About Us
For over sixty five years the Hammond family has made their name synonymous with transportation excellence!
It all began in 1944 when the principal of Bracebridge High School advised then 14 year old Orvil Hammond to quit school and go to work—and go to work he did! Within a year young Orvil, who had started his career driving a taxi, would purchase a 1938 Ford sedan and go into business for himself.
His father Harold Hammond soon joined his son’s business, which was then known as “Hammond’s Taxi,” and as friends and relatives quickly joined in one by one, the small enterprise quickly blossomed into a local institution.
As Hammond’s Taxi grew, first adding a panel van equipped with side seats to transport students to and from school, followed by trucks and ambulances, it became clear that a new, more encompassing name would be needed to reflect changing business: thus Hammond Transportation Ltd. was born. By the mid-1970s, Hammond Transportation Ltd. had sold off the taxi, ambulance and trucking divisions in order to better focus on bussing and travel.
At the end of that decade a new wing of the company, Muskoka Travel Service, was created in order to compliment Hammond Transportation Ltd.’s growing charter operations. At the same time, Orvil’s three sons, Jim, Brad and Greg, were becoming more active in the company.
In the 1990s, the management of the business gradually was turned over to the boys and the fourth generation was brought on board as first Jim’s, then Greg’s sons began helping out with the business. In 2006, after Jim’s retirment the management of the company was turned over to Orvil’s youngest son, Greg.
Sixty seven years after the principal told Orvil Hammond to “go to work” Hammond Transportations’ operations include school bus, charter bus, and tour services. With a fleet of over 175 vehicles serving the Muskoka, Parry Sound, North Simcoe, Haliburton and Algonquin Park areas the bus company operates from coast to coast in Canada and throughout much of the United States, while Muskoka Travel Service operates tours throughout North America and as far afield as Europe and Australia.
Even though the fifth generation of Hammond’s might not be ready to take the steering wheel just yet, there is no shortage of family spirit here at Hammond Transportation Ltd.—all members of the Hammond Transportation team, whether they started here in 1944 or just last week have become members of the ever widening Hammond Transportation “family”.
