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Hayes Manufacturing Company
Defunct Canadian manufacturer of heavy trucks From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Hayes Manufacturing Company, also known as Hayes, was a Canadian manufacturer specializing in heavy equipment vehicles. Founded in 1928 as Hayes-Anderson, Hayes developed custom trucks and off-road vehicles to expanded with the local forestry industry in Vancouver. Before World War II, Hayes had diversified into streamliner buses, while afterwards they expanded into on-highway semi-trailer trucks. In 1969, Mack Trucks acquired a majority stake in Hayes before ultimately being sold off to Paccar five years later. Hayes ceased operations in 1975.
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The Hayes Manufacturing Company was established in Vancouver in 1920 by Douglas Hayes, an owner of a parts dealer,[1] and entrepreneur W. E. Anderson from Quadra Island,[1] as Hayes-Anderson Motor Company Ltd.[2] The company sold American-built trucks and truck parts for the first two years, then built their own trucks, which were designed for the climate of the Pacific Northwest, because the American-built trucks weren’t strong enough for the heavy loads of the logging industry at the time.[3] The company was renamed Hayes Manufacturing Company Ltd. after Anderson left the company in 1928.[4] That same year, Hayes moved to a new plant, which was located on 2nd Avenue in Vancouver, where the company remained for until their disestablishment.[5] In 1933, Hayes added diesel engines and dual axles to their logging trucks; the first truck manufacturing company to do so.[2] Despite Anderson leaving the company, the trucks kept the Hayes-Anderson badging until 1934.[4] When hauling logs had become very popular throughout British Columbia, Hayes started production of over-sized logging trucks and trailers.[2]
Throughout the late 1930s, Hayes was a distributor of British-made Leyland trucks, and the Leyland trucks supplemented Hayes' range of trucks.[6] The company also used Leyland's components for the trucks.[6] Hayes merged with Lawrence Manufacturing, a logging equipment manufacturer, in 1946, and was called Hayes-Lawrence.[7] Three employees – Vic Barclay, Mac Billingsley and Claude Thick – left the management division of Hayes to start Pacific Truck & Trailer Co. in 1947.[6] In the early 1950s, the company started manufacturing a range of on-road trucks.[8] The Signal Company, the parent firm of Mack Trucks, acquired a two-thirds share in Hayes Manufacturing in 1969,[9] and Hayes began a mass expansion;[10] production increased from fifty trucks a year to 500 trucks a year.[11] The company was renamed Hayes Trucks in 1971.[12] The company at its peak in the late 1960's had 600 employees and three plants, which all were located in Vancouver.[1] In 1975, Signal sold the company to Gearmatic Co., a subsidiary of Paccar, which closed the Hayes plants and stopped production.[13] The Canadian Bank Note Company made 1 million Hayes truck stamps as part of the Historic Land Vehicles series.[14]
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Products
Hayes manufactured cab-over and conventional trucks.[15] The company used Detroit Diesel, Cummins, Rolls Royce and Caterpillar engines.[16] Hayes also manufactured buses, moving vans, tractors and trailers.[4] The company's few bus models included the Hayes Teardrop, a streamlined bus introduced in 1936.[17] Several Teardrop buses were purchased by Pacific Stage Lines,[17] one of which has been preserved by the Transit Museum Society.[18]
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See also
- Pacific Trucks — Company founded by three former employees.
- Challenger trucks — A company founded in 1987 that rebuilt Hayes trucks.
References
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