Our History
In 1942, during World War II, the United States military needed petroleum products moved in the Carolinas and Georgia to aid the War Department. At that time there were no major motor carriers that could satisfy the government’s transportation requirements, but there were quite a number of oil jobbers with one to ten transports that operated within their respective state boundaries.
In a discussion about the shortage of interstate carriers, James F. Byrnes (Director of Economic Development for President Franklin D. Roosevelt) and L.A. Odom (an attorney specializing in Interstate Commerce Commission authority) came up with the concept of an organization that could lease these small intrastate oil jobbers under a single motor carrier with both intrastate and interstate authority.
The name given this new company was “The War Emergency Cooperative Association.” From 1942 until the end of the war, the WECA served the nation in its battle against the Axis Powers.
At the conclusion of the war, the member companies of the WECA had a desire to continue operating, but it would now be on a peace time footing. In the fall of 1945, the WECA was dissolved and a new entity was incorporated under the present name – Associated Petroleum Carriers.
APC’s rich heritage, longevity and tradition of being a safe reliable motor carrier gives us reason to look to the future with optimism and pride.