Origin and expansion of road freight transport agents in Brazil

Authors

Abstract

Originated even in a context dominated by the railway system, this article seeks to demonstrate how the rapid growth of road freight transport in Brazil, since the 1930s, was simultaneously accompanying the urbanization and industrialization process leveraged by the Vargas government. The creation of the National Department of Highways (DNER), in 1937, and the respective implementation of a Traffic Section, in 1945, played an important role in organizing and regulating the sector, whose business representation increased exponentially with the emergence of the Association of Cargo Road Transport Companies (NTC), in 1963, in São Paulo. However, the autonomous truck driver, known in the past as a “carreteiro”, has not seen significant achievements, keeping this important agent at the margin of the real gains of the entire system and subject to the designs of the transport companies.

Key words: road freight transport; business organization; autonomous truck driver.

Author Biography

  • Daniel Monteiro Huertas, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp)/professor adjunto

    Author of the books "Territory and circulation: road freight transport in Brazil" (ed. Unifesp, 2018) and "From the Atlantic facade to the immensity of the Amazon: agricultural frontier and territorial integration" (Annablume, 2009), he is an adjunct professor at Multidisciplinary Department (Common Axis) of the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp), Osasco campus. He holds a doctorate and master's degree in Human Geography from the University of São Paulo (USP), with a degree in geography from the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU) and journalism from the Methodist University of São Paulo. He has experience in Human Geography (with an emphasis on Economic Geography) and Economic History, working mainly with themes related to circulation, transport and logistics.

Published

2025-01-30

Issue

Vol. 34 No. 1 (2025): Economia e Sociedade

Section

Articles

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