One of Laidlaw's 40,000 yellow school buses

Laidlaw, currently organized as Laidlaw International, Inc. , is a North American corporation which is involved with contract school bus service, intercity passenger route and charter bus service, contract paratransit and public transit services, and contract emergency medical services (EMS) in the United States and Canada.

Since 1972, Laidlaw has grown primarily through acquisitions of other companies and contracting of services formerly directly provided by government entities. It is the largest provider of intercity bus services, contract public transit and paratransit, contract emergency medical services, and contract school bus service in the United States and Canada.

History

Laidlaw began in 1924 when founder Robert Laidlaw created a trucking service company in Ontario, Canada. Beginning in 1972, under the leadership of Michael DeGroot , 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. In 1988, Laidlaw, Inc. purchased a controlling interest in itself from Canadian Pacific Limited, parent of Canadian Pacific Railroad.

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.

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, 2003, and emerged from reorganization on June 23, 2003 as the successor to Laidlaw Inc. Canadian Pacific sold its remaining 17% interest in Laidlaw Inc.

See also

• bus
• school bus
• contractor
• Wayne Corporation
• Virginia Overland Transportation
• American Medical Response

External Links

• Official website of Laidlaw International, Inc