Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company - History

History

Yellow Coach Manufacturing Co was founded in 1923 as a subsidiary of the Yellow Cab Company.

G.J. Rackham, whose career had commenced with the London General Omnibus Company after the First World War, spent four years in the U.S. from 1922–1926 and recognised the advantage of low swept chassis frame for bus development whilst employed by Yellow Coach in Chicago. It is likely that he was 'headhunted' by Hertz to help start up the bus building business. In 1926, he returned to England to join Leyland Motors as Chief Engineer and was responsible for the groundbreaking Titan and Tiger models.

General Motors purchased a majority stake in the company in 1925 and changed the name to the Yellow Truck & Coach Manufacturing Company.

GM purchased the business outright in 1943 merging it into their GM Truck Division to form GM Truck & Coach Division.

Although GM continued with the Yellow Coach product line, the Yellow Coach badge gave way to the GM Coach or just GM nameplate in 1944. GMC badges did not appear until 1968.

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