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Oral History Interview with John Thomas Outlaw, June 5, 1980. Interview H-0277. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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  • Abstract
    When trucking companies in North Carolina came under pressure from state legislators to comply with new regulations, they decided to establish a rate bureau and looked to John Thomas Outlaw to head the operation. Outlaw left his home state, South Carolina, to do so. In this interview, however, rather than describing his personal experiences, he outlines the growth of the trucking industry in the South during the twentieth century and some of the issues trucking companies faced, such as an increasingly complex set of regulations and the growing need for technical expertise. He connects trucking to the spread of railroads and paved roads, and offers his thoughts on the mildly successful incursion of unions into the industry. This interview, though brief, will be a rich resource for researchers interested in the trucking industry in North Carolina and the South as a whole.
    Excerpts
  • The growth of the trucking industry
  • Post-WWII boom in the trucking industry
  • Ending rate discrimination in the railroad industry
  • Different factors influence trucking rates
  • Complex licensing issues for the trucking industry
  • Charlotte, and the state of North Carolina, become trucking leaders
  • Professionalization of the trucking industry
  • Unions in the trucking industry
  • Increasing need for truck maintenance spurs industry growth
  • Black-owned trucking businesses are few
  • Fears of deregulation of the trucking industry
  • Learn More
  • Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
  • Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
  • Subjects
  • Trucking
  • The Southern Oral History Program transcripts presented here on Documenting the American South undergo an editorial process to remove transcription errors. Texts may differ from the original transcripts held by the Southern Historical Collection.

    Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.