Increasing need for truck maintenance spurs industry growth
Outlaw describes the history of the trucking industry's need for maintenance. Early trucks required extensive maintenance, but as technologies improved, and as record-keeping and coordination increased, that need diminished. Outlaw goes on to describe the growth of organizations that contribute to managing the industry and the rise of separate industries devoted to meeting the needs of truckers.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with John Thomas Outlaw, June 5, 1980. Interview H-0277. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- ALLEN TULLOS:
-
One other kind of direction would be the other sorts of industries that
came out of the trucking industry. I'm thinking of things
like mechanics and machinery, repair people and equipment servicing and
all of these kinds of industries. Could you talk any about the growth of
those related… Or do companies make it traditionally a
practice to conduct those things themselves within their own company, or
are there specialized servicing mechanic companies?
- JOHN THOMAS OUTLAW:
-
Starting back with more or less the Model T Ford, naturally most any man
that had a little adaption to being a mechanic could almost fix a unit.
And when the operations began to expand into different areas, this light
equipment just couldn't stand great distances. So the
trucking industry, we'll say in North Carolina, a carrier
would probably have three or four places to repair his own equipment or
at least have it maintained, say from here to New England, New York. It
was just understood that the truck was going to break down in those days
and have flat tires and so forth, so the carriers began to think in
terms of how to prevent that. And then they began to make demands on the
manufacturers for bigger and better equipment, which the manufacturers
did supply. And the equipment then started off with the gas motors, and
in as little as 50,000 miles they'd have to have an overhaul.
And there were always repairs to be made, and that's the
reason why a number of carriers would have any number of different
maintenance places up and down the highways. At least they would make a
contract with a garage or something to fix their equipment. And then
came the diesel, and the diesels, almost from the very beginning, could
operate 100,000 miles without any major repairs. And now today they have
diesels that operate way above 300,000 miles without any major repairs.
And usually then they bring them in because of the
distance they've travelled, and they have what they call
preventive maintenance. All the diesel records are kept, so that they
know exactly what is being needed to be replaced. For instance, if a
carrier is having a problem with a certain thing about a tractor
trailer, they could tell the manufacturer right quick, "Well,
this item is breaking down on this unit, and we want you to give us some
help here." I have known manufacturers to send their top
personnel to a company to review and see the operations and go over it
and correct problems that come about. Just like in the safety end of it,
where the Safety Council was formed, by the early fifties it was
necessary to form a Maintenance Council within the Association, and that
Maintenance Council still meets now on a monthly basis, more or less in
Charlotte for that area, and then a few years ago we organized another
Maintenance Council around the Triad Area, and we have one that was
organized two years ago in the eastern part of the state at Wilson and
Rocky Mount and that area. But these men get together, and they have the
very top engineers to come down, and if they're going to have
something new like a fuel pump or anything that needs to be explained,
where the individual's got to work on something they are not
accustomed to or know something more intricate about a certain part of a
truck, they send these people in, and they lecture to them and give them
the full background on it. And, too, if any of the carriers are having a
problem in safety or maintenance or whatnot, they can talk among
themselves and get information. They're very free with this
type of thing. Now the Interstate Commerce Commission, of course,
besides regulating rates, regulates accounting and that type of thing,
and we organized an Accounting Council within the state in the late
forties. And these accountants get together, and quite often the
Interstate Commerce Commission would issue an order that maybe would be
absolutely impossible to comply with, or such and such a thing that
would not be a reasonable way of arriving at a
certain line item, the cost or whatnot. So these members will form a
committee, and they'll go before the Interstate Commerce
Commission representing either this Association or a group of carriers
and very often can get it modified or changed, so they do a very good
job there. The Sales Council… Back in the old days, anybody
could be a salesperson. In fact, they'd just call and say,
"Do you need anybody to haul?" or something like that.
Now we have very fine young men calling on customers with real knowledge
of their company and real knowledge of their rates, and
they're professional salesmen. And we have a very large Sales
Council and a very outstanding one.