23
INTERVIEW
DECEMBER 2013
ACT
railroad and general commodity van
transportation,” Vitez said. “Besides,
my goal was to be employed as a traffic
manager in industry. Kreitz Motor
Express was one of the carriers that
moved the oversized, overweight
machines manufactured by Birdsboro.”
In time, Kreitz Motor Express offered
Vitez a job as a dispatcher.
“It was difficult to move from all
the offers to play golf and baseball to
dispatching trucks,” he recalled. “I didn’t
know what a ‘fifth wheel’ was. I struggled
through that for couple of years. Hal
Wiseman decided he wanted to do
something else, and Bob Kreitz offered
me the job of president until he found a
buyer of the company.”
Vitez, who was just 25 years old, took
the job and began cutting the company’s
expenses drastically – the automobiles,
the country club memberships and
expense accounts.
“We started to generate profits and
soon Bob Kreitz offered me the ability to
purchase the company,” Vitez said.
“I was in the Army Reserve at the time
on Selected Reserve Force ready to be
called up to active duty any time.”
James Vitez originally took
on the role as president
of KMX International as
a temporary assignment.
More than 30 years later,
Vitez owns the company,
which is one of the
country’s most successful
specialized carrier and
rigging companies.
Industry
statesman
James Vitez, president of KMX
International, became president
of Kreitz Motor Express when he
was 25 years old.
K
MX International was started
in 1964 as Kreitz Motor
Express (KMX) at a Heavy
Specialized Carriers Conference (HSCC),
which evolved into the organization now
known as the Specialized Carriers &
Rigging Association (SC&RA).
Kreitz Motor Express was founded by
Bob Kreitz, owner of Morris Kreitz and
Sons (MKS), and Hal Wiseman, who
was on the staff of the HSCC. Wiseman
worked for Allen Shirley, director of
HSCC.
“MKS had an Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC) operating authority,
and Mr. Wiseman was heavily involved
in the
HSCC Red Book Interchange
Agreement
between all hauling members
of the HSCC,” explained James Vitez,
president of KMX International. “The
Red Book Interchange
allowed member
carriers to augment other member’s
operating authority under the ICC. It
allowed members to move cargo well
outside their own region through the
Red
Book Interchange Program.
It was truly
unique to the membership of HSCC.”
Vitez has been in the transportation
business most of his life. After graduating
high school and starting college, he
said he ran out of money. He went to
work for the Chicago Burlington and
Quincy Railroad Company, now known
as Burlington Northern Railroad. He
aspired to get experience in the realm of
rail tariffs and rates.
“I enjoyed the freight traffic, rates and
the railroad business, but I decided I
wanted to end up in industry,” he said.
So he took a job at Eazor Express based
in Pittsburgh, PA. Eazor was a general
commodity motor carrier with service
between New York City and Chicago and
throughout most of the Mid-Atlantic and
New England regions.
“Employment at Eazor would give me
the motor carrier experience to go along
with my railroad experience,” he said. “I
started in the rate department again, in
tariffs and regulations.”
During the time of the Vietnam War,
he was offered a position with Birdsboro
Corp., located in Birdsboro and Reading,
PA. Birdsboro manufactured large,
heavy rolling mill machinery, as well as
very large castings for the ocean vessel
industry.
“It was completely different from the
