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(erielack) REA Questions

I worked for REA Express as supervisor of their NY computer center in
1963-64 (I was one of three people under the age of 40 out of 250
employees in the NY finance center.) It began as Adams Express, became
Railway Express Agency with stock held by America's Class I railroads.
After pioneering "Air Express" in the late 50's they reorganized as "REA
Express" with the stock still held by the railroads. William B. Johnson
became president (1962?) with an attempt to capitalize on their
exclusive rights (Air Express took priority after US mail, before the
airline's own freight and baggage, same on trains) and routes. With all
the train-off's occurring in the early 60's, REA obtained the right from
the ICC to establish a truck franchise on parallel routes to the
passenger train cessations. Since this was the era of total
air/train/truck regulation, these trucking franchises became extremely
valuable. We must also remember that REA alone was a common carrier,
required/allowed to take anything a shipper wanted to ship. United
Parcel Service (UPS) which was already nationwide from its beginning as
a deliverer of packages for NY department stores, was not a common
carrier - you had to register as a shipper/customer, and UPS only would
take merchandise/shipments they made a profit on. I remember well when
UPS would pick up a garment manufacturer's high-profit shipments, then
REA would pick up the low-profit shipments (the example was hats, they
are high cube low weight.) 

By 1965-66 REA assembled a management team to capitalize on Air Express'
exclusive rights and all their trucking franchises (very valuable then.)
The work force, heavily dominated by the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks
with a little Teamsters mixed in, did not have the "get up and go" of
UPS or other package delivery companies which were springing up. Indeed,
I saw a Teamsters contract with UPS in 1964 in the NY area which
>mandated< a minimum piece-handling rate for the UPS driver that we were told was 4 times the then REA average. I think that is when I started looking around for a different IBM computer position. I left. 

My friends in REA's marketing dept. tried hard, but they could not get
the reliability or the customer relations necessary in the new business
climate. They still had high hopes when disaster struck - someone can
correct my date of about 1971 - the ICC deregulated the trucking
industry, and REA's most valuable asset, their trucking franchises along
any route previously or presently served by a railroad passenger train,
became worthless. Anyone could buy a truck and enter the business of
hauling freight or packages or whatever. Their other hopeful subsidiary,
REA Leasing Company which leased TOFC trailers to the railroads, went
down the tubes with REA, I would say 1971. I still see trailers with
"REAZ xxxxxx" "RELZ xxxxxx" or "RUPZ xxxxxx" occasionally. 

Railway Express Agency was an American institution, you shipped your
trunk to college by them, you shipped dead bodies by them (ICC
regulations in their infinite wisdom and millions of pages even decreed
the size of nails which had to be used in the wooden boxes in which
coffins were carried, such was the oppressive atmosphere in which REA
operated.) It could be the subject of a Norman Rockwell painting, with
the station agent loading packages from the green platform wagon into
the express car during a passenger train stop (and if there was a lot of
freight, the REA agent's friendship with the mail clerk was the only
thing that kept the train long enough to load all the express! The train
only had to wait for US mail.)

With their truck routes (which could be sold or leased in the old days
of regulation) worthless, REA soon ceased operations. I think their
financial people figured that with an old-style, railroad-mentality
workforce, they could not compete with the plethora of new start-ups
brought into existence with de-regulation. I am not sure if, prior to
the end, there was not additional stock sold, or if ownership still
rested with the Class I railroads. REA Leasing Co. could have gone on,
but I suspect its assets were sold to Trailer Train or someone else. I
still have my little red lapel pin with an X on the red background, I
doubt if there is any corporate remnant. 

REA had the ground floor in package delivery (although as the only
nationwide common carrier they alone were forced to take profitable as
well as unprofitable shipments) both in surface transport and air. But
the new era of "customer service" and UPS and FedEx, with drivers
running to and fro in shorts, would soon pass them completely. They
might have had a chance to re-orient the company, but trucking
de-regulation was probably the final straw. And the "new economy" of
speedy delivery and top-notch customer service (in 1967 I tried to ship
a box to Denver by Air Express - it took me 27 minutes and a fight with
the station agent in Hartsdale, NY) left them in the dust. It was a sad
day for a romantic like me.
Joel McEachen
who did see express cars in Jersey City (Erie) and Hoboken (DL&W) -
eighty footers could not go through the PRR Hudson tunnels and had to be
cut out of the PRR and LV trains in NJ and brought to Sunnyside Yards by
lighter or shipped over the Poughkeepsie Bridge, thus Conrail's
discontinuance of the marine departments and the burning of the
Poughkeepsie Bridge also would have seriously affected REA Express in
the NY metro area.

>------------------------------
>Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 13:05:22 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Will <"alcoman_@_net.bluemoon.net">
>Subject: (erielack) REA Questions
>Been thinking about the REA and this is not a trivia contest...just
>looking for some information.
>Was it owned by the railroads or was it a private company?
>What year did it go out of business/shut down/go into bankruptcy??
>Are there any corporate remnants remaining???
>Thanks in advance...
>Will Semanchuk-Enser  Technical Support & Co-Network Administrator
>The Blue Moon Online System - www.bluemoon.net  "alcoman_@_bluemoon.net"
>---------------------------------------------------------------------

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