Greyhound's New Route

As the nation's biggest intercity passenger carrier, with a 102,181-mile route network covered by 5,422 buses, the Greyhound Corp. could presumably leave well enough alone with its slogan: "Leave the driving to us." But it hasn't. Over the past five years, Greyhound has reached off the highway to buy nine firms, set up a dozen more on its own. Among other things, it now leases locomotives and jetliners, runs tours, caters food, rents computers, writes insurance. And in Los Angeles last week, President Gerald H. Trautman promised that the company would continue "actively looking" for more new turns on the diversification route.

First Bet. Once limited mostly to a chain of "Post House" eateries located at some of its terminals, the company's non-bus operations are growing with greyhound speed. While transportation revenue has grown by 21% since 1962, Greyhound's other businesses have nearly quadrupled, last year accounted for 26% of Greyhound's record $546 million income and $47 million profit.

Greyhound's turn to diversification began in 1962, when Chairman Frederick W. Ackerman, fearing a leveling off of bus travel, began searching for new uses of Greyhound's cash. His first bet became a bonanza. For $14.7 million in stock, Greyhound bought San Francisco's Boothe Leasing Corp., which had been earning $400,000 a year mainly by leasing railroad freight cars and locomotives. Ackerman began buying jetliners--and made money when the credit-shy airlines started cashing in on the jet age. The subsidiary's earnings have zoomed 1,300%, to $6.2 million.

Fascinated with the success of that venture, Ackerman called in Trautman, then a San Francisco lawyer, set him to reorganizing Greyhound as a holding company. In quick succession, Greyhound picked up an industrial catering company that feeds workers at General Motors, hospitals and other institutions, a Manhattan fire and casualty insurance company, a Southeastern chain of restaurants and gas stations. It bought Travelers Express Co., the U.S.'s second largest money-order firm (after American Express) in 1965, last year set up an $85 million computer-renting subsidiary. Greyhound is even in bus building, set up Motor Coach Industries Ltd. in Winnipeg, Canada, three years ago, after the Justice Department beefed about Greyhound's once heavy reliance on General Motors.

With Ackerman virtually retired at 72, Trautman is mapping Greyhound's new routes. Trautman has been president for only 16 months but has already become embroiled in a battle for a 20% interest in the Railway Express Agency, which would dovetail with Greyhound's growing parcel-carrying business. Bitterly opposed to any butting in by the busmen, truckers and the railroaders have carried the fight to the Supreme Court.

For all that, bus operations are not about to take the back seat. Greyhound will add some 580 new buses to its fleet this year, and introduce a brand-new model, now known only as the MC 6X. The 40-ft. MC 6X will have more than double the baggage-carrying capacity of present single-level Scenicruisers, feature a passenger deck raised 6 ft. above the roadway. As a result, says Trautman, passengers will ride "well above the normal impact area." And, hoping to drum up more business from Negro travelers, Greyhound last week named onetime Brooklyn Dodger Joe Black, 43, as vice president for "special markets." Black, who in 1952 became the first Negro pitcher to win a World Series game, has been a Greyhound public relations man since 1962.

"Courtesy Problems." Greyhound is also trying to spruce up its terminals. To replace smaller and often shabby facilities, the company has built 23 new depots since 1958, will open an expansive, $11 million terminal in Los Angeles in August. Trautman is also attacking what the company euphemistically calls "courtesy problems," especially at small stations run by independent commission agents. The problem is most acute at the baggage counter, where surly clerks have been known to tell luggage-hunting travelers to "come back in two or three hours--or tomorrow."

Some relief is in sight. Greyhound will set up a computer operation this summer to keep track of its wide-ranging bus fleet. Eventually, the system will be cranked up to keep tabs on each passenger's baggage, which, because of space problems, sometimes rides in different busses. The system--optimistically--is expected to be able to trace a lost piece within five minutes.

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