Written by Deb Hamel

Gay's Express terminal (at the time owned by the Holmes family ) had just built their large terminal north of the St. Johnsbury terminal in Westminster, Vermont breaking ground in 1957 with a grand opening in 1959. This new Gay’s Express terminal was later renamed Holmes Transportation terminal.

Years went by, and then Holmes Transportation was gone….Richard & Gilbert Gay, (owners of Gay’s Fuel Service), bought the terminal. B-D-R Transport of Brattleboro, Vermont then moved into the terminal..leasing it… in the mid-eighties.

Richard & Gilbert Gay then bought B-D-R Transport from Nelson E. Withington who was the founder of B-D-R Transport. After a few years, their sons Douglas & Gregory Gay bought B-D-R Transport & the terminal.

For about the last 25 years the building has served as the eastern terminal/main office for B-D-R Transport, which is owned by the next (fourth) generation of the Gay family (Gregory & Douglas Gay, Cousins).

Greg and Doug's Great Grandfather, Albert Gay, hauled with a horse and buggy. Thus, the beginning of the Gay Family’s trucking story.

His son, Robert Gay Jr. and his trucks are pictured below. He is the second generation of the Gay family in the trucking business. Robert had a business called R.L. Gay Motor Express, later known as Gay’s Express. He was based out of Randolph, Vermont and then moved the business and his family to Westminster/Bellows Falls, Vermont. It was stated that the trips from Randolph VT to Springfield MA were too long of a journey — Bellows Falls/Westminster, VT was the halfway point! When the Great Depression hit, Robert lost the business. Holmes bought the Company and kept the name “Gay’s Express” for name recognition.

“In 1967 Holmes went on a buying spree and Gay's Express and several other New England based companies were scooped up.” one blogger quipped.

Their sons , (the third generation) Richard, Gilbert and Robert Gay III owned Gay’s Fuel Service in Bellows Falls, Vermont. They also owned a small fleet of trucks that they operated and leased onto LEO… who mainly made deliveries to Zayre’s Stores out as far as Ohio and Pennsylvania and to the Northeast. Gay’s Fuel Service bought its first tractor, a 1967 GMC 9500, in 1973.

At this time, Richard’s son Doug was starting his driving career as a new truck driver (now called CDL A). Because of Federal Laws, one had to be 21 years old to drive interstate, so Richard and his son Doug (under the auspices of Gay’s Fuel Service) signed onto Bullet Express out of Brooklyn NY and ran cross-country because they allowed Doug to drive at this age as long as he was with his Father.

Robert Gay retired and sold his interest in Gay’s Fuel Service to his brothers in December 1984.

Gaining the needed OTR experience, Doug realized he wanted to run Coast to Coast. While Gay’s Fuel Service still ran majority of their trucks for LEO, Richard Gay spoke with Al Southwick, Salesman/part-owner of B-D-R Transport in Brattleboro, VT and Doug teamed up with Ray Parenteau one of the LEO drivers and that was the first trip with B-D-R Transport which eventually went from that one truck being leased onto B-D-R Transport to all of Gay’s Fuel Service trucks being leased onto B-D-R Transport. And that began the B-D-R Transport history with the family….

Richard and Gilbert Gay bought the former Holmes Transportation terminal in April 1989, almost 30 years to the day after the grand opening.

Richard and Gilbert Gay bought a 20% interest in B-D-R Transport in 1989, and additional 20% in 1990, and the remaining 60% in 1992.

Gilbert and Richard sold Gay’s Fuel Service in January 1996.  The Cota family continued to run it under the Gay’s Fuel Service name for several years before consolidating it into their company.

Gregory & Douglas Gay (the fourth generation) purchased B-D-R Transport in 2003 and have grown the Company into the magnificent success it is today…Great-Grandpa & Grandpa would be very proud of them - we know their Dads are!!

Recently restored gay’s motor express and b-d-r transport trucks

Gib Gay and Dave Durling are also antique truck owners and here are some cool restored trucks from the Green Mountain Chapter of the Amercan Trucking History Society.