In 1965 a truck driver sacrificed himself to save others as his brakes failed on a steep hill while he was transporting bananas. The compelling story became the subject of a folk song by Harry Chapin almost 10 years later.
: In 1947, tragedy struck the port in Texas City, Texas, where a French ship carrying highly flammable fertilizer caught fire and caused devastation to the port town. But the lessons learned from the disaster likely saved lives in the years following, according to the latest episode of Tracks Through Time.
A dockworker strike in 1977 caused major losses to container lines at the time. Their response was to impose a 10% surcharge. But shippers did not take it lying down.
Transcontinental mail in the United States began on Sept. 15, 1858, when the Overland Mail Service began after it won a contract to connect St. Louis to the Pacific Coast by mail within 25 days.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association started out of necessity. Read more about the story of its beginning.
While there is debate over the actual founder of Labor Day, it cannot be denied that its history laid the groundwork for the better conditions for laborers today, even if we still have some room to grow.
Today’s refrigeration systems in transportation are extremely sophisticated, rooted in a history that reaches back nearly 150 years.
In 1976, an investigation into rate rebating and malpractice by carriers did not put a similar spotlight on freight forwarders. An article in American Shipper at the time questioned whether that was fair.
FreightWaves covers some of the most interesting stories of the history of transportation and freight.
A story from 1976 shows a battle between a shoe manufacturer and a shipper over what the former believed was an “unreasonable rate.” The company-versus-company drama exhibits the complexity of international trade.
The legend of Casey Jones remains alive today in music and pop culture. But the real story is about a serious crash and an act of heroism.
In March 1976, the Mississippi River was logjammed for eight straight days, causing massive shipping losses with an estimated 100 towboats and 900 barges stuck by the riverbank. The event spurred serious reform for operation on this vital route.
A story reported in the January 1976 issue of American Shipper tells of a prepaid shipment headed for Bordeaux, France, that ended up stuck in Jacksonville, Florida, causing the fertilizer cargo to rot.
This episode of Tracks Through Time takes a look at how a loophole kept a supply chain of ingredients for bootleg and bathtub gin legal during the Prohibition era.
snapshot of ports in 1991 reveals the importance of a new radio-frequency technology launch at the time, when a terminal in Honolulu first received the tech.
In an article published in 1992, American Shipper details the first use of barcodes for shipping Chrysler vehicles.
This episode of Tracks Through Time focuses on the crisis over the Suez Canal that put Egypt at odds with France, Britain and Israel. The story has surprising twists and unexpected secret motives. Find out how this shaped the future of shipping routes and globalization.
One route during the Han Dynasty connected Europe and Asia and was the start of trade and supply chains as we know them today.
Pricing in ocean shipping was done much differently in the 1970s compared to today. To simplify things, a group of executives created a game around the concept for workers to play.
One shipment of grapefruit to Japan threatened the future of the Florida citrus industry after Caribbean fruit fly larvae were discovered. Japan enacted an embargo on all Florida citrus to protect its own citrus groves in the southern islands. The embargo was lifted after Florida’s sector worked tirelessly to eradicate the larvae.
