Love the old school trucking!!! I long for the good old days, before computers, cell phones and all the tracking. Thanks for the awesome video!!! Was driving for brown transport in 1990. Reminds me of those days. Great trip down memory lane. THANKS!!!!!!
I've seen this video once or twice in past several months or year & I never tire of watching for some odd reason. So here I am again watching this. 👍🇺🇸
I remember going with my dad to the yard in Phoenix when I was little. He worked there 30 years before they went bankrupt. He passed away in 2007 doing the job he loved. Rip Steve Reyes ❤
I’m so happy this video exists, My father worked at the Los Angeles Terminal for 36 years and when he retired he got me in for the last 8 years before they went out. A wonderful company to work for.
My truck number was 1249 and later 1301. I took pride in being at the pinnacle of the trucking industry. I kept myself in top shape and had my company uniforms custom-tailored for a flattering fit. The freeway waitresses loved us.
A premier fleet excellent over night service provider all their freight was on pallets ! I remember driving at night to L.A with my window down partially in the fog you could hear them coming in groups speeding @ 70 plus from behind in the hammer lane and then disappear in the night, those were the days!
Not a single one wearing a high-vis safety vest. Tsk tsk. LOL. I used to love hitting the interstate as a kid, and seeing these Freightliner cabovers running doubles up and down I-77 in the Carolinas. Brings back memories. Thanks for sharing.
When i was 8 i spent the summer riding with my dad in a 1966 Freightliner COE. (1967). It had a newly installed roof air conditioning unit in it. The installer accidentally pinched the drain tube shut allowing water to accumulate in the unit. I loved to lay on the"doghouse" with my head on the sleeper mattress and look out the windshield as we traveled. Then my dad had to brake hard which sent lots of Coldwater showering down on me, talk about a rude awakening...... I loved that summer, it turned out to be our last summer together. He died at age 43 in the spring. I miss you Dad. But someday ill ride with him again.
I currently drive for Saia out of Sacramento and this is now our yard. Awesome to see the origins of the terminal and classic LTL trucks. The yard was so spacious! Much different today but even 30 years ago the trailers on the south fence were packed tight like sardines so nothing much has changed there lol.
Good ol' days! I remember them very well. I drove for Adams Air Cargo, back in 94-95. We both ran at night. We were "castrated" to 60MPH, Willi G did 70. As I see, not just on I-5, but in their yard too. They were actually the "Fastest LTL"
my dad was a salesman for willig George Deluca passed away 5 years ago willig was a big part of our family's life Erik Anderson and John Simerson great people
I pulled tons of doubles back then myself. I worked for a contractor leased to Roadway Package System back then. I was assigned a Freightliner cabover with the (I think, its been so long), 42" bunk. I was young, dumb, and skinnier then and my back didn't hurt. I don't miss the ride of a spring ride single axle cabover or crawling over the dog house to go to bed. Drove the east coast from NJ to Fla To Pa and back to NJ home back then weekly.
LOL I haven’t read/heard that since around ‘95-96. Back then I crawled along for DART International (shit outfit) and while going north up the 99 delivering Sears, I could get back on the 99 up shifting with no traffic in sight: zip! Out of no where there’d be a Willig set to my left passing me like I was standing still. Later on when I became an Owner/Operator my mechanics’ father was a retired mechanic for Willig. Told me that he would open up the governor on all the tractors he worked on. His last name was Harnish.
I remember when I was stated at Alameda NAS.I used to go to the Malibu Grand Prix off Hegenberger Rd.,and after video games I'd sit at the stadium and wash the trucks all afternoon. West Coast trucks are the best.
I love old trucking footage. 1990 was the year I was born. I remember when my mom would take me to work with her at some warehouse years ago and those cab over Ford trucks with Roadway would come make ltl deliveries.
I was kind of hoping to see some loading going on. I remember being in those old trailers with the wood sheet sides and floors and the woody sort of smell when you are in there.They were so dark. I unloaded many a Willig, and Delta, trailer back in the day. They were the companies that had the older trailers with the wooden floors and sides.Man, did they creak and groan when you drove in there, and you had to make sure you didn't drive into a hole in the floor. The good 'ol days.
I drove for Imperial Truck Lines out of LA, and when I worked local I drove a COE Ford gas powered tractor as shown here. We lovingly referred to them as "baby whale". A great tractor for local p/u & d/l.
Most Willig tractors had no passenger seat. The small window on the right side behind the door could be used to see vehicles in the blind spot area. I drove for Safeway and we had the same set-up. Only used on non-sleeper tractors.
@@roylehew3164 I was wondering if they were mules too either way I would of been honored to work with these fellas and drive a good ol cabover. I drive mainly in the city and wish I was in a COE sure would make backin a breeze.
From how many Fords (and Volvos?) are in the yard they were probably also used on local runs, similar to those used by Roadway. I’m sure many truck spotters can attest to that!
They was buggying thru the parking lot good to see hard workers having fun safety on the job nice to see older style trucks enjoy the sound of the airbrakes!
Not true,many old truckers were fatasses,I've seen plenty of them at truckstops so stop making it seem like they were all in good shape, some didn't bath for weeks,didn't brush their teeth, couldn't stay off them dirty lot lizard while getting divorced and so on👍
Nowadays I don't see cabovers out on the roads as often as I use to here in the USA back in the day when the length limit was shorter. Those were the days. 🚛🚛🚛🚛🚛🚛🚛🚛🚛🚛😎👍
Love this video. These guys didn’t fuck around and they loved their jobs from the looks of it! Looks like the equipment was well maintained, and even the yard looked way better than most LTL yards I’ve observed. Go to a Saia or Yellow yard and you’ll see what I mean
Willig had a big presence in Phoenix in the late 1970s and thru the 1980s. As I recall they were a relatively young company and was surprised when I heard they went down.
Willig equipment wasn't much to look at, but always kept clean. I'm sure the equipment was most likely kept in good working order. I miss seeing Willig trucks on the road. I've shared a truck stop restaurant booth with a Willig driver more than one time.....Good people.
I used to drive I-5 at night between SF and LA. The saying was, back then, 'if you passed a Greyhound (bus), you got a ticket. If you passed a Willig, you went to jail.' Those guys took the governors off their road tractors, and drove at about 70 mph. Of course, the road at night just had trucks on it, so it wasn't too bad.
These things remind me of driving an old dollar truck for Midwestern a few years ago my ass can still feel every bump on 80 at least what I have left of it
Jimmy Carter was “convinced” by the ATA that the Trucking Industry was run “Inefficiently” costing consumers. The ICC, which was the real Target, was created to keep Mega Companies/Corporations from Monopolizing the Trucking Industry aka the ATA. The result is the Cluster “Flop” we see these days.
Never saw a Freightliner like the one at 1:08 with a window in the right side of the cab behind the door.At least not here in the east.One those would be rare now.
Not 1 fatass truck driver, but most suffered from kidney damage because of the driver's seat directly over the front axle and no air ride. We were hoping to see them back up the doubles, that's a true art form. 👍
The first road tractor I owned was a 6x4 1992 Day Cab Freightliner, 140 inch wheelbase, 9 spd. direct drive with 4:33 rears; at 1500 RPM I was doing 53 mph. Had a Cummins N14 435. Probably the best diesel Cummins ever made. Lucky Supermarket spec’d it out. To save on tires the steering tires were under sized by Luckys. Stupid thing to do. The nose was dropped with the back axle floating lightly on the pavement. My tread on my back tires were scrubbed off. First chance I got I replaced the steering tires and rims; 70/22.5s belong on the drive axles ONLY. I put 80/24.5 wheel assemblies on the steering axle as specified, leveled out the chassis to where it belonged. I also replaced the POS Bostrum air ride Kindergarten seat with a Standard air ride seat I got from the local Volvo dealership sized for adults. The ride improved Greatly, even with the short semi elliptical springs on the steering axle.
I was Hired at Roadway that year ! I Remember Willig very well. September 1990, really Great Vid. Brings back memories. Ugh those Horrible Ford C-Cabs. Yuck lol
At least Willig gave their drivers a Jake! Something that Consolidated never did. I used to see CF trucks smoking their brakes 3 or 4 times a week coming westbound on Donner Summit. CF cheaped on their trucks.
Can you tell they are in a hurry to hook the outbound sets and get the F out a there? Hah! I was doing the same thing at Reddaway,Eugene OR. About that time,except it was at about midnight! Todd the retired trucker
Willig was out of business five years later. Deregulation in 1994 allowed out of state carriers to compete in California. Willig was charging higher rates because they were a union shop. They couldn't offer competitive rates with the new carriers, so they folded in October of 1995.
Milk and Honey Homestead I know what you're saying deregulation for the most part is stupid it open the door for a shitload of fly by night carriers that cut corners and participate in unsafe practices and haul freight for next to nothing just to have their equipment moving even if there losing money real shitheads after deregulation I've seen them come and I've seen them go
that is why you have the truck driving mills (schools) and the megas that team inexperienced drivers with another driver with minimal experience. the trainers arent even season veterans anymore. i did the werner bullshit. i came home from being gone for 8 weeks and took local work. i now drive milk truck home daily. i make pretty good money for not going on the road. i noticed that these willig trucks did not have sleepers. were these guys home daily? if not where did they sleep? these are all day cabs in the video.
@@ad356 : I worked LTL for Viking freight system, the day cabs were the norm, a linehaul driver will run his hrs to a particular terminal, company will put you up in hotel over night, call you out following morning and drag a set of boxes back to home terminal. Those smaller cabover tractors were for the city P&D drivers, who are local route runners and are home daily.
@@ad356 -- like yellow back in the day it was called hub and spoke, the line drivers dropped their trailers no more than five hours out and brought trailers back to their home terminal it is the best way every makes it home daily to their homes and families
They happy because you made good money & could see a nice retirement coming. I was single back in them days. No joke put 3 paydays back in bank lived on 1 a month unless huge expense was needed. Now days price of living is sky high you counting pennies. Lucky if even got company insurance & 9 times out 10 it will not pay for nothing. All while watching rich get richer & middle hard working class keep getting smaller & more poor.
@@williamschirmacher6526 Carter started the deregulation of trucking and Reagan finished it off..Just a matter of time after that when the union shops couldn't compete anymore There is enough blame for both parties buddy...
@@bigstuff52 At least Reagan made every state go to 80,000 pounds, and make every state permit doubles. It's interesting after Carter deregulated trucking, the teamsters still kept supporting the democrats, biden killed over 22,000 union jobs his first 2 days on the job, and unions still support democrats. How many union jobs need to be destroyed before the unions stop supporting democrats ?
Those were good trucks back then. I even love the old B-Trains. Are these ones A-Trains or B-Trains? Anyway, those are beautiful trucks. I know the yellow is Golden Yellow. But what is the darker color? Black or Dark Blue? Still awesome video. Thinks for posting this. Keep on trucking.
And now most of the major carriers don't pay shit either! Except if you own your own truck hauling Amazon frieght. I'm driving a tri axle dump and making way more money than i did working for Marten and CRST.
NAFTA ruined us more than you can imagine, putting our economy in hands of U.S goverment thanks to their mexican politicians puppets . They took from us our little economy independence and the whole country entered in one of the worst economic recessions. This is when the massive inmigration movement begins too.
Como me recuerdan estos trokes en la ruta de ontario.ca terminal de porland or yeje acorrer con ellos corrian como locos pero eran atoda madre con. Colejancia pincnes WILLG lococnones👍👍
I remember in early 90.s seeing some old Ford roadway trucks in Eagan minnesota. ..back then I had 2 take a double look...that old crap is still on the road. ...
There are still a bunch of garbage trucks with that cab design around. Some fire apparatus too as collectors pieces or rural departments. it is common in fire fighting agencies to obtain a garbage truck that still has cab and chassis in good shape and an easy to find parts for motor and remove the gone to beyond economical repair or impossible to find garbage compartment and replace it with an apparatus bed of some type.
Drivers had common sense back then... or should I say most had it. Nowadays so many drivers heads are lodged in the crack of their arse or should I say into their phone. We didnt have the mishaps back then like we do now.
