Around the very early 50's, Stan Hewitt, was a foreman at the AUTOLITE, factory in Sarnia, Ontario. A deal came up, where they needed a load to go to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Stan had a friend with a truck, or he rented one, I really don't know for sure. Anyway, he made the arrangements and the load was on it's way.
Eventually, he partnered up with a Winnipeg connection, a Mr. Armstrong. Giving him a Manitoba address. He started running from Sarnia To Winnipeg, via the USA. Autolite was his first and main customer.
Thus the beginning of A&H Transport. (Armstrong & Hewitt) Officially, it was Sarnia, that was head office, but operated as a Winnipeg Co.
He started out with a couple REO,V8 GOLD COMET'S, gas jobs,( single axle, tractors.) Then up to REO V8 Cab over, ( 2 story cracker boxes.) The damn things would run 70 mph. That's a real hot rod for the 1950's.
He picked up a lot of freight in and around Sarnia, such as Polymer, Imperial Oil, and others. Including LTL freight. Expanding pretty fast. His first warehouse, (terminal) was a tiny,2 pump, closed gas station, in the downtown area. Back a trailer up to the door and you blocked most of the intersection.
Ontario, at that time, had no reciprocity with anyone. If you wanted access to any state or other province, you had to have a plate for each one. The reason for the partner in Winnipeg, was to have an address in Manitoba. The plate was a different colour than the resident plate, but having it, you could bluff your way through a lot of states, claiming Manitoba Resident. All trucking outfits started out as gypsy's, whether they want to admit it or not. ( Those were real exiting days, and nerve racking at times.)
Later on, Stan hooked up with a Mr. Manning, of Edmonton, Alberta, doing the same thing, creating H&M Transport, (Hewitt & Manning ) and using the Alberta plate as a resident, giving them full reciprocity with most of the states. Note,--- Manitoba and Alberta at that time, had about the best reciprocity agreements with the states, over any other province. Both company's name plates had the same round logo style, for a functional reason.-------------- I'll not mention why.
The next trucks they had purchased, were a couple of single axle Diamond - T's. The gas REO'S they had were a factory yellow in colour. They needed an input of money to expand. A Mr. SMITH (can't remember his first name.) Bought a new Diamond T, with an 8 spd. Roadranger, & a J T model, Cummins Diesel, rated around 165 HP. It had a factory sleeper. A couple more Diamond T's came along, with a 220 Cummins, 2 spd. Axles and factory sleepers. The one J T, was Smitties investment in the company.
He then started to take on a few brokers. They had an old , L J Mack, 26 White, and even an older GMC conventional. Things were on a roll.
The Lockey brothers had an old Mack, and went to the Hayes dealer in Winnipeg to deal, and upgrade, at Thieson , Hayes. They selected all black in colour. Thieson, said to put a white cap on roof, and a white stripe around the centre, to make it look better, which it did.
NOTE, --- D.S. SCOTT, if I remember right, had the same colour scheme, except they had a small band of green around the centre, as well as white. That being the difference, between D.S. And A&H.
The others were getting a little jealous of the Lockey Brothers, they had a new tandem tractor. Also with the extra axle, they were getting more money for the same trip. So as it would be, they one by one, went over to Thieson's and ordered new trucks. All wanted the black and white theme. That's where the fleet colours came from.
The work came hot and heavy, you could not buy a day off. The trucks were all teams. About the 25th of the month, my partner and I was loaded out for the 5th trip that month. Les was having lunch with a couple of Midland-Superior drivers at the time. And they told him that they did not believe him, about the 5th trip in one month. ( Edmonton to Ontario ) I came in and Les asked me what trip we were leaving on, and when I said the 5th, the Midland guy's almost crapped out. Don't forget this was in 1958, and there were no turnpikes, just old and narrow roads, passing through every town on the map.
It got so bad, what with switching at both ends, you could be in the bunk, go into the terminal, be heading back out and not even wake up. You were on another trip whether you liked it or not. After time ,you could start a fight with your partner, over some stupid little remark. A couple of guy's never did get over it. We ran 22 straight trips from Ontario to Alberta, without any time off.
Well it was turning into insanity, and it blew up in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. We used to fuel up at the CO-OP, in town. This day, there were 3 trucks that hit there at the same time. One thing led to another, and we had enough. One of the guy's knew a farmer just outside of town. We also knew that the resident company squealer was only a couple hours behind. We left a message at the CO-OP for the Squealer to hurry, and catch up. In the meantime, our 3 trucks were out on the farm. One inside the barn, and 2 around back.--------- LET THE PARTY BEGIN.
A day and a half later, we were out of money, flat broke. So when all the steam was blown off, we sent Stan a telegram, saying only, OLD MONEY ALL GONE, SEND NEW. In the meantime our co. Squealer was going like a mad man trying to catch up. They were pretty well cranked up about the missing trucks. Well he did send new money and we all ran like mad idiots again. By the time we got back to Sarnia, all was forgiven.( with a grin from ear to ear ).
Another incident involved loads from the west to Yellow Springs, Ohio. At the time, Ohio and Ontario, had a hatred for each other. (trucking wise) Ont. would not let them in. Any loads for say, Toronto, had to be dropped at the border and trucked in by a Canadian. Usually Mc Kinley Transport, or buy a full set of Ontario licience plates. I was swinging as a relief driver at the time. I went to Yellow Springs on 3 different trucks, on 3 different trips, ( near the Kentucky border). I always got the load off, OK. When heading back north to Michigan, and within 1/2 to 1/4 mile of the state line, the state troopers were on my ass, on all 3 trips. Needless to say, we were always escorted back to Bowling Green scale & jail, and for some reason, (I can't understand why? ) they always put me in jail, and told my partner, that I was going to jail, and he was going to go and get money to get me out of jail. That includes enough to also equip the truck with a full set of Ohio plates. (they were wise to the non resident Manitoba plate.) In a couple months I had run 3 trips, in 3 trucks, and went to jail 3 times, and bought 3 sets of plates. The final trip, (3rd) I got to screw them pretty good. A little revenge you might say. But that is another story.
During this period, Stan had ambitions, about being coast to coast. He tied in with another guy, in Vancouver, BC. Creating another outfit, calling it TORVAN. ( Toronto-Vancouver). It did not survive for to long. He was using all owner/operators. The last one I met was at our fuel stop, at Brule Wisconsin. He was bob tailing home from Vancouver, with 4 flat tires chained down on the rear frame.
The final name, MEXICANA, was apparently, the only licence from Canada to Mexico. Stan used to hire American owner/operators (gypsies) at Port Huron, Michigan. He would bring their trailers across the bridge into Sarnia, and load them with synthetic rubber from Polymer corp. They would then take it down into the Mexican compound, and transfer to Mexican trucks. Used to have lunch with the odd one, but never really got involved.
A lot of really wild and exciting things happened during my stay there. It could only happen in the 50's. Things that today, could not happen. I wouldn't trade my era for any other time, when it comes to trucking.
Many years after I left, Stan became ill, and was told to slow down by his doctor. He eventually sold out, to Brazau Transport, from Quebec. All Stan's named companies, never had any running rights through northern Ontario. All exits were through the US side. When Brazau took over, they had the licence to run the northern Ont. Route. They also switched over to using doubles to the west. Brazau, eventually disappeared from sight.
So, there you go, a little history of an early trucking operation.
------------ William (Diesel Gypsy) Weatherstone RETURN TO STORY MENU