Although the story of Hammondbus.com began in Bracebridge in 1944 when 15 year old Orvil Hammond started his taxi business, the roots of the business originated in Barrie 100 years ago. It was May 1923 when Harold Hammond, Orvil’s father, attained his Professional Drivers Licence and began driving a bus route between Barrie and Allandale for entrepreneur T.R. Huxtable.
T.R. Huxtable had inherited a mill near Orangeville and adapted it to produce electric light to the surrounding area. When hydro electric power came about he sold the mill and moved to Barrie where in 1915 he opened an automotive garage and set himself up as a Ford car dealer. An extension of this business occurred in 1918 when Huxtable set up a jitney service – a bus service that ran every half hour from Barrie to Allandale and back, most days of the week from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m.
Five years later, 20 year old Harold Hammond moved to Barrie and was hired by TR to drive this bus route. Young Harold lived on Dunlop St. and attained his Professional Drivers Licence in Toronto on May 28, 1923. Although Harold had a lifelong love of vehicles, his bus driving career with TR Huxtable was short lived. A year later Harold graduated from the Hemphill School as an Automotive Mechanic.
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Shortly afterward Harold returned to Bracebridge where he worked for Eli Richards driving truck and bus. It was when he drove a group of Macauley women to Gravenhurst to pick blueberries he met Marjorie Peacock. They were married shortly thereafter and their family was soon begun. Harold became established as both a driver and mechanic at Muskoka Garage.
By the early 40s Harold’s oldest son, Orvil, had developed both Harold’s aptitude for vehicles and his hard work ethic. With so many young men enlisted in the military there were many opportunities for a teenager with those two qualities. In 1943 (during war time) at the age of 14, Orv Hammond got a special permit to drive for Muskoka Garage. The next year Orvil bought a 1938 Ford, and at age 15 went into business teaming up with George Parlett they operated under the name “Park Taxi”.
Orvil went into business for himself operating as Hammond’s Taxi. Orv bought his first new car in 1946 and the salesman drove Orv to get Harold to sign the finance contract because Orvil was too young to sign the contract himself. It was truly a family business from the earliest days – answering phones, dispatch, and driving, had been shared by Orv’s parents, four brothers and three sisters. In 1947, Orvil purchased a delivery business and later a freight truck. Then Harold Hammond left his job at Muskoka Garage and went to work with Orv, a reversal of the usual son joining father route of most family businesses. The taxi and trucking businesses grew and in 1950 Orvil landed his first school route with a 7-passenger car.
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Like his father had, Orvil met his future wife in the line of work when in 1950 a new teacher named Frances Corrigan arrived in Bracebridge and Orvil and his taxi were waiting at the train station. In 1952, they were married. In the 1950s, school and charter trips took Orv throughout the province. In 1955 Orv acquired his first highway coach. The 1960s were a time of growth, the enterprise was renamed Hammond Transportation Ltd. and was incorporated in 1967. Moving into the 1970’s the business was transformed with a series of transactions. The taxi, ambulance and trucking businesses were sold (the trucking business was sold to Orvil’s brother Paul who built Muskoka Transport with his family). Hammond Transportation expanded its area of operations throughout Muskoka and into Simcoe County and Parry Sound. A travel business, Muskoka Travel Service was started to organize trips to keep the charter buses busy. Orvil’s sons Jim and Brad joined him in the business, and by the 1980’s Greg joined too.
In 2013 Hammond Transportation acquired the charter bus operations of Sinton Transportation in Barrie, taking the Hammond family back to the roots of their busing history. Today the company has been rebranded as Hammondbus.com and operates over 100 school routes, transit services, charter bus, van and motorcoach services Muskoka, Simcoe County, Parry Sound, Haliburton and Algonquin Park. Hammond Tours and Travel offer people interesting day trips in Ontario, adventurous tours throughout North America and bucket list destinations around the world.
Harold’s Grandson Greg is CEO, while another Grandson Scott is Director of Operations while a third Grandson Derek is Head of Maintenance. Great Grandsons Kent (who operates Hammond Tours and Travel) and Dane (Dispatcher), Jake and Nathaniel (spare drivers) represent the fourth generation of busing Hammonds.
“We are fortunate that so many family members have been involved in the Hammondbus business for almost 80 years. In this day and age it is really amazing to go to work and do what our Grandfather, or Great Grandfather, did 100 years ago,” says Greg.
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Evelyn Brown says
Congratulations to the Hammond family. What a wonderful family history you have shared with the community. Wishing you many more years of success.