Southeastern Greyhound Lines - A Maverick Greyhound Affiliate

A Maverick Greyhound Affiliate

Through the purchase of the SEGL (in 1931), Consolidated acquired the right to use the Greyhound dog trademark, the Greyhound color scheme (blue and white), and the Greyhound and Southeastern names.

Shortly afterward that same year, 1931, with the consent of The Greyhound Corporation, Consolidated began using the name of the Southeastern Greyhound Lines as a brand name, trade name, or service name for its entire operation (not just between Chattanooga and Jacksonville but rather throughout its entire system) and began placing the Greyhound dog, the Greyhound name, and the Greyhound color scheme on all its coaches, and all the drivers and other workers began wearing Greyhound uniforms – even though the legal name of the company continued (albeit temporarily) as the Consolidated Coach Corporation. For that reason (between 1931 and 1936) the coaches bore the names of both Greyhound (in large lettering) and Consolidated (in small sublettering).

In 1936, however, the Consolidated Coach Corporation became renamed as the Southeastern Greyhound Lines, Inc. The home office remained in Lexington, and the employees continued as before.

Thus Southeastern became a maverick or atypical Greyhound company, one of only two major affiliates which sometimes have been called the non-Greyhound Greyhound companies.

In 1938 the Southeastern Greyhound Lines, Inc., became listed for trade on the New York Stock Exchange (the "big board"), as not only the first corporation based in Lexington thus listed but also the first bus-operating company anywhere.

The SEGL remained under separate ownership (that is, SEG was an independent corporation under independent ownership, not a division or subsidiary of The Greyhound Corporation) until the end of 1950.

Southeastern about 1944 introduced one clever twist along with its use of the Greyhound dog (especially as applied to the sides of the coaches), possibly in part a response to the "Battle of Britain" target-like symbol used (during World War II) with the dogs on the sides of the coaches belonging to the divisions and the subsidiaries of the parent Greyhound firm. The SEGL superimposed the dog onto a compass rose in a way which emphasized the letters SE (for southeast). That usage continued until the GM Silversides PD-3751 coaches began to arrive (late in 1947) with the standard dogs without the compass roses, and until the last of the 1948 ACF-Brill IC-41 parlor coaches and the last of the 1949 ACF-Brill C-44 suburban coaches arrived with their dogs with the roses on the sides, and until the last of the ACF and ACF-Brill coaches with the compass roses later in due course became repainted without the roses.