Laidlaw & Company history

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 1983, Laidlaw entered the United States 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 United States and Canada.

In 1988, Laidlaw, Inc. purchased a controlling interest in itself from Canadian Pacific Limited, parent of Canadian Pacific Railway.

The company had also lost their contract in Petersburg to self-operation in 1989, but was still operating at Hopewell.

In 1996, Laidlaw sold its solid waste business to Allied Waste Industries.

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

After almost 20 years of expansion, Laidlaw Inc. filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in June 2001.