Broken Secrets

UPS Co-Founder Wanted Yellow Trucks

July 4, 2012 at 2:00 am Chad Upton 2 comments

By Chad Upton | Editor

In 1915, Merchants Parcel Delivery (now UPS) decided they needed a consistent color scheme across all of their vehicles — four cars and five motorcycles. Co-founder James Casey consulted a local adman, who suggested yellow. Charlie Soderstrom, another partner, argued that yellow would be too difficult to keep clean.

Another company had already considered this. Railroad cars manufactured by Pullman Company were brown because they hid dirt better than other colors which meant they required less washing. That settled the argument, Casey conceded and brown has been UPS’s color ever since.

Half a century later, competing package delivery service DHL forms and chooses yellow.

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Photos: Jeremy Vandel (cc), wolfgang (cc)

Sources: cnn, wikipedia (ups, pullman company)

Entry filed under: History and Origins. Tags: brown, clean, railroad, truck, united parcel service, ups, wash.