We've often published the photograph of Ed and Art Siegal posed next to one of the original trucks Edart used when the company first began in 1934. Who would have thought that the small International Harvester with the running boards and deep wheel wells would be so central to the company started by Louis Siegal in 1934? Just the fact that it had rubber tires is of interest. It was the Depression era and it wouldn't be long before everything rubber would be sacrificed for the war effort. With just one truck, Edart began its growth into what would become one of the largest independent truck rental companies in the country.

By E. Mark Siegal

My grandfather, Louis Siegal, started the business in 1934. Originally, it was called Siegal Transportation. As the company grew, his two sons, Ed and Art would become involved. When my father, Ed married my mother Ruth, the company grew to five or six trucks and the company changed its name to EDART using a combination of the names Ed and Art.

When I was 14 or 15, I went to work for my dad washing and shining the trucks and working behind the rental counter. Remember Rheingold Beer in the 60's? They were a customer at the time. And they were ready to cycle out some of their old trucks and rent new trucks with the intent of purchasing them. The only thing was, that Rheingold wanted to put their own drivers in them.

At first the idea of somebody else driving our trucks seemed very risky. But it was at that point Ed and Art made a decision which affected the company enormously. It was a fortuitous decision, I think. It was the 50's and the labor movement was strong and Ed and Art saw problems down the road if the company was going to really expand using drivers. They considered themselves in the truck business, not the driving business. So they agreed to go along with Rheingold's idea. It was a good thing they did. Ninety-five percent of the smaller trucking companies of the day went out of business or merged. Rheingold became enormous and as a result, Edart added 75 trucks with that one account alone and remained independent and family owned. The success with Rheingold encouraged Edart to grow through corporate rental lease/purchase agreements.

Then came the 70's and the newly enlarged company faced a serious problem - the oil crisis. Remember the long lines to get gas? People would wait a couple of hours just to get a few gallons. OPEC was restricting the amount of oil being sold to the United States in order to drive up prices. The gas stations were operating under allocation. So here we are with more trucks and less gas. Once again, Edart was nimble enough to react to the problem. We bought our own gas station.

Proving that any situation can be turned around we had two fuel islands at the station - one for regular off-the-street customers and another that was kept closed. The second island was reserved only for our corporate rentals so they could drive in and gas up without waiting in line. That gas was for holders of a "Trade Service" card. Trade is Edart spelled backwards.

The 80's heralded a boom for business, Edart included.

1992 came along with another beer industry client, Hartford Distributors, the distributor of Budweiser beer. They, too, saw the cost-effectiveness of using Edart and a fleet of 55 trucks would soon call Edart "home".

With the 90's came a new way of thinking in the transportation industry. The "for hire carrier" was a relic, or at least not a way of doing business for Edart. The buzz word became "dedicated logistics" or just "logistics" for those in the biz. Unlike "for hire carriers" which run pick-ups for everybody, dedicated logistics means what it implies, dedication. Drivers are employed and dedicated to one particular client. It seems as though the industry has come full circle in its dependence on employing drivers. But Edart knows what it's good at and history has taught the company to be cautious, and rightly so.