George B. Selden patents the first automobile using internal combustion, based on the Brayton Ready Motor in 1878.

Henry Ford installs the first moving assembly line (1913), making mass-produced vehicles viable.

Rudolf Diesel, a German inventor and mechanical engineer, is most well-known for his invention of the diesel engine. His treatise, “Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat-Engine to Replace the Steam Engine and the Combustion Engines Known Today,” formed the basis of his invention of the diesel engine.

1895
Rudolf Diesel is granted a patent for an efficient, compression ignition engine.

“[T]he Motor Carrier Act of 1980…is historic legislation [to the trucking industry]. It will remove 45 years of excessive and inflationary government restrictions and red tape. It will have a powerful anti-inflationary effect, reducing consumer costs by as much as $8 billion each year. And by ending wasteful practices, it will conserve annually hundreds of millions of gallons of precious fuel…The heart of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 is its call for prompt and sweeping change of the regulations that have insulated the trucking industry from competition since 1935. No longer will trucks travel empty because of rules absurdly limiting the kinds of’ goods a truck may carry. No longer will trucks be forced to travel hundreds of miles out of their way for no reason or prohibited senselessly from stopping to pick up and deliver goods at points along their routes. The Motor Carrier Act of 1980 will bring the trucking industry into the free enterprise system, where it belongs. It will create a strong presumption in favor of entry by new truckers and expanded service by existing firms. It will build upon progress the Interstate Commerce Commission has begun to make in opening opportunities for minorities, for women, and for all truckers who are eager to provide good service at a competitive price.”

– President Jimmy Carter, Motor Carrier Act of 1980 Statement on Signing S. 2245 Into Law.

Deregulation (or, more accurately, greatly reduced regulation) of interstate trucking saw virtually no increase in the volume of freight handled. However, since the Act was passed, the number of new firms has dramatically increased, especially low-cost, non-union carriers. Deregulation also allowed contract rate making without regulatory review, and it opened the field to freight brokers who could manage better matchups between the demand for transport services and the availability of carriers.

The Red Ball Express was a famous truck convoy system that supplied Allied forces moving quickly through Europe after breaking out from the D-Day beaches in Normandy in 1944. To expedite cargo shipment to the front, trucks emblazoned with bright red circles attached to the grille followed a marked route that was closed to civilian traffic. These trucks also had priority on regular roads.