Leland James

Leland James was the American trucking entrepreneur who created Consolidated Freightways in 1929 in Portland, Oregon. He was 36 years old when he merged four short-haul Portland trucking companies into a single firm and began widening its operations, which soon carried freight between many scattered cities of Oregon and Washington. He remained chairman of the company in 1950, when it was one of the largest trucking firms in the western United States, and in 1955 he named Jack Snead president, which began a period of acquisitions. Soon after World War II he also started the Freightliner Corporation in Portland to supply the company with larger, lighter and more sophisticated trucks and trailers. Consolidated sold Freightliner to Daimler-Benz in 1981. His career links the growth of regional trucking to the later heavy truck maker.