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Artist:

Laidlaw

Laidlaw

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Performed Songs By:

Buzzy James, Craig DeFalco, Tommy Roberts
  • Genre: Rock
  • Active: '90s
  • Major Members: T. Gunn
  • Representative Album: "First Big Picnic"

Biography

Laidlaw was formed by Craig Defalco and Buzzy James in 1990 in Orange County, CA. They started their career doing the club circuit for year after year. Sending tapes to various record labels earned them plenty of rejections. The group went through several lineup changes resulting with the grouping of Defalco, James, Darrell Millar, Michael Norton, and Tommy Roberts coming together in 1996. Their big break came when Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx got his hands on one of the tapes. He must have liked what he heard because he not only hooked them up as opening act at Crüe shows, but even chose them to be the first artist on his fledgling label, Americoma. Their album First Big Picnic, released in 2000, showcased their Southern-flavored hard rock/metal sound. ~ Gary Hill



, All Music Guide
 
 
Wikipedia: Laidlaw
One of Laidlaw's yellow school buses
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One of Laidlaw's yellow school buses

Laidlaw, organized as Laidlaw International, Inc. (and with corporate headquarters in Naperville, Illinois), was a North American corporation involved with contract school bus service, intercity passenger route and charter bus service, and contract paratransit and public transit services in the United States and Canada.

Laidlaw had grown primarily through acquisitions of other companies and contracting of services formerly directly provided by government entities. At the time of its acquisition by FirstGroup plc, Laidlaw the largest provider of intercity bus services, contract public transit and paratransit, and contract school bus service in the United States and Canada.

Laidlaw was the parent Laidlaw Transit (which is being rebranded First transit), Laidlaw Education Services (whicn is being rebranded as First Student), Greyhound Lines and Greyhound Lines of Canada (which will retain their names), and number of Gray Line Sightseeing franchises in major North American cities.

On February 2007, FirstGroup PLC, bus and rail transport operator in the United Kingdom with subsidiaries in North America, acquired Laidlaw International, Inc. for $35.25 per share or approximately US$3.6 billion including the assumption of US$0.8 billion of debt.[1][2][3] FirstGroup plc completed its the acquisition of Laidlaw International on October 1, 2007, and is currently rebranding Laidlaw services under the Firts umbrella. The deal combined North America’s two largest private school bus operators — Laidlaw Education Services and First Student Inc. — giving them a combined 40% of the school bus contractor market.[4]

History

Laidlaw began in 1924 when founder Robert Laidlaw created Laidlaw Transit, a trucking service company in Ontario, Canada.

Beginning in 1972, under the leadership of Michael DeGroote, Laidlaw, Inc. began growing through acquisitions of other companies when it acquired a Canadian intercity and charter bus company. In 1979, it acquired a Canadian contract school bus business. In 1978 it entered the U.S. solid waste industry. In 1983, Laidlaw entered the U.S. school bus transportation sector with its acquisition of ARA Transportation, a major contract school bus provider which also owned a Wayne Corporation bus dealership. In 1984, Laidlaw Inc. exited the trucking business, as the company began a consolidating smaller school bus contracting companies in the U.S. and Canada.

In 1988, Laidlaw, Inc. purchased a controlling interest in itself from Canadian Pacific Limited, parent of Canadian Pacific Railway. In a rare divestiture in its school bus contracting sector, in 1990, after losing its major school bus contract in Norfolk, Virginia to a governmental conversion to district-self-operation, Laidlaw sold the rest of its urban-suburban bus line, school bus contracting business, and related assets in the Norfolk area to Virginia Overland Transportation, a long-time operator of public service transportation in Virginia, and a smaller industry consolidator there.

In the 1990s, Laidlaw continued to acquire hundreds of smaller school bus and public transit contractors in the U.S. and Canada. These also included major competitors, including Mayflower Contract Services in 1995, and National Bus Service in 1996. Around the same time, the company acquired American Medical Response, a nation-wide U.S. ambulance service provider and CareLine, Inc., U.S. ambulance consolidator of smaller ambulance contractors.

In 1998, a watershed year, Laidlaw Inc. acquired Greyhound Lines U.S. operations, Greyhound Canada, the DAVE Companies (specialists in paratransit) and emergency management companies EmCare and Spectrum Emergency Care.

Between 1997 and 1999, Laidlaw, Inc. exited the solid waste business after incurring heavy losses through its investments in Safety-Kleen and Greyhound Lines. After almost 20 years of expansion, Laidlaw Inc. filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in June 2001.

Laidlaw International, Inc. listed its common shares on the New York Stock Exchange (Ticker: LI), on February 10, 2004, and emerged from reorganization on June 23, 2003 as the successor to Laidlaw Inc. Canadian Pacific sold its remaining 17% interest in Laidlaw Inc. The company later sold American Medical Respomse, its EMS contract operations to new owners.

Fleet (Canada)

Laidlaw was a major school bus operator in Canada, namely in the Greater Toronto Area and southern Ontario:

Laidlaw customers included:

References

  1. ^ [1]Laidlaw International Announces Agreement to Be Acquired by FirstGroup
  2. ^ http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?post_date=2007-02-08&id=23822
  3. ^ FirstGroup buys Greyhound buses, bbc.co.uk, 9 February 2007.
  4. ^ http://www.metro-magazine.com/t_newspick.cfm?id=9067115

See also

External links



 
 

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Artist. Copyright © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ® , a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Laidlaw" Read more

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