well well, looks like I'll be doing my first review about a truck brand.
in case you haven't heard already, but as of December 2020, Freightliner is under a court order to improve the safety of their products and on top of that, they were also fined $30 million
dollars by the NHTSA after an investigation by them found that Freightliner had failed to recall dozens of safety defects in their vehicles.
the amount of recalls was practically extensive, I literally had no idea until I started work on this review, but one year prior in 2019, Freightliner was forced to issue 24 safety recalls
on their vehicles by the NHTSA and there have been 100 recalls in total on their flagship truck (the Freightliner Cascadia).
in a court trial, the judge found the Freightliner had no system in place to track any faults with their trucks and ordered $5 million dollars of the fine to be applied to upgrading
outdated paper based systems and to recall and convert software used by other automakers for decades...WHAT!, so let me get this straight, Freightliner hasn't upgraded their factories,
equipment, or systems for decades?, but hold on, it gets worst.
as of may 2021, Freightliner has three open investigations against them for electrical issues, including several fires that erupted on their vehicles,
O_O looks back behind me at my black cherry red Freightliner Cascadia QnQ why?, you were my favorite Freightliner, we could've been brothers sniffs and sobs.
several weeks after the fine was issued, Roger Nielsen, CEO of Freightliner was fired and replaced by a new CEO, John O'Leary, a senior executive from Mercedes Benz trucks and former CFO of
their parent company, Daimler Trucks, we'll see how the new CEO patches things up, I'm curious about the future of my favorite truck maker.
while Freightliner for now faces a possibly unfortunate future, it has an impressive past.

From humble beginnings:
it begins back in the end of the roaring 20's (1929) in Portland, Oregon with the company's founder, Leland James, he started his own freight company called Consolidated Freightways
(it's no longer around anymore), but following that company's founding he also started a corporate division to make semi trucks, for use in his company, it was called
Freightways Manufacturing.
they soon starting developing their first truck in their maintenance facility using Fageol vehicles as a starting point for their first design and placing a cab over the front axle.
shorter in length, the new Freightways truck allowed for CF to use a longer trailer while remaining in compliance with the stringent length of laws of the time.
in line with the company's name during the 30's, Freightways Manufacturing soon began branded their truck production under the a new name, Freightliner.
in addition to their shorter length, the trucks were lighter which helped maximize the use of engine power, which was essential for all the mountain grades in the western half of the
United States and Freightliner's designers knew this, for a lighter truck can climb mountains better than a heavy one.

The 1940's-50's:
it's 1942 and Leland renamed his Freightways Manufacturing division calling it Freightliner Corporation, as part of the launch of this new company, Freightliner debuts it's first truck with
an all aluminum cab.
at the same time, the world was at war so they shifted their focus to military production, after the second world war ended in 1945, Freightliner retooled and resumed truck production
in 1947, later in 1949, the company sold it's first vehicle outside of the Consolidated Freightways company to a Portland based forklift manufacturer called Hyster, the vehicle today is
preserved in the smithsonian collection in Washington D.C.
as it largely existed as a subsidiary of a trucking company, Freightliner sought to established a distribution network for it's product line, allowing for higher production volumes and
reduced costs.
in 1951, Freightliner entered into an agreement a Cleveland, Ohio based automaker, the White Motor Company, perhaps one of the largest truck makers in the country at the time, White sold
Freightliner COE's under the name of White-Freightliner (while all other Freightliner trucks produced for CF were branded purely as Freightliners).
in 1953, Freightliner introduced a cab with an overhead mounted sleeper (which further shortened the cab), the first generation shovelnosed cab was retired in 1954 in favor of a taller and
flatter WFT design, and as an option, a Mountaineer 4x4 system was also offered.
for 1958, Freightliner updated it's cab design to tilt forward 90 degrees, increasing access to the engine, a convenient innovation.

The 1960's:
there's not really much to say here in this chapter, but around this time, import tarrifs were imposed by Canada on the United States in the 60's which meant that it would difficult for
American companies to import products and other American made goods to Canada, and for Freightliner this was especially burdening for them considered that they sell trucks in Canada.
to reduce this burden, Freightliner opened it's first manufacturing facility in Canada in 1961 in Burnaby, British Columbia.
meanwhile back in the United States, to increase production in the states, the company opened assembly plants in Chino, California, and Indianapolis, Indiana, and in 1969, a second facility
was opened in their home base of Portland for parts production.

The 1970's:
by the start of the 1970's, the White Motor Company was in financial trouble, the problem was that they were over shopping for other companies, mainly ones that specialized in appliances
and agricultural equipment, they were consuming capitol without making a return, worst still is the relationship with Consolidated Freightways became frayed.
in 1974, the distribution agreement was terminated, and Freightliner soon began life as a freestanding manufacturer and distributor.
many of the first dealers were from the White Motor Company network, but some entrepeneurs also signed up to represent the trucks without the White Motor Company franchise as a complement.
at the same time, the company introduced it's first conventional model, an adaptation of the high COE mainstay product.
High COE's accounted for well over 50% of the U.S market back then due to the overall length regulations that the limited bumper to taillight dimensions of a big rig trailer to 55 feet
on interstate highways, conventionals were popular on western roads due to more convenient ingress/egress, better ride, and easier access to the engine for servicing.
in 1979, a new plant was built in Mount Holly, North Carolina, and a parts manufacturing plant was built in Gastonia, North Carolina, both in the Charlotte metropolitan area, as a result,
volumes continue to increase.
The year 1979 marked a consequential event in the evolution of Freightliner, and of the whole trucking and truck manufacturing industries, President Carter signed bills into law deregulating
transport both on the ground and in the skies, as a result, the deregulation changed the economics of trucking and removed the system of regulated carriage that protected carriers,
instead allowing more competition.

The 1980's:
the next three years had passed without much important happening, but then in 1982, the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA) was enacted which helped ease weight and length standards
and imposed a new tax on heavy trucks and the tires they use.
no longer was the overall length of semitrailer combinations restricted, but instead the trailer was specified to be not greater than 53 feet in length.
individual states retained more restrictive overall length laws , but fundamentally, the rules had changed forever.
Consolidated Freightways, a traditional unionized carrier that flourished in the era of deregulation, realized it was a fight for it's life.
in May of 1981, CF sold Freightliner to Daimler-Benz, allowing it to concentrate it's management attention and financial resources on it's traditional trucking business.
around this time, the Chino and Indianapolis plants were closed permanently.
Consolidated Freightways stayed in business up until 2002, on Labor day weekend in 2002, CF permanently closed it's doors for business.
in 1985, Freightliner introduced a new medium conventional series FLC 112 using the passenger portion of the cabin from the recently introduced Mercedes-Benz LK.
Mercedes cabins gradually became used for a number of Freightliner trucks, in 1989, Freightliner aquired a factory in Cleveland, North Carolina near Statesville that had been producing transit
buses for a German truck manufacturer, Man (yes, that's actually the name of the German truck maker, they call themselves Man).

the 1990's:
it's 1991, parent company Daimler-Benz withdrew from the medium duty truck segment, shifting it's presence to Freightliner.
serving as the replacement for the aging Mercedes-Benz L-1117, the Business Class made it's debut.
also called the FL series, the Business Class was a downsized version of the FLC112 sharing it's cab with the Mercedes-Benz LKN cabover.
along with a lighter GVWR, the FL was given a shorter hood with two headlights.
the first all new entry for the medium duty market in over a decade, the model line met with success.
another pronounced downturn in the industry's fortunes necessitated drastic measures to restore Freightliner to financial health, and Dr Dieter Zetsche, now the chairman of Daimler-Benz's
Board of Management, was dispatched to lead the project as CEO.
the Burnaby assembly plant was closed, replaced by a new facility in St. Thomas, Ontario.
cost reduction programs across the company restored profitability when the market rebounded. Significantly, production also commenced in Santiago Tianguistenco, Mexico, about 30 miles
outside Mexico City, in a plant owned by Daimler-Benz.
at that time, the plant was also producing buses, Brazilian-designed medium-duty trucks, and compact Mercedes-Benz passenger cars.
following the introduction of the medium-duty Business Class, Freightliner saw further evolution to its model range.
for 1996, the company introduced the Freightliner Century Class, its first completely new Class 8 conventional in over 20 years.
a year later, the company began production of cowled bus chassis, with the FS-65 derived from the medium-duty Business Class.
for 1999 production, the Freightliner Argosy debuted; directly replacing the FLB, the Argosy consolidated four previous Freightliner COEs into a single model range.
the first clean-sheet COE design from Freightliner since the Daimler acquisition, the Argosy largely eliminated the engine intrusion into the cab, sharing many body components and
electronics with the Century Class conventional.
in 1997, Freightliner acquired the truck-producing division of the Ford Motor Company and rebranded it as Sterling.
in 1999, Freightliner built its one-millionth vehicle. The Century Class conventional model family was expanded, adding the Columbia conventional, while sharing the same cab structure,
the Columbia is developed primarily for fleet applications (though both model lines become popular with owner-operators).

Company diversification:
the 1990s were a busy era for truck manufacturers in general, and for Freightliner in particular, under the leadership of flamboyant James L. Hebe, a former Kenworth sales executive
who joined the company in 1989.
During the decade, Freightliner made numerous acquisitions to further diversify itself:

1995 – Oshkosh Custom Chassis in Gaffney, South Carolina became Freightliner Custom Chassis, producing the underpinnings for walk-in vans used by companies such as UPS to deliver parcels
and Cintas for uniform laundry services; diesel recreational vehicles; conventional school buses; and shuttle buses, the Oshkosh and Freightliner partnership has dissolved,
and Oshkosh is no longer affiliated with Freightliner.

1996 – American LaFrance was purchased; a 130-year-old manufacturer of fire apparatus, it was Mr. Hebe's first employer.
American LaFrance had fallen on hard times and was moribund at the time of the acquisition.
at the end of the year, Freightliner acquired the rights of the heavy-truck product lines of Ford Motor Company.

1997 – As a result of the Ford heavy-truck acquisition, Freightliner created Sterling Trucks (using a long-dormant nameplate once owned by White Motor Company).
intended primarily as vocational trucks, the Sterling product line consisted of rebranded versions of the Ford Louisville/AeroMax and Ford Cargo.

1998 – Freightliner acquires bus manufacturer Thomas Built Buses, based in High Point, North Carolina. Sterling-brand trucks entered production in St. Thomas, Ontario
(sold concurrently with the final Ford heavy trucks).

2000's:
the 21st century, the Y2K panic has passed, everyone has laughed it off and moved on.
and meanwhile, changes were being made at Freightliner with it's merger deal of Daimler-Chrysler back in 1998.
for starters, Western-Star, a Canadian truck manufacturer, was aquired giving Freightliner it's third brand, originally an entity of General Motors, DaimlerChrysler acquired Detroit Diesel,
integrating its operations within Freightliner.
Coinciding with the fragile economy, Freightliner was awash in used trucks it could not sell; following the rapid expansion of the previous decade,
Freightliner was left with multiple poor-performing operations outside of its core truck brand which was in decline in a poor economy.
seeking new leadership, DaimlerChrysler installed former company CFO to begin a turnaround for Freightliner, by 2002, the Kelowna Western Star plant was closed (shifting to Portland),
along with a Thomas facility in Woodstock, Ontario (consolidating entirely to High Point).
for 2002, the Freightliner product line underwent multiple updates, and for the medium-duty segment, Freightliner introduced a second generation of the Business Class,
the Business Class M2, ranging from Class 5 to Class 8 severe-service conventionals.
in place of the cab derived from Mercedes-Benz, the M2 was designed entirely by Freightliner.
the Century Class model family was expanded further, debuting the Freightliner Coronado premium conventional.
styled similar to the FLD132 Classic XL, the Coronado shared its cab structure and technology with the Century Class and Columbia, marketed towards owner-operators.
in a further expansion of the vocational model line, the Freightliner Condor was introduced as the first low-entry COE; competing with the Autocar Xpeditor,
the Condor was developed nearly entirely for refuse applications.
in the early 2000s, the operations of Freightliner subsidiaries would undergo multiple changes.
following the acquisition of Western Star Trucks, Freightliner consolidated production of American LaFrance in the previous Western Star plant in Ladson,
South Carolina; the attempt to integrate production of specialized emergency vehicles into a company noted for high volume production capabilities proved unworkable.
while remaining the fifth-largest manufacturer in the emergency vehicle segment, American LaFrance was sold in 2005 to private equity fund,
with DaimlerChrysler retaining ownership of the Ladson factory.
for 2006, the Sprinter van underwent a redesign (for the first time); final assembly shifts to the former American LaFrance facility in Ladson, South Carolina.
while sold nearly exclusively as a cargo van, the Freightliner Sprinter is also offered as a passenger vehicle (alongside Dodge and Mercedes-Benz Sprinters).
after 2006 production, Freightliner ended sales of the Argosy cabover in North America.
the first company to produce a fully tilting cab, Freightliner was the final truck manufacturer in North America to offer a Class 8 cabover,
the Argosy remains in production in North America, sold exclusively for export.
in the summer of 2007, DaimlerChrysler was split, with the Freightliner parent company reorganizing itself as Daimler AG, Freightliner begins production of trucks in Saltillo, Mexico.
on January 7, 2008, Freightliner LLC was renamed Daimler Trucks North America, LLC (DTNA), operating as the parent company of the Freightliner Trucks brand,
alongside Sterling, Western Star, Detroit Diesel, and Thomas Built Buses.
for 2008, the company introduced Freightliner Cascadia, a new-generation Class 8 conventional. Intended as the successor to the Century Class and Columbia,
the Cascadia consolidated the two model lines; while styled as a scaled-up M2, the Cascadia was optimized for fuel economy, safety, and reliability.
within the vocational model line, the Condor low-entry COE was discontinued.
in 2009, Freightliner began production of natural gas versions of the Business Class M2 in its Mount Holly facility.
in March 2009, DTNA discontinued Sterling Trucks, citing substantial model overlap with Freightliner and decreasing market share (in spite of multiple product launches).
the closure of Sterling also brought a closure of the St. Thomas plant.

2010's to present:
after the closure of Sterling, the Freightliner model line underwent a transition.
while no changes were made to the M2, the FLD 120/132 Classic/Classic XL were discontinued for 2010 after the model year, the Columbia and Century Class were also discontinued,
at least in North America.
in line with the Argosy, production of the Century Class shifted entirely to export.
the Coronado long hood conventional was joined by the Coronado SD which was developed primarily for vocational applications.
in 2010, Freightliner introduced its first diesel-electric hybrid vehicle, based on a M2 106.
for 2011, the company debuted the SD model family.
alongside the Coronado SD introduced the previous year, two new models were added, the 108SD and 114SD, derived from the M2 model family.
in 2012, Freightliner celebrated its 70th anniversary, unveiling the Revolution concept vehicle.
constructed of carbon fiber and plastic, the cab featured a redesigned layout.
intended for use by a single driver, the passenger seat was replaced by a jump seat (converting into a sleeper bed); to optimize trailer hookups, the design included a rear access door.
as a result of increased demand for the Cascadia, parent company DTNA announced plans in 2012 to expand its workforce at its Cleveland, NC facility.
alongside the Cascadia, nearly 20% of trucks produced by the plant (including the Argosy and Century Class) were exported to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
in 2013, Freightliner expanded its alternative-fuel lineup, adding a natural-gas version of the Cascadia.
introduced as a premium option for the Cascadia, the Cascadia Evolution further enhanced aerodynamics and fuel economy (distinguished by its full rear wheel covers)
and improved interior features.
the Coronado was added to SD model family, renamed the 122SD.
on August 22, 2014, the Cleveland plant built the 3 millionth vehicle of Daimler Truck North America, a 2015 Cascadia Evolution.
at the time, Freightliner employed 2600 workers at the facility and 8000 employees in North Carolina.
in May 2015, the Freightliner Inspiration was unveiled near Hoover Dam.
the first road-licensed autonomous semitruck, the Inspiration was loosely based on a Cascadia.
a Level 3 autonomous vehicle, the autonomous driving system was equated to the autopilot system of an airliner (requiring operator presence).
for 2017 production, Freightliner introduced a second-generation Cascadia, adopting elements of the design from the Inspiration autonomous vehicle.
for 2018, Freightliner debuted the EconicSD low-entry COE, Intended largely for refuse applications, the model line is an adaptation of the Mercedes-Benz Econic.
in September 2019, parent company Daimler announced that it would be halting "its internal combustion engine development initiatives as part of its efforts to embrace electric vehicles.

but now it's time to return to 2021 and Freightliner's trouble, all that I mentioned in the first paragraphed at the top of this review, while it looks grim for Freightliner right now
with all of their current troubles, it doesn't mean they can't be able to turn themselves around like they have before, but for now?, the Freightliner's future doesn't look quite clear
right now.