Mack
The Mack Company belongs to the world elite of truck transport manufacturers, it’s one of the most famous and oldest companies in the industry. Its origin throw back to 1983 when brothers Jack, August and William Mack started to assemble horse-drawn wagons. Soon after that they were joined by their brothers Joseph and Charles. In 1901 the five Mack brothers founded the Mack Brothers Company and started assembling of small busses. This business turned out to be profitable, and in 1905 the company was transferred to Allentown, Pennsylvania. In 1911, when the number of staff reached 700, the chassis and engine plant in Plainfield was acquired.
At the same time the Mack brothers decided to create small holding company named International Motor Company (IMC), which united American branch of Swiss company Saurer and small company Hewitt, famous for its truck and talented construction engineers. The IMC Company was successful, and 3 companies were continuing their own independent productions. Nevertheless the brothers were unsatisfied and started to leave the company. The first brother abandoned the firm was Jack Mack, who later founded the Maccar company. Next ones were August and Joseph. In 1916 William Mack founded his own company of utility trucks Mackbilt. He was the last to leave the Mack company in 20ties. However the discord between brothers and strong competition had led Mac to the serious financial troubles even earlier in 1913.
On the basis of IMC the new International Motor Truck Corporation was created, but patent disagreements with the International Harvester Company in March, 1922 caused its renaming into the Mack Trucks Incorporated, but none of Mack brothers worked there at that moment. By the middle of 20ties the firm had a closed-cycle production including its own cast, tool-making and wood workshops with the staff of 6 thsd employees. But the most important fact was the invitation to the Mack company the leading engineers from Hewitt. In 1913 Edward Hewitt created a conventional truck Mack AB with working payload of 1.5-2.5 tonnes which was produced up to 1936. And the most significant contribution was made by another engineer from Hewitt - Alfred Masury. In 1916 he designed the most famous Mack truck – the AC model with unofficial name “Bulldog”.
During the economic recession period Mack got into difficulties and signed the agreement with the REO Company about sales of some REO truck models under the Junior or Jr. trademark. The term of this contract expired in 1938. With the beginning of World War II the main specialization of the company was a heavy military trucks and truck tractors: 5-ton trucks EH, all-wheel-drive high-sided trucks NM and NO, tank transporters NR and EXBX with payload capacity of 10-18 tonnes. During the War Mack produced 26 thsd of military trucks apart from fire-fighting trucks, torpedo-carrying planes and transmissions for tanks.
Economic situation improved noticeably in the spring of 1953 with design of the conventional B series with streamline all-metal cabin and front-end – 127 thsd of B series vehicles were produced during the following 13 years. In 1965 the B series developed into multifunctional R range with strict shapes, fiberglass folding engine bonnet and fenders. Since 1966 this range had been produced on the new plant in Hayward, California. The Mack branches in Australia and New Zealand also started its activities from this range. But in the meantime the Mack Company got serious financial troubles by the middle 70’s. As a result the French company Renault bought out 20% of its stocks, and shortly after that French trucks Midliner were produced in USA under the Mack brand, and in Australia – Renault G290. In 1986 the production volume reduced to 22.5 thsd vehicles. In 1990 the Mack Company was reorganized to American branch of Renault. In 1998 all American plants of Mack produced 28 340 cars. In 2001 Swedish company Volvo AB bought Mack Trucks, this led to the renewal of the model range and introduction of new engines based on the new owner’s technologies.
