Greyhound Lines

Going by the slogan ‘Go Greyhound and leave the driving to us!’, this company is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Greyhound Lines was founded more than 103 years ago (1914), offering intercity coach services in alliance with some reputable organizations like Indian Trails, Trailways, Peter Pan Bus Lines, Jefferson Lines and others. Presently, the company has an operational fleet of 1,229 motor coaches. Most of these coaches are the G4500, MCI 102DL3, D4505 as well as the Prevost X3-45.

Traveling to more than 2,700 destinations across North America, Greyhound Lines has 230 company-operated stations that serve 123 routes including Greyhound express routes. Greyhound Lines began its operations in 1914 with its first route in Hibbing, Minnesota. Fifteen years later, the company adopted the name Greyhound Corporation. This intercity motorcoach service provider and its sister company in FirstGroup have been a subsidiary of FirstGroup, holding the position of largest motor coach operators in Canada and The United States.

Starting as a sales representative, Carl Eric did not have much success in marketing his cars; he opted to use his remaining 7-seater car to establish a Bus Andy and transporting iron ore miners to Alice from Hibbing at only 15 cents a trip. He later joined masses with Ralph Bogan, who operated a similar service. As a result, their organization made an annual profit of $8,000 in the initial year. By 1918, Eric was a proud owner of eighteen buses with a yearly profit of $40,000. In 1926, Wickman bought the Pickwick Lines and the Pioneer Yelloway System, both of whom conducted their operations in the west coast. This led to the development of the first National Intercity Bus Company. The name Greyhound was first adopted to the Blue Goose Lines segments. This name gained much popularity that it was later applied to the entire network of buses. By 1928, Greyhound was generating an annual gross income of $6 million.

In 1946, Wickman retired from the position of president to the company, being replaced by Orville Ceaser, his long-term partner. Coincidentally, Wickman died in 1956 when the construction of the Interstate Highway System begun. This development drastically reduced the prices of air travel to make it more affordable, at the same time making road transport the preferred mode of transportation in the United States. Greyhound and other travel carriers begun experiencing problems.

The company later had to deal with numerous cases that tarnished the name of the carrier. Greyhound began witnessing a drop in the number of clients in the 1960s. This led to the introduction of drastic changes within the entity, prompting the management to use this profitable motor operation to invest in different industries. The company later experienced a major driver’s strike in 1983, leading to one fatal incident when one of the buses ran over a worker at a picket line. The drivers, however, agreed to get back to work after the ratification of a new contract.

The spin-off, merger, and bankruptcy between 1986 and 1990 let another driver’s strike in the early 1990s. This was topped up by the expiration of the 1987 three-year contract. Greyhound was forced to drop its low-demand rural stops to concentrate on the denser inter-metropolitan routes, cutting close to 37% of its road network.

Scottish transport FirstGroup acquired Laidlaw International for $3.6 billion, exporting the Greyhound brand back to the United Kingdom naming it Greyhound UK. Currently, the company has 1,229 buses that travel more than 5.5 billion miles and serving 3,800 destinations within North America.