20 Trucking Companies Every 1980s Driver Knew That No Longer Exist

If you drove in the 1980s, these names were part of the working landscape: Arrow, Jevic, McLean, Transcon, Preston, Consolidated Freightways, Yellow, and many more. This documentary follows twenty trucking companies that operated during the eighties and traces what happened to their freight networks. Some shut down before the decade ended. Others survived into another century, through new ownership, mergers, financial restructurings and repeated attempts at recovery. We distinguish a name change from the end of a working carrier—and a shutdown from the bankruptcy paperwork that sometimes followed. Archival photographs, company equipment, preserved trucks and later shutdown footage show the different chapters of these histories. Which company did you drive for, load freight onto, or see most often? Share the company name, terminal, route or hometown you remember. The American Attic remembers the companies, machines and people behind American trucking history. Archival imagery includes company photographs and historical collections credited within the original images, together with short news excerpts. Earlier equipment, later fleets and preserved vehicles are identified on screen where appropriate.