Indian Head ownership (1968–1975) Divco-Wayne had formed a union and had expanded into a moderate sized-conglomerate, with all facilities basically within of Wayne's Richmond, Indiana base. In contrast, Indian Head was already a large and diversified corporate conglomerate when it purchased Wayne Corporation and its subsidiaries in 1968. Indian Head Inc. acquired Wayne Corp., which its history recorded as "maker of school buses, ambulances, hearses, professional cars" from Divco-Wayne.
New-generation buses The late 1960s and early 1970s led to the development of new platforms suitable for use for small school buses. Additionally, to improve the basic structural integrity of full-size school buses, Wayne engineers went back to the drawing board and changed how school buses were constructed with an all-new body design.
Small buses: Papoose and Busette In the early 1970s, the
step van was principal platform for school buses smaller than conventional types but with more than 4 wheels. Essentially developed as a newer, larger generation of the Divco truck or
IHC Metro van, the step van chassis was built with dual rear wheels and shipped to a body manufacturer with a bare frame. Often referred to as a "P-chassis", step-van chassis were produced by both Ford or General Motors. In 1969,
Carpenter Body Works became the first company to build a school bus on a P-chassis, named the Cadet. In 1970, Wayne developed its own vehicle line for a Chevrolet P-chassis, named the Wayne Papoose. The front bodywork of the Papoose was designed in an effort to maximize forward visibility. The front bodywork also maximized the use of flat glass and flat-paneled sheetmetal. Described by some observers as "severe" in its appearance, the Papoose earned other nicknames even less kind. Although the Papoose failed to gain ground in the school bus segment and was discontinued in 1973, other school bus manufacturers would develop buses of a similar configuration by the end of the 1970s, with the Blue Bird Mini Bird and Carpenter Cadet remaining in production into the late 1990s. Following the failure of the Papoose, Wayne chose to develop an even smaller school bus, becoming the first manufacturer to adapt a
cutaway van chassis for school bus use. For 1973, the
Busette was introduced, using Chevrolet/GMC and Dodge chassis. Prior to the Busette, small school buses were conversions of full-size vans or large SUVs (such as the Chevrolet Suburban or International Travelall). Using a cutaway chassis, the Busette placed a purpose-built bus body on a dual rear-wheel chassis; the wider rear axle provided an extra margin of stability and capability over converted passenger vehicles. Following its introduction, the Busette (and its Transette commercial variant) set a design precedent for the configuration of all small buses, not just school buses. The Busette and Transette also were among the first small buses to be fitted with wheelchair lifts.
Full-size buses: Lifeguard In the early 1930s, Wayne was one of the first school bus manufacturers to introduce guard rails and all-metal construction into school bus design. While safer than wooden body construction, riveted metal body panels posed problems of their own; in a crash, a weak point of the body was identified as the joints where body panels were fastened together. In 1967, safety engineers of
Ward Body Works of
Conway, Arkansas (a competing bus manufacturer) subjected one of their school bus bodies to a multiple roll test and noted the separation at the joints. Ward noted that many of their competitors were using far fewer rivets and fasteners. This resulted in new attention by all manufacturers to the number and quality of fasteners. As opposed to simply adding more fasteners, Wayne engineers proposed eliminating the body panel joints entirely; essentially, the entire side of the bus would have to be formed from a single piece of metal. The roof panel would be manufactured in the same fashion: one piece, cut to length. Fasteners would only be needed for the interior structure, the guardrails, and at the rear of the bus. In 1973, Wayne introduced the new design, branded the
Lifeguard. Although Wayne needed specialized equipment to manufacture the Lifeguard's body panels, the design also reduced overall body weight and man-hours required for assembly.
Indian Head and Thyssen In 1973, Indian Head established a joint business venture with Thyssen-Bornemisza Group N.V., a Dutch holding company. In 1975, the rest of Indian Head Industries was sold to (and folded into) Thyssen-Bornemisza, a conglomerate based in
Monaco, which was owned by one man:
Baron Hans Heinrich (Heini) Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Thyssen-Bornemisza ownership (1975–1984) Thyssen spent much of the next 8–10 years selling off or closing its North American investments. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the portions of Thyssen-Bornemisza which formed the Wayne Corporation went through a period of decline. By 1980, Wayne existed solely as a bus manufacturer in a segment itself struggling to survive. In 1975, when the ownership of Wayne Corporation shifted from Indian Head to Thyssen, Wayne was one of six major school bus body builders in the United States. Wayne apparently enjoyed some profitable years in the late 1970s, buoyed by sales of its
Busette and
Transette product lines. By 1980, the company was one of the "Big Six" school bus body manufacturing companies in the United States, competing with
Blue Bird Body Company,
Carpenter Body Works,
Superior Coach Company,
Thomas Built Buses, Inc., and
Ward Body Works; the Big Six were joined by
Crown Coach Corporation and
Gillig Bros., manufacturers which traded primarily on the West Coast. A downturn in North American school bus purchase volumes began in the late 1970s as the children of the
Baby Boom completed their elementary and secondary educations. Bidding competition for reduced volumes became devastating to profits and even liquidity.
Closure of professional car manufacturing The professional car industry was negatively and profoundly impacted by three factors in the late 1970s. At the time, many units served as both ambulances and funeral vehicles, called "combinations." Combinations disappeared from general service in the late 1970s. The downsizing of America's biggest luxury cars, beginning with the 1977 model year, forced major changes upon professional car builders, who were dependent upon car frames purchased from
General Motors and
Ford Motor Company to begin their conversion processes. Cotner-Bevington was closed in 1975, with Thyssen selling off its assets; Miller-Meteor was closed at the end of 1979. ;Downsizing Alongside the rest of the full-size Cadillac product model line, the
Cadillac commercial chassis was downsized for 1977 to reduce vehicle weight and fuel consumption. The Cadillac Division built 1,299 commercial chassis for 1977; of that total, only 21 Lifeliner Cadillac ambulances were manufactured by Wayne's Miller-Meteor subsidiary. For 1978, Cadillac's commercial chassis production further declined to only 852 units; Miller-Meteor received orders for only 4 ambulances. There were no 1979 Miller-Meteor ambulances. On December 13, 1979, the company, with roots tracing back to 1853, closed its doors. The company laid-off 252 employees and terminated the contracts of their 34 North American distributors. By the late 1970s, as the situation became critical, Wayne Corporation, the parent of M-M and C-B, and Wayne's Thyssen owners chose not to invest heavily in either firm as would have been required in the uncertain futures of the diverging professional car and ambulance building industries. There were no buyers for either subsidiary as a going business. In 1980, Cotner-Bevington ambulance product line was sold to Gene Knisley, owner of Mid-Continent Conversion Co., which was an ambulance and medicar builder in
Kansas City, Missouri. The C-B plant in
Blytheville, Arkansas was closed. A few years later, the rights to the Miller-Meteor name were acquired and resurrected by another professional car builder in
Norwalk, Ohio which in 2004 was producing a line of funeral coaches and limousines on Cadillac and Lincoln chassis under the Miller-Meteor brand name. ;Regulatory Changes At the same time coachbuilders met downsizing in the automotive industry, the federal government in the United States updated its requirements concerning minimum width, headroom, and equipment levels of emergency vehicles. These changes were part of the 1973 National EMS Systems Act, which was passed by Congress in 1974, and implemented four years later (in 1978). In order for communities to receive federal funds, their ambulances were required to meet updated federal specifications. Passenger-based vehicles were purposely excluded from legislation and the last American-made automobile-based ambulance was built in 1978. Three design styles meet the criteria and are still in use today (as of 2017): In the early 1970s, Wayne introduced a full line of non-car-based ambulances; the Type III
Medi-cruiser was based on the popular
Dodge B-series van Tradesman panel van, the
Care-O-Van was a Type II ambulance and the Type I
Guardian, an early version of a 1-ton truck-based modular ambulance.
Rabbitransit: 41-MPG Taxi About the time of the
1979 energy crisis, Wayne's Engineering Department experimented with creation of a stretch conversion of the
diesel-powered
Volkswagen Rabbit. The "Rabbitransit" vehicle would have the potential to transport a large number of passengers (8–12) with very efficient fuel consumption in comparison with other automobiles. The mini-taxi project was dropped by Wayne. The frequently seen "Rabbitransit" at the Richmond plant could not be sold for highway use and it was later destroyed.
Sale by Thyssen Although not publicly reported (as corporate ownership under Thyssen was private), it is likely that Wayne and Welles began incurring losses around 1980 or 1981, and these continued into 1982. By 1983, Wayne dealers and union leaders were told that the annual losses at Wayne/Welles were reportedly in the millions, and the Thyssen owners were poised to end the relationship and financial hemorrhage. In 1984, following significant concessions by its unionized workers, members of
United Auto Workers Local # 721 which were intended to make the company more efficient, Wayne Corporation (and its Canadian subsidiary, Welles, Ltd.) were sold by Thyssen to new owners.
Richmond Transportation Corporation (1985–1992) In 1984, Richmond Transportation Corporation (RTC) was formed by Jack H. Dekruif, a
Corona del Mar, California-based industrialist, and several officers who had served at Wayne for many years under the Indian Head and Thyssen ownership. RTC acquired Wayne Corporation and its Welles subsidiary in Canada in February, 1985. Terry G. Whitesell was named President of RTC. A civic leader in Richmond, Indiana, his prior responsibilities at Wayne included sales, marketing, and purchasing over a period of more than 15 years. Whitesell was well known within the company, its dealer and supplier networks, and the industry. Although as industrialist investor, Dekruif had a track record of liquidating troubled businesses, he was persuaded to allow the new organization to operate and compete. Several successful years followed. The Chaperone and Chaperone II products on
cutaway van chassis did well, and several Wayne dealer-contractors were expanding, most notably
Laidlaw. In the fall of 1986, the company was preparing to launch an initial public stock offering (IPO) when "
Black Monday" struck the stock market that October, forcing cancellation of the IPO.
New-generation buses: Chaperone and Lifestar In 1985, Wayne introduced the Chaperone, a school bus designed to use a cutaway van chassis. Although the Busette had proven successful in the marketplace, its standard interior height of was far shorter than a full-size school bus. In addition, the company sought to adapt the longitudinal-panel construction of the Wayne Lifeguard on a smaller bus. Using the same GM and Ford dual rear-wheel chassis as the Busette/Transette, the Chaperone fit the single-panel construction of the Lifeguard on its body, along with a standard bus-style door. The Busette would remain in production alongside the Chaperone through 1990, when Wayne sold its body tooling to
Mid Bus. For 1986, Wayne Corporation introduced the
Wayne Lifestar, its first transit-style school bus since the early 1970s and its first transit-style bus with a front-engine layout since World War II. Designed specifically for school bus use, the body of the Lifestar was designed to share the longitudinal side panels of the Lifeguard. Unlike its largest competitors, Wayne did not have the manufacturing equipment or capacity to build chassis in-house; consequently, chassis from an outside supplier was crucial. Supply problems outside of the company's control led to the use of several suppliers for the Lifestar over its production run.
Bankruptcy In the school bus marketplace, Wayne struggled alongside its competitors. In 1986, a major potential order for Wayne in Canada was split between Wayne and
Ward. During 1987, its Welles factory in Canada was destroyed by fire; to keep the division in business, Wayne had to remodel a separate factory in Windsor; in June 1990, the Welles division was closed entirely. Shortly after the introduction of the Wayne Lifestar, the
Blue Bird TC/2000 was introduced; a model similar to the Lifestar, the TC/2000 captured a large share of the school bus segment. In 1991, Navistar, a chassis supplier for the Wayne Lifestar, purchased a controlling interest in AmTran; along with the end of Ward in school bus manufacturing, the purchase also began a period of mergers and acquisitions of school bus manufacturers by chassis suppliers. Richmond Transportation Corporation (RTC) declared bankruptcy in August 1992, with the company put up for auction. ==Post-Bankruptcy==