Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 379 i Australasian Bus & Coach

THE WORLD’s first 24-metre fully electric ‘bendy bus’ will now go into operation in Nantes, France – the first time such a long bus will run completely on battery energy, it’s reported recently. Swiss company ABB, using Trolleybus Optimisation Système Alimentation (TOSA) flash charging technology, has been in operation in Geneva, Switzerland, for more than a year and will now equip the first 24-metre fully electric bus in Nantes, France. In little more than a year, Geneva has turned greener thanks to the ABB flash-charging eBus solution, the company states. Electric buses equipped with this solution have covered a record 500,000 kilometres, transporting millions of passengers and reducing carbon emissions by about 1,000 tonnes, it claims. A technological breakthrough developed for sustainable mass transportation, TOSA claims it has the world’s…

VOLGREN PROVIDED the perfect backdrop recently for the Federal Government to announce funding for a Melbourne export hub designed to help small and medium businesses make their mark overseas. Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews toured Volgren, making the announcement that means Wantirna’s Australian Manufacturing Technology Institute Limited will receive AUD$1.5 million from the Coalition‘s Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Export Hubs Initiative. Minister Andrews says the funding will boost the economy by getting more businesses access to new and bigger markets, to increase sales and create more Australian jobs. “The funding for this hub is integral to helping Australian businesses grow and will ultimately increase local and regional job opportunities in Victoria,” Minister Andrews said. “The Coalition is committed to supporting small and medium businesses through the…

MORE THAN 25 Australian bus industry representatives attended the Industrial Working Group (IWG) of the Bus Industry Confederation (BIC) in Canberra recently to develop an industry strategy and campaign to address crucial, evolving industrial relations matters. The IWG discussed a range of important industrial relations issues including how the bus industry – which employs many casuals across the nation – should deal with the outcomes from the most recent Federal Court case of Skene V Workpac Pty Ltd, in which an employer was required to pay annual leave payments to a casual employee who had also received a casual loading. “In our industry, because of the age of our drivers (averaging around 53 years of age), they need the flexibility provided by casual work and higher rates of pay offered…

A NEW WEST PERTH bus depot with facilities for up to 55 buses is due for completion mid-2019 and will replace the outgoing North Fremantle facility, the PTA has confirmed. In its latest issued project update, the PTA outlines that in August 2018 it awarded a contract for the design and construction of the new bus depot at Brockway Road, Mount Claremont, to Pindan Constructions Pty Ltd. Since then, the PTA and Pindan Constructions Pty Ltd have worked closely to build what will be a great depot, it states. The depot will, “…ensure the efficient and effective longterm business continuity of the PTA’s Transperth bus services in the Claremont bus service contract area,” it explained. The depot, built on a 1.2ha site, is taking shape with the office, fuel facility…

Scarlet Rose. That’s her name. Yet, even if this rose did have thorns there’d be few admirers or bus aficionados caring about getting pricked. Owned by Darrell Booth, who is also the owner/director of operations at Fantastic Aussie Tours, this 1954 A36 Clipper has been his love affair on wheels and it’s become part of the enchanting tourist landscape of the Sydney Blue Mountains region. For all owners and restorers of vintage vehicles the road to perfection and the path to completion is often a long and very costly one. There has to be an element of unbridled passion in there to get to the finish line. When ABC magazine met with Booth he was only too proud to introduce us to Scarlet Rose – a superbly restored 1954 Clipper.…

Business today is characterised by relentless change and Rover Coaches does just that. The 94-year-old family business in the beautiful Hunter Valley wine region of NSW has continually grown and evolved, breaking out of old habits and finding a path to new growth. Led by family CEO Aaron Lewis, the company has come a long way since its early days, taking pride in every task it undertakes. By installing air-conditioning in its school buses in 1990, to purchasing the first low-floor accessible bus in rural Australia in 1996, to installing seatbelts in school buses in 2000, it’s fair to say Rover Coaches is a leader in the industry. Best known for its charter work to the wine region and its expertise in major events, concerts and conference logistics, Rover Coaches…

According to MAN distributors in Australia, Penske Commercial Vehicles, it uses two types of telematics brands for its buses and coaches. Caltex Telematics Anyone operating a fleet of road transport vehicles is constantly striving to achieve quantifiable enhancements in fleet performance, reduce fuel consumption, as well as promote driver welfare and safety. Caltex Telematics, powered by Traffilog, is a powerful, predictive and proven system that is already improving the operational efficiency and safety in more than 280,000 vehicles across 28 countries, it states. By connecting directly to the vehicle CAN bus to collect, interpret and correlate CAN data, Caltex Telematics is the only solution able to provide business-ready actionable insights on how a vehicle is being mechanically driven and its overall health, the company states. It is a powerful and…

FIFTY SIX PER CENT of bus fire and thermal incidents originated in the wheel wells, while bus drivers were the first to either “see or smell smoke or see flames” on 74 per cent of all documented cases, according to a 2018 bus safety report released recently. Also of note in the sixth annual NSW Office of Transport Safety Investigations (OTSI) Bus Safety Report is the first documenting of a fire or thermal incident on an electric / battery bus in that state. The reason was determined to be that one of the main three-phase power cables to the traction motors had a high resistance connection and burnt the cable terminal and cable insulation, thus losing power supply to one phase of the traction motors, the report states. KEY HIGHLIGHTS…

TRANSDEV AUSTRALASIA has received a 2018-19 Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) citation as an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality, it’s reported recently. Transdev is one of 141 organisations awarded the citation this year, which is designed to encourage, recognise and promote active commitment to achieving gender equality in Australian workplaces. Group Diversity and Talent manager, People & Culture, Donna Jones said the citation was welcome confirmation Transdev was on the right path to bring change to the traditionally male-dominated transport industry. “We’re in an industry that’s moving faster than ever, and creating an environment that allows everyone to bring their full selves to work is not only the right thing to do, it’s absolutely critical to our bottom line and our long-term success,” said Jones. “We’ve introduced Journey Maker…

IMPROVED DATA and a national classification system are two of the options being explored in an independent discussion paper into the performance of tyres used on the performance based standards (PBS) fleet, it’s reported recently. National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) chief engineer Les Bruzsa has released the Review of Tyre Management Practices in the Australian PBS System by road safety expert John de Pont for industry feedback. “With almost one-in-five new heavy vehicles approved under the PBS scheme, we want to take a best-practice approach to the management of tyres on the PBS fleet,” Bruzsa said. “Currently two assessors assessing the same vehicle with the same tyres using the same software can get different results for some PBS standards if they obtain their tyre data from different sources. “This is…

A PPRAISING THAT AUSTRALIA is ‘lagging behind’, visiting Scania bosses sought to “put on that yellow jersey” – like in the tour de France – and actually “… be the ones leading the pack and transforming our industry into something that is more sustainable”, they told industry media in Melbourne, recently. Pleased with its overall performance in the Australian commercial vehicles market – bar some supply challenges late last year – Scania president and CEO Henrik Henriksson ardently highlighted his company’s aim to aid the industry reduce its carbon footprint and its ‘surprise’ at the lack of Australian legislation for mandatory Euro 6 emission standards adoption, plus cited the benefits for bio-fuels and hybridisation – particularly over longer distances – on the way to eventual full electrification in future. ABC:…

This is probably one of the broadest topics to cover in ABC magazine given the hundreds if not thousands of parts and accessories – and their suppliers – both locally and around the world – that all combine at some time to make a coach or bus. Seats, tyres, wiring, switches, doors, flooring, replacement panels and air-con - and even any random, weirdly dressed widget makers - all play a role in either supplying product new to OEMS or as crucial bits and bobs when it comes to fixing stuff. And on that note, if OEMs don’t have it themselves it’s going to come ideally from reputable aftermarket suppliers - who may in fact be sourcing items for OEMs depending on any contractual agreements that may, or may not, be…

For over 30 years Coachair has been recognised as a leader in the Australian Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) Industry. It remains the only Australian company to design, build and manufacture Air Conditioning Systems for the Australian Bus Market. This commitment to delivering superior performing products with exceptional service has led to an outstanding aftermarket support offer. The approach is not a ‘one size fits all’ which means the entire industry can access a wide range of genuine and non-genuine spare parts for all air conditioning brands. Fleet downtime is minimised with a dedicated Spare Parts division and on-site stock holdings of a wide range of spare parts and components. Our team constantly search the market for both genuine and non-genuine like-for-like parts at competitive prices. With a nationwide delivery…

SCANIA AND NOBINA – the latter the largest public transport operator in the Nordic countries – will collaborate to commence trials of autonomous buses on regular routes in the Stockholm area. “The technology is now sufficiently mature to initiate trials in actual bus operations on public roads, making the project one of the first of its kind in Europe with buses this size,” said Karin Rådström, head of Buses and Coaches, Scania. “The project will provide a wealth of information in the further development of large autonomous buses before a full-scale introduction.” The trials will be conducted in two stages, initially without passengers before welcoming commuters on-board. Safety being a top priority throughout the trials, the buses will have a safety-driver to monitor operations and assist passengers. “We at Nobina…

THE NUMBER OF fatalities involving buses in Australia during the past 12 months year to date ending in December, 2018, has recorded a 22.2 per cent decrease, according to the latest statistics over-viewing such incidents involving heavy vehicles overall. In the past 12-month period to December 2018, 23 people died in 21 fatal crashes involving buses. This marked a bus-related fatal-crash decrease of 22.2 per cent compared with the corresponding period one year earlier, from 27 to 21 crashes. It, however, marked an increase by an average of 4.7 per cent per year over the three years to December 2018, according to the Fatal Heavy Vehicle Crashes Australia Quarterly Bulletin, October – December, 2018. Complied by The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE), for the Federal Department of…

FOLLOWING THE RECENT SALE of WA’s Adams Group, current and long-standing chairman Adam Barnard has also resigned from his role at the Tour and Charter Division of BusWA, recently. Barnard sold his business to his bus business colleagues James Mulholland and Luke Crispin. Deputy chairman Joe Giuppa, director of Westwide, is now the new chairman and Ben Doolan, managing director of Australian Transit Group, was elected as deputy. Barnard has been involved in the bus Industry for nearly 18 years and he served as chairman of the Tour and Charter Committee for four years. During his time as chairman, the Tour and Charter Division flourished substantially, achieving and resolving a number of issues including: • Starting effective dialogue with the City of Perth in relation to coach bays in the…

COMMUTERS SHOULD BENEFIT from NSW State Government plans to increase the number of public bus services by 14,000 per week during the next four years in Sydney, the Illawarra, the Hunter and the Central Coast areas, it was announced recently. Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance said the NSW Liberals & Nationals have worked hard to improve bus services across the state and this commitment would take the total number of services added since they were elected to 50,000. “We will continue our record investment in public transport by adding thousands of extra weekly bus services to boost service frequency and the hours buses operate,” Minster Constance said. “More people than ever before are using the bus network. Patronage has risen by almost 55 per cent over the past…

A CHANGING LANDSCAPE is the theme of this year’s Queensland Bus Industry Council’s (QBIC) annual members conference, the first in the series for state-based associations under the Bus Australia Network family banner for 2019. To be held at The Ville Resort, Townsville, 12–13 April, the objective of the conference is to take members, “… on a journey, a journey on how we must adapt going forward to ensure business continuity and service viability,” said QBIC executive director and association secretary. “We have finally bedded down South-East Queensland urban contracts and are now progressing to finalise regional urban contracts. Our school sector also needs a refresh and a new payment model that has the capacity to remain relevant across multiple years, captures all price movements and operational expenditure for a school…

The first of two fully autonomous Volvo electric buses will soon begin trials at the NTU Singapore Smart Campus before being extended to public roads, it’s been announced. The buses are 12-metre single-deck Volvo electrics with a full capacity of close to 80 passengers, Volvo says. This is a key milestone in NTU and Volvo’s development programme under the university’s partnership with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to develop and conduct autonomous vehicle bus trials for fixed route and scheduled services, which was announced in October 2016. The Volvo 7900 electric bus is equipped with numerous sensors and navigation controls managed by a comprehensive artificial intelligence (AI) system, it states. Ensuring maximum safety and reliability, the AI system is also protected with industry-leading cybersecurity measures to prevent unwanted cyber intrusions.…

MERCEDES-BENZ According to the company, Mercedes-Benz Buses offers a smart telematics system for its Australian bus and coach customers. The premium fleet management tool features an Australian-developed software suite and makes it much easier for businesses to operate and monitor their fleets. The system is widely used among Mercedes-Benz truck customers in Australia. In addition to the desktop portal with full functionality, Mercedes-Benz Telematics also includes innovative apps for both the fleet operator and driver that increase convenience and visibility, it states. The telematics app allows the fleet operator to view a large amount of real-time and historical data on each vehicle, including vehicle location, driving behaviour, alerts - such as over-speeding, sudden braking instances, collisions and geo-fence breaches - along with other features. The driver’s app includes driver ID…

Astrong start to the year became even stronger in February, with January’s tally of 108 surpassed and reaching 112, suggesting 2019 could be a prolific year for bus and coach deliveries. The usual order was restored in February, with Volvo leading the chart on 39, followed by Scania on 22. MAN and Mercedes-Benz both recorded double figures, while Yutong eased back to six after last month’s bumper figure of 23. It was a similar case with the body builders, as Volgren returned to the top of the charts after recording 40 deliveries, marking a busy month for the local builder. Bustech maintained its double-figure tally from January with 14 deliveries, while Spanish-based Irizar followed in 11. Twelve builders shared the rest of the market. Thermo King went from strength to…