The Hayes Manufacturing Company was established in
Vancouver in 1920 by Douglas Hayes, an owner of a parts dealer, and entrepreneur W. E. Anderson from
Quadra Island, as Hayes-Anderson Motor Company Ltd. The company sold American-built trucks and truck parts for the first two years, then built their own trucks, which were designed for the climate of the
Pacific Northwest, because the American-built trucks weren't strong enough for the heavy loads of the logging industry at the time. The company was renamed Hayes Manufacturing Company Ltd. after Anderson left the company in 1928. That same year, Hayes moved to a new plant, which was located on 2nd Avenue in Vancouver, where the company remained until its disestablishment. In 1933, Hayes added
diesel engines and dual axles to their logging trucks; the first truck manufacturing company to do so. Despite Anderson leaving the company, the trucks kept the Hayes-Anderson badging until 1934. When hauling logs had become very popular throughout
British Columbia, Hayes started production of over-sized logging trucks and trailers. Throughout the late 1930s, Hayes was a distributor of British-made
Leyland trucks, and the Leyland trucks supplemented Hayes' range of trucks. The company also used Leyland's components for the trucks. Hayes merged with Lawrence Manufacturing, a logging equipment manufacturer, in 1946, and was called Hayes-Lawrence. Three employees Vic Barclay, Mac Billingsley and Claude Thick left the management division of Hayes to start
Pacific Truck & Trailer Co. in 1947. In the early 1950s, the company started manufacturing a range of on-road trucks.
The Signal Company, the parent firm of
Mack Trucks, acquired a two-thirds share in Hayes Manufacturing in 1969, and Hayes began a mass expansion; production increased from 50 trucks per year to 500. The company was renamed Hayes Trucks in 1971. The company at its peak in the late 1960s had 600 employees and three plants; all of them were located in Vancouver. In 1975, Signal sold the company to Gearmatic Co., a subsidiary of
Paccar, which closed the Hayes plants and stopped production. The
Canadian Bank Note Company made 1 million Hayes truck stamps as part of the Historic Land Vehicles series. ==Products==