Freightliner trucks are a division of the Daimler Corporation (Daimler Trucks of North America). They produce mainly the heavier duty class 8 trucks, but also manufacture small class 5-7 trucks as well. They can trace their roots back to the early 1930’s when they used to produce reconstructed Fageols, back then called Consolidated Freightways (CF) and built trucks designed to handle the mountains of Western USA.
Source: www.dieseltrucksales.net
The first actual trucks to have the name Freightliner were produced in 1942. They were manufactured in their Consolidated Freightways’ facility that was located in Salt Lake City, Utah. But like most everything production was halted during World War Two in support of the war effort. After the war they began selling their vehicles to regular consumers again. In the early 1960’s Freightliner opened a plant in Canada (Burnaby, British Columbia), as a way to cut duty penalty on import into out northern neighbor.
Over the years they saw a lot of changes from model designs, technology and even locations. But the real change came in the 1980’s. First there was the ‘Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982’, this changed many of the standards and taxes that related to the trucking industry. Also in 1981 Freightliner was sold to Daimler-Benz. Additionally several of their plants were permanently closed. Things really turned around for them in the 90’s though and they made several purchases, diversifying their operations.
