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.
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, because the trucks weren’t strong enough for the heavy loads of the logging industry.[3] The company was renamed Hayes Manufacturing Company Ltd. after Anderson left the company in 1928.[4] 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 truck 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.[5] The company also used Leyland's components for the trucks.[5] Hayes merged with Lawrence Manufacturing, a logging equipment manufacturer, in 1946.[2] Three employees – Vic Barclay, Mac Billingsley and Claude Thick – left the management division of Hayes to start Pacific Truck & Trailer Co. in 1947.[5] In the early 1950s, the company started manufacturing a range of on-road trucks.[6]The Signal Company, the parent firm of Mack Trucks, acquired a two-thirds share in Hayes Manufacturing in 1969,[7] and Hayes began a mass expansion;[1] production increased from fifty trucks a year to 500 trucks a year.[8] The company was renamed Hayes Trucks in 1971.[7] The company at its peak had 600 employees and three plants.[1] In 1975, Signal sold the company to Gearmatic Co., a subsidiary of Paccar, which closed the Hayes plants and stopped production.[9]
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