Keystone Auto Transit Company, Philadelphia, Pa., ca. 1917

The Keystone Auto Transit Company used this business card to signal big plans--service to five cities, $1.5 million in authorized capital, a full slate of officers--when it started up in 1917, but it seems to have stayed in business for only a short time.

The company placed an advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday, October 21, 1917, offering motor freight services that were intended to compete with the railroads. The ad promised quick delivery of freight by "trackless locomotives," a term that was sometimes used to refer to trucks and cars in the early twentieth century.

"Freight in a Day" was the title of an article (though it reads like another advertisement) that appeared in the same newspaper a week later on October 28, 1917, and it also used "trackless locomotives" and other railroad terminology to describe the company's operations:

"The Keystone Auto Transit Company have inaugurated a freight and express service between New York, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, [and] Harrisburg, employing a great fleet of tractors and trailers [early versions of today's tractor-trailer trucks] that carry as much as thirty tons to the load.

"These big trackless locomotives [trucks] and their trailers will leave a specified station in each of the cities at exactly 11 A.M. and will undertake to deliver to the consignee's door on the day of shipment, which, of course, provides for early morning collection.

"These collections are made by more than fifty lighter and even faster trucks, which carry the individual shipments to the general depot [which was a truck depot, not a railroad depot] for loading on the overland trains [over-the-road trucks]. These trains [trucks!] are scheduled to meet frequently on each route, so that drivers and supplies are always available should an accident occur."

Although it's obvious that the Keystone Auto Transit Company intended to compete with the railroads, the venture apparently failed, and I haven't been able to uncover much besides this business card to document the company's existence.

For some interesting details about the challenges facing early trucking companies like this one, take a look at Wikipedia's article on the History of the Trucking Industry in the United States.

Keystone Auto Transit Co.

(Incorporated) Incorporating with auth. cap. $1,500,000.

Large Shipments Especially Solicited.

New York. Pittsburgh. Atlantic City. Baltimore.

Philadelphia
Service Station, 1714-16-18 Callowhill St.
Bell Phone, Spruce 3826. Keystone Phone, Race 5090.

J. W. White, President.
F. T. Finch, 1st Vice President and Traffic Mgr. Pres., Phila. Motor Service Corp.
V. E. Kugler, 2d Vice President and Treasurer. Treasurer, Blair Eastern Co.
F. H. McNerney, 3d Vice President. Mgr., Western Furniture Mfg. Co.
F. J. P. Hildenbrand, Secretary. General Insurance, Philadelphia, Pa.
Hon. W. H. Fisher, District Mgr. Oaklyn, N.J.

Represented by