FREIGHTLINER

Freightways Mfg. Corp. (1940-1942)
Salt Lake City, Utah
Freightliner Corp. (1947-1981)
Portland, Oregon and elsewhere
Freightliner Corp. Div. Daimler-Benz (1981-2008)
Freightliner Corp. Div. Daimler Trucks North America (2008-present)
Many production plants.

This is a Freightliner emblem (c1947-1953)   lktec
Size: 566mm wide 88mm high  MM: None

Leland James, president of Consolidated Freightways, Inc. was dissatisfied with the trucks on the market in the late 1930's. He wanted something better, a lightweight truck for heavy duty line-haul work which would give the maximum legal payload capacity. But when he told truck makers what he wanted, none of them would build it. So, he decided to do it himself.

He set up a subsidiary called Freightways Manufacturing Corporation and went into production in 1940 with a new diesel powered lightweight cab-over-engine truck using standard components for operation by the parent company. War time metal priorities forced a shut-down of the Freightliner plant in 1942. After World War II in 1947, Freightliner production resumed again in Portland, Oregon by a new subsidiary called Freightliner Corporation. The new Freightliners were one ton lighter using metallurgical advances developed during the war and the performance of the new diesel trucks was excellent. In 1948 the first Freightliners were sold to an outside customer.

In 1951 the White Motor Company (see White Trucks) became the sales and service organization for Freightliner and the trucks made available across America and Canada. The truck nameplate was changed to White Freightliner until the sales agreement was terminated by Freightliner in 1977 and the original Freightliner emblem was brought back. In the meantime Freightliner had developed many new truck models and had increased production in several new plants across America.

In 1981 Freightliner was bought by Daimler-Benz and production was further expanded. Over the next few years Freightliner acquired several other companies, including American LaFrance in 1996, which was resold in 2005, Ford's heavy duty truck business in 1997, which was renamed Sterling, and Western Star Trucks in 2000. By 2005 Freightliner was the largest producer of heavy duty trucks in America. In 2008 Freightliner became a division of Daimler Trucks North America, itself a subsidiary of Daimler AG. Freightliner continues today as a major manufacturer of large trucks in America (as of 2021).

Emblems

The first Freightliner trucks built in the 1940-1942 period carried a large painted, cast metal radiator emblem, see photo below, which shows Leland James standing in front of a Freightliner truck in 1942:

Leland James & Freightliner truck emblem (1942)   

The painted cast aluminum Freightliner truck emblem shown above at the top of this post and again below is an example of a Freightliner emblem from the later 1940's. This Freightliner emblem is scarce.

This is a Freightliner radiator emblem (1947-1953)   lktec
Size: 566mm wide 88mm high   MM: None

In 1951, after the White Motor Company became the sales and service organization for Freightliner, there was a new White Freightliner radiator emblem, see example shown below:

This is a White Freightliner showing the radiator emblem (1955)  gary alan nelson

This is the painted cast aluminum White Freightliner radiator emblem shown below. This White Freightliner radiator emblem is scarce.

This is a White Freightliner radiator emblem (early 1950's)  lktec
Size: 422mm wide 91mm high   MM: None

The following is an example of a later White Freightliner radiator emblem:

This is a White Freightliner radiator emblem (late 1950's)   mjs
Size: 550mm wide 113mm high    MM: None