What is the Monford Lane (or Munford Lane)?

Monfort Lane was the left lane cause thats the lane we were always in. We werent afraid to run hard or fast, the faster we ran the more money we made. Thats when truckin was fun.

Everything that Ginger said is pretty acurate I can add that I have been driving both as owner operator and company driver for over 35 years and I dont think that I ever saw a Monfort truck in many other trucks way or four wheelers either,in those early days of the 55mph speed limit I was told by a couple of Monfort drivers that the owner said he would pay all speeding tickets as long as his load delivered on time,but that is only hear say.

I was an over the road driver in the 70s, and I can assure you that Monfort was never in the way! My primary route was I-80, and I saw their trucks almost every day. Monfort was running 425 Cats when 335 Cummins were considered extremely powerful.

My handle--"The Preacher's Kid"

The correct spelling would be Monfort.
The phrase "Monfort Lane" dates back to the late 70's. It refers to the left lane of the highway, (more specifically I-80) and was so-called after a certain company whose trucks were known to frequent it.

Monfort Foods was based out of Greely, CO and their trucks hauled meat east to NY, MA, PA and other places. Rumor has it that the drivers had very little time to make these long runs back when the national speed limit was 55mph. There are a lot of stories out there about the company and its brightly painted trucks (often called circus wagons) but it's hard to distill what is accurate and what isn't.

Stories from those days conflict slightly. Some versions have the Monfort trucks in the left lane because they were moving too fast to bother getting back over, while others just say they were always in the way!

Either way there is no dispute about the company the name came from. Here is a picture of one of their trucks.

http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/brian_oleary/john_oleary_monfort_kw.jpg

And another one.

http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/macneil/2005/nov30/monfort_kw.jpg

By the way, the site these pictures came from contains a lot of other interesting historical trucking photos and information.

the monfort lane got its name in the 70s.
every time you looked in your rear vue you seen a monfort truck passing you
monforts frist order was for 25 kws. thay ran greeley co. to the east cost and returned empty
each truck made two trips a week so the 25 trucks looked like 100 if you drove I80 in the earley 70s

The Monfort lane is the left "fast" lane on the hiughway, named after the Monfort Truck Lines, the fastest, baddest meat haulers on the road back in the 70s. The company ran teams of 2 drivers, with 3 drivers assigned to each truck, and one driver switched out each time back at the yard, and, basically, the truck never quit moving. MaryKay