McLean Trucking Company [1]
McLean Trucking Company
by Robert E. Ireland, 2006
[2]
[3]In 1931, when Malcolm P. McLean [4] began working at a service station, North Carolina was rapidly becoming a major east-west transport route. Recognizing the potential for motor freight carrying, the Maxton native bought his first truck in 1934 and began hauling dirt for WPA [5] road construction projects. Later, he transported textiles to New York. By the mid-1960s, the McLean Trucking Company had become the fifth-largest trucking company in America, with a fleet of 5,000 trucks and trailers and 65 terminals scattered throughout 20 states. The Winston-Salem [6] terminal was considered the largest in the world when it was constructed in 1954.
McLean (who died in 2001 at age 87) sold his company in 1955 for $6 million and bought a small tanker firm, which he renamed Sea-Land [7]. After becoming a pioneer in container shipping, he cashed in those shares for $160 million in 1969.
Reference:
Thomas C. Parramore, Express Lanes and Country Roads: The Way We Lived in North Carolina, 1920-1970 (1983).
Additional Resources:
Article in Chicago Tribune: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-01-11/business/8601030755_1_mclean-employees-trucking-filing [8]
North Carolina Digital Collections [9] search results for McLean Trucking Company
Image Credit:
Malcolm Mclean, founder of Mclean Trucking Co. Image availabl from PBS. Available from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/mclean_hi.html [2] (accessed June 18, 2012).
McLean Trucking Company Patch. Image available from NC Historic Sites. Available from http://collections.ncdcr.gov [10](accessed June 19, 2012).
1 January 2006 | Ireland, Robert E.
