Ottawa Trucks, later renamed Kalmar Ottawa, is a United States-based company that builds terminal tractors – the low, short yard trucks that shunt semi-trailers around ports, depots and factories. It is the largest manufacturer of terminal tractors in North America, with over 55,000 produced. The name on the grille has changed more often than the purpose of the vehicle.
Kalmar Ottawa at a glance
| Maker | Ottawa Truck Corporation; later Kalmar Ottawa |
|---|---|
| Product | terminal tractors (yard trucks, shunt trucks) |
| Country | United States |
| Position | largest manufacturer of terminal tractors in North America |
| Produced | over 55,000 terminal tractors |
| Owner from 1993 | Sisu Terminal Systems, Finland |
| Owner from 1997 | Partek Corporation (Sisu and Kalmar Industries) |
| Badges | Sisu and Ottawa together in the 1990s; Sisu dropped soon after 1997 |
| Fire apparatus | Beck Fire Apparatus of Cloverdale, California, 1990–1992 |
| Electric | retrofit partnership with Orange EV, 2015 |
Short entry based on one source, the English Wikipedia article on Ottawa Trucks. The page covers the company rather than a single model, so it describes the terminal tractor line as a whole.
History of the Kalmar Ottawa
A specialist in one kind of truck
Ottawa Trucks built its business on a single class of vehicle: the terminal tractor, a purpose-made tractor unit with a raised cab and a fifth wheel placed over the rear axle so that a driver can pick up, move and drop a trailer in the tight space of a terminal yard. The company is the largest manufacturer of terminal tractors in North America, and by the time its history was written up it had produced more than 55,000 of them.
Sisu, then Kalmar
In 1993 Ottawa Trucks was purchased by its main competitor, Finnish Sisu Terminal Systems. For a few years the tractors carried both names, and surviving photographs from that period show Sisu Ottawa trucks with the two badges side by side. In 1997 Sisu and the Swedish terminal truck manufacturer Kalmar Industries were both incorporated into the Partek Corporation, and soon afterwards the Sisu badge was discontinued on terminal tractors. The product continued under the Kalmar name, and the American operation became Kalmar Ottawa.
A short-lived division
The company did once step outside its own field. In 1990 the Ottawa Truck Corporation acquired Beck Fire Apparatus of Cloverdale, California. Beck continued to operate as an independent division, but it went out of business in 1992, and the fire apparatus business disappeared from the Ottawa story.
Electric yard trucks
In 2015 Ottawa partnered with Orange EV, a Missouri-based manufacturer of electric terminal tractors, to retrofit its yard trucks with electric engines. The two companies said they had decided to collaborate because of the demand for emission-free logistics – terminal work, with its short runs and long idling, being an obvious place to start.
Design and features
- One job only: the terminal tractor exists to move trailers inside a yard, not down a highway, and Ottawa has built nothing else.
- Scale: more than 55,000 terminal tractors produced, the largest output of any North American maker.
- Two badges: Sisu Ottawa trucks of the 1990s carried the names of the American builder and its Finnish owner together.
- Electrification: from 2015 the company worked with Orange EV on electric yard trucks for emission-free logistics.
Kalmar Ottawa versions
- Ottawa terminal tractor: the original American yard truck.
- Sisu Ottawa (1990s): tractors sold with both badges after the 1993 purchase by Sisu Terminal Systems.
- Kalmar Ottawa: the name used after the Sisu badge was dropped following the 1997 Partek merger.
- Orange EV retrofit (from 2015): yard trucks converted to electric drive in partnership with Orange EV.
The other side of the Kalmar story is the little Tjorven post van built by Kalmar Verkstad in Sweden. All makes are listed in the Kalmar collection.
Sources
- Ottawa Trucks, English Wikipedia: company history, ownership, production total, Orange EV partnership
