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Peterbilt Motors Company is a manufacturer of medium- and heavy-duty Class
5 through Class 8 trucks headquartered in Denton, Texas. The company is a
subsidiary of PACCAR. Founded in 1939, Peterbilt operates manufacturing
facilities in Madison, Tennessee (1969), Denton, Texas (1980), and
Sainte-Therese, Quebec. From the early 1960s until the mid 1980s, the
company was based in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California,
with its headquarters, parts department, and main plant all in Newark,
California. The Newark plant closed in 1986; headquarters moved to Denton,
and engineering moved to Denton in 1993.
In the early part of the 20th century, Tacoma, Washington plywood
manufacturer and lumber entrepreneur T.A. Peterman was faced with a lumber
logistics problem. He couldn't get freshly felled logs from the forest to
his lumber mill quickly, or efficiently. In order to develop forest
assets, it would be necessary to improve upon the contrived methods of the
day: floating logs down river, or the use of steam tractors, and even
horse teams. Peterman knew that if he could develop the then nascent
automobile technology and build trucks, he could go a long way towards
solving his problem.
To this end, he was rebuilding surplus army trucks, improving the
technology with each successive vehicle. Shortly thereafter, he purchased
the assets of Fageol Motors of Oakland, California in 1938 in order to
supplement his need for a custom built logging truck chassis. Fageol had
gone into receivership in 1932. By 1938, the Great Depression had driven
the value of the assets to nearly zero. Peterman acquired the defunct
truck manufacturer and began to produce customized chain-drive trucks for
exclusive use by his timber concern. In 1939, he began to sell his
remarkable trucks to the public. T. A. Peterman died in 1945. His wife
Ida, sold the company to seven individuals within the organization
(management) less the land. They expanded it into a serious producer of
heavy-duty trucks. In 1958, Ida Peterman announced plans to sell the land
to develop a shopping center. The shareholders, not having the desire to
invest in a new manufacturing facility, sold it to PACCAR. PACCAR (Pacific
Car & Foundry Co), then primarily a manufacturer of railroad freight cars,
was looking to expand into truck manufacturing. PACCAR, which had acquired
the assets of Kenworth in 1945, was already an up and coming player in the
heavy truck market.
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