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