Page 8 - Robeson Living Fall 2018

One Truck

Delivers

Man of the

Century

By Blake Tyner

a much-needed service for his area of North Carolina. He
founded McLean Trucking Co. with the help of his sister,
Clara McLean, and brother, Jim McLean. Based in Red
Springs, North Carolina for a short time they soon moved
to the nearby Fayetteville. They quickly built their fleet
to five trucks, hiring drivers and allowing McLean to step
back from driving to build the customer base.

A lull in the economy in 1937 found it necessary for Mc-
Lean to resume driving. It was during this time that the
Clara sitting in the cab of a McLean Trucking, James and idea of containerization was born. He had just arrived at
Malcom standing beside the truck Hoboken, New Jersey to deliverer a load of cotton bales
for shipment abroad. In later life McLean recalled the
“To Malcom McLean...father of containerisation, whose moment to American Shipper, a magazine:
vision sparked a global revolution in transportation which I had to wait most of the day to deliver the bales, sitting
continues today, and whose vigilance has strengthened there in my truck, watching stevedores load other cargo.
America in both peace and war,” read the plaque unveiled It struck me that I was looking at a lot of wasted time and
on the occasion of the New York-New Jersey round table money. I watched them take each crate off a truck and slip
honoring Malcom McLean in 1998. Transportation Secre- it into a sling, which would then lift the crate into the hold
tary Rodney Slater told McLean: “You totally transformed of the ship. Once there, every sling had to be unloaded,
transportation and accelerated world trade with your no- and the cargo stowed properly. The thought occurred to
tion of the container for ship, rail, and truck transport. Your me, as I waited around that day, that it would be easier
moment’s insight enabled trade and commerce to flow to lift my trailer up and, without any of its contents being
faster, better, and cheaper, not only for America but for touched, put it on the ship.
all nations,” In his years in business Malcom McLean has
managed to have an almost immeasurable effect on every This idea of easing the burden of transporting goods
aspect of the shipping industry from trucks to trains and stayed forefront in his mind for years to come as he was
ships. building his trucking company. In 1950 the McLean
Trucking headquarters relocated from Fayetteville to
Who was this man that so influenced the world of trans- Winston Salem. The Company employed 1700 workers
portation? Malcom Purcell McLean, II was born the fourth in 32 terminals throughout the country and was grossing
of eight children to Malcom Purcell McLean and Almena $12 million dollars per year. It was the largest trucking
Currie in Maxton, North Carolina on November 14, 1913. company in the south and the fifth largest trucking com-
In 1931 during the height of the depression, he graduated pany in the United States.
from Maxton High School and was working at a gas sta-
tion. He saved up to buy a second-hand truck went into the Finally, in 1955 almost eighteen years after the thought
business of hauling produce, dirt and other products for the of container shipping enter the mind of McLean he took
local community. McLean soon saw that he could provide his first step in making that dream a reality. He purchased