Overnite Transportation Founder J. Harwood Cochrane passes away at 103

Logistics Management regrets to report that trucking magnate J. Harwood Cochrane passed away this week at the age of 103.

Known as a pioneer in the less-than-truckload (LTL) sector, Cochrane founded Overnite Transportation in 1935 when he was 22, leading the company for decades and eventually selling the company to Union Pacific Corp. in 1986 for $1.2 billion. He stayed with Overnite as chairman until 1990. In 1991, Cochrane founded another trucking company, truckload carrier Highway Express, which was sold to Celadon in 2003.

UPS bought Overnite in 2005 and the company became known as UPS Freight.

Cochrane began his career in transportation utilizing two-horse wagons, and over the length of his career witnessed the birth and evolution of the trucking industry, according to a bio on him when he was the keynote speaker at the 2014 NASSTRAC Shippers Conference & Transportation Expo.

Cochrane had a unique perspective that provided a deep level of insight into the history of the trucking industry from the Great Depression through the Great Recession, growing a successful trucking company under government regulation of the trucking industry, through the transition to deregulation, and against the constant competition from the railroads, the bio stated.

As Cochrane grew Overnite’s business over the years, he began acquiring other carriers throughout the country and subsequently increased his role in the industry, according to an article in the Richmond, Va. Times-Dispatch.

The article noted that Cochrane advised U.S. Presidents on the early interstate highway system, as he had “grown weary of driving trucks on treacherous “dirt and gravel roads” across the country.

Cochrane served as both a role model and mentor to Jack Holmes, who recently retired at president of UPS Freight.

“He was the best,” Holmes told LM. “I was very fortunate to have him guiding me along the way.  I believe he was the most important figure in the trucking industry. He promoted an atmosphere of family first and frustrated numerous organizing attempts for generations and is the coauthor of the right to work language still in existence today.”

Cochrane was predeceased by his wife, Louise, who passed away last December at the age of 99. They were married for 81 years.