared to me that there was some infighting within the “Akron” group that wanted to take Express back on their own and be done with Caliber.
I’ve heard that Express was left out to dry. Dump the union division etc.
But I always thought they would be just fine. I’m not disagreeing with any former Roadway employee because they obviously know much more than I.
 
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