History Of Freightliner Trucks

Freightliner Trucks is a well known American truck manufacturer of heavyweight trucks, as well as truck chassis and semi or tractor-trailer trucks and is now a division of Daimler Trucks North America, which is a subsidiary of German Daimler AG. Freightliner Trucks has been known as Freightliner Inc since 1942, but it actually has an earlier history in the 1930s as Consolidated Freightways. These trucks were called "Freightliners," thus the beginning of the future of the Freightliner Trucks Company. The first trucks were made in Consolidated Freightways factory in Salt Lake City in 1942, the same year the company became Freightliner. World War II stopped truck production temporarily at Freightliner, but by 1949 it was back in the truck making business in Portland, Ore. That first truck sold was purchased by a fork life maker called Hyster and that vehicle now has a place of honor in the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. The company paired up with the White Motor company in 1951 in Cleveland, Ohio to help it sell trucks because to Freightliner lacked a way to distribute its vehicles. The partnership lasted for about 25 years and the trucks from that relationship were known as "White Freightliner" trucks.

In the early 60s, Freightliner was looking for ways to reduce costs such as the importing duty penalty on the trucks made in Burnaby, B.C.. In order to do this, they opened assembly plants in Indianapolis, Indiana. By 1974 Freightliner ended it's relationship with the White Motor Company because of that company's financial issues. Freightliner became a freestanding truck manufacturer and distributer. Around that time Freightliner came out with it's very first traditional model of truck, which was an adaptation of what was a high cab-over engine model. At the time, these trucks made up 50 percent of the market due to length regulations that put limitations on the bumper to taillight measurements on tractor-trailer trucks. The 1980s brought the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 which made more changes for the trucking industry by relaxing the weight and length rules and putting into place a brand new excises tax on heavyweight trucks and truck tires. It made it so that the overall length of tractor-trailers was no longer restricted, however, the trailer itself was now restricted and couldn't be more than 53 feet long.

Freightliner had done well during the years when the transportation industry was de-regulated, but by 1981 it was having problems so the company was sold to Daimler-Benz. It also had to close plants in Chino, California. Indianapolis, Indiana. However, by 1989, Freightliner was able to buy a plant that already existed in Cleveland, North Carolina that had previously made transit buses. Freightliners also started making trucks in Santiago Tianguistenco, Mexico near Mexico City in a Daimler-Benz owned plant. The 1990s ended up being a good era for the truck industry and Freightliner flourished as well. In 2000 Freightliner acquired what used to be the Detroit Diesel Corp., which has been a subsidiary of General Motors. Daimler later integrated Detroit Diesel into Freightliner, thus making the company even bigger. Unfortunately, it may have taken on more than it could handle at this time and by the following year, it had many more trucks than there was demand for.

The company was having financial problems and so its former CFO Rainer Schmueckle was brought back to help get the company back in shape again. During the next couple of years several plants were closed or consolidated in the hopes of getting Freightliner back in black again. In 2007 it had other woes when workers at the Cleveland, North Carolina plant called for a strike and as a result, 700 employees were fired. Most were re-hired about a week later. That same year the company had to lay off 800 workers in Portland, Oregon as it moved that plant to Mexico, and on Jan. 7, 2008 the company became known as Daimler Trucks North America. These days, Freightliner Trucks is as active as ever making heavyweight trucks in the class five through eight series in North America, and it leads the diesel Class A recreational vehicle chassis and walk-in van markets. Freightliner also is responsible for a class 2 van called the Sprinter that is marketed through Freightliner for Mercedes-Benz in Europe. As of Jan 2012, Freightliner had plans to hire 1,100 more workers for its Cleveland, NC plant to add to the already 1,500 workers there. This is a temporary measure due to increased demand for Cascadia trucks. Freightliner continues to be popular within the industry for making some of the most durable and dependable heavy weight trucks that are on the road today.