Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 390 i Australasian Bus & Coach

ZF SERVICES Australia has appointed a new sales and support executive for the New Zealand and South Pacific Islands’ bus and coach market, the company recently announced. Former Scania Australia and Scania UK employee Glenn Ayres is now ZF Services Australia’s regional OE sales and technical support executive for NZ and the South Pacific Islands. From February 17, 2020, Ayres will be focusing on the NZ bus and coach market providing increased presence in that area and strategically guiding and supporting the ‘authorised partner’ network in place, ZF states. Additionally, Ayres will represent the entire ZF products portfolio in the market, the company confirms. SOLID EXPERIENCE With a background in the technical and engineering fields, Ayres studied mechanical engineering before going on to be a master technician for Scania Truck…

FOLLOWING UK Tower Transit’s two new electric bus routes’ tender win announced last November, the company – aka Transit Systems in Australia, now part of the Sealink Travel Group – has finally placed its order for the 37 electric buses needed with UK company Optare, it’s reported recently. The 37 electric Metrodecker EV buses – touted as “the world’s first zero-emission doubledecker” –is designed and built at Optare’s facility in England. The Optare Metrodecker EV won the Excellence in Technology Award at the London Transport Awards in March 2019. The event recognises outstanding achievement in all facets of transportation in the city. The London Transport Award wasn’t the Metrodecker’s only industry accolade. In November 2018, it was also recognised by the CILT and UK Bus Awards for its contribution to…

FOCUSING on making a journey on a public bus “a real experience”, high-end German bus operator Spillmann has taken ownership of five custom-spec Citaros with “eye-catching” interiors. Though arguably the type of design treatment traditionally reserved for display purposes only at bus shows, the four Citaro hybrids and one Citaro G – all with sideguard assist technology – are making local Bietigheim-Bissingen/Mannheim and beyond passenger journeys even more memorable, the company says. For years, Spillmann has put a lot of effort into making such bespoke ‘bus experiences’ and these five new Mercedes-Benz buses have been individually designed and customised for just that. The Mannheim-based bus plant’s managing director of Omnibusverkehr Spillmann GmbH, Bülent Menekse, took delivery of four Mercedes-Benz Citaro hybrids and the one Citaro articulated bus from Rüdiger Kappel,…

ONLY TWO MONTHS after a supply agreement was signed, the first of 33 Volvo chassis, Irizar-bodied coaches have been delivered to West Australian operator Go West Tours for its BHP Pilbara mining contract, it’s reported. The partnership between global bus and coach manufacturer Irizar and Volvo Bus Australia secured a contract to supply the 33 coaches for a major seven-year contract with BHP, to provide transport services for its Pilbara mining operations. The contract was signed by Go West Tours director David Houst and Irizar managing director, Asia Pacific region, Daniel Castro in Perth on November 22, 2019. The first batch of special-built vehicles made their way to Perth on January 15, only two months after the contract being signed, Irizar confirms. It is a quite remarkable lead time given…

Transdev NSW’s Bus Customer Experience team was named Service Champion in the Customer Service Team of the Year category at the International Service Excellence Awards by the Customer Service Institute of America, recently. This recent international win recognises the team’s success promoting “a culture with customers at the heart, improving the quality of customer management and correspondence, and facilitating enhanced customer service skills across the organisation”, it states. “Transdev’s team stood out for the way they developed a customer-focused culture across the organisation,” said Christine Churchill, founder and CEO of the Customer Service Institute of America. Transdev NSW is a leading provider of bus, coach and ondemand transport services based in Sydney, it says. The team of more than 1,000 employees operates a fleet of 455 buses to deliver 23…

THE NEW Chain of Responsibility (CoR) laws are having their muscles flexed with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) commencing its first prosecution of a Victorian heavy vehicle operator over safety failures, it’s reported recently. The NHVR has laid charges against a company director for failing to exercise due diligence to ensure the company complied with its safety duty, the national truck and bus industry organisation states. NHVR executive director statutory compliance Ray Hassall says NHVR investigators conducted a safety duties investigation into a Victorian trucking company in relation to fatigue management of its drivers. “We believe the company failed to comply with conditions of its fatigue management accreditation,” Hassall said. “This requirement forms part of the Heavy Vehicle National Law’s (HVNL) primary safety duty and executives are required to…

ABC magazine’s usual test drives often have a focus on the latest and greatest bus body building, driver functionality, passenger comfort and new technology. Visually, we are always impressed by a new-look exterior, great craftmanship and exciting features that make for a comfortable ride or just a greatlooking vehicle to admire. Today’s drive of the latest Euro 6 Volvo B11R vehicle, however, is a bit different. Although it definitely is one great-looking coach, it is all about what you can’t see and the huge impact these features will have on all aspects of the drive, from both operator and driver peace of mind, driver comfort and usability and, most importantly, passenger safety. This chassis comes with the Volvo D11 six-cylinder in-line diesel engine, making 460hp (343kW) and 2,200Nm, Volvo I-Shift…

SEEING IS BELIEVING, they say – but should that inherently subjective ideology be held more accountable for arguably stymieing progression and judgement more often that it seemingly cites evidence for making informed decisions and personal advancement? That is, if one waited around for things to happen or be experienced and seen, and if these were bad accidents or negative occurrences, does it not behove us to anticipate such things and avoid them? Like, if there’s enough expert opinion or scientific evidence of something – underwritten by a dollop of good ol’ common-sense – why wait for ‘seeing’ things in action if you knew there was an inevitable need to circumvent or sidestep them? And this is where we are at in this climate change (or not) debate… The above hypothesis…

Australian bus and coach deliveries started the decade with a bang, resulting in one of the biggest months in modern times for the local industry – a final number of 172 in January. While local and global events may yet prove this a fleeting feat, it’s still worth crunching the numbers, which represent a huge year-on-year increase on last January’s 108, and already surpass 2019’s peak of 153 in July, which at the time had already broken the previous year’s record. Swedes Volvo (52) and Scania (38) were the frontrunners again, but it was the chasing duo of BCI and Yutong that proved stiff competition, posting 28 and 21, respectively. The body building sector was also hotly contested, with Volgren (33) retaining top spot, but not by much, with BCI…

BUS OPERATORS and state governments put emphasis on schoolchildren safety, particularly around buses, as students headed back to classes recently. In NSW, the rebranded Busways highlighted a ‘Flashing Lights Campaign’ as key to saving lives and avoid injuries as children returned from the summer holidays to resume their studies. In NSW, it is a legal requirement that a driver must not overtake or pass a bus with flashing lights at more than 40km/h. Motorists caught exceeding 40km/h when passing or overtaking a bus with flashing lights face heavy fines and a loss of demerit points. While the Flashing Lights Campaign is a reminder to motorists to be vigilant around school buses, it’s also a timely reminder to parents to talk with their children about how to safely get on or…

A QUEENSLAND-BASED, family owned business specialising in suppling genuine and aftermarket truck and trailer parts has purchased Whites Diesels, it was announced recently. Tranzmile says it is proud to announce its purchase of bus sector supplier Whites Diesels, which has been working in the bus sector for more than 25 years, servicing large and small bus and truck fleets around Australia. The company will be purchasing the assets of Whites Diesels and will be trading as a new entity now, but resurrecting the famous Whites Diesels name again from early February 2020, the company confirms. Cameron Black, managing director of Tranzmile and now of Whites Diesels, said: “We are very proud to announce our purchase of the assets of Whites Diesels, and to announce to the market that we will…

THE MINING SECTOR transport solutions subsidiary of Greyhound Australia – Greyhound Resources – has “indefinitely locked out workers engaged in industrial action”, reports the Queensland Branch of the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU), which has condemned the move. Providing transport to a number of remote mining sites across Australia, Greyhound Resources is a key element in the mining and resources industry, the union states. The move thus means Greyhound has “locked out some of its own employees”, it adds. TWU members have been bargaining for an enterprise agreement (EBA) to get a better deal for workers, who are some of the lowest paid in the mining sector, it explains. Greyhound Resources drivers receive rates of pay that are not much better than the award and – unlike most other DIDO or…

AFTER THREE years’ work, the Spanish Irizar Group presented its first autonomous bus to Malaga City Council for use by operator Avanza, it’s reported recently. As one of the company’s pioneering projects in e-mobility, the autonomous Irizar ie bus model – a fully zero-emissions electric vehicle with dual driving mode, manual mode and automatic mode (autopilot) – is 12 metres long and has capacity for 60 passengers, the company confirms. According to the company, its first autonomous bus is the result of the AutoMost Project, funded by the Centre for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) of the Ministry of Economy of Spain. This ministry aims to develop technologies for the automation of vehicles in urban and industrial transport applications, in order to make significant increases in efficiency, safety and sustainability, it…

Perched high above the bustling streets of any modern big city, on highrise balconies or through glass skyscraper window panes, you’ll see ant-like movement of people far, far down below. In that momentary near-silent appreciation of humanity’s insignificance on this planet, there’ll be other signs of motion by tiny cyclists and small cars and then larger vehicles still, with none more so striking than the many rectangular roofs of buses and coaches busily shuttling local commuters and international tourists to and from their varied destinations. At ground level, buses zing past and roofs rarely get another thought; out of sight is out of mind, no doubt. Yet what if it’s only really now that area as a space is being looked at for more than just housing the airconditioning systems…

South Australia’s Grant’s Coachlines director Shane Grant is not your average 40-year-old busloving chap. He’s been running the family bus business in the north-western Adelaide suburb of Woodville North for the past two years. He joined the company 16 years ago, doing anything from the ground up alongside his younger brother and director, Scott. Having spent six years as general manager before taking over the business upon his parents’, Andrew and Carol’s, retirement, Shane has been groomed for the position for a while. Yet both brothers have worked elsewhere upon finishing school – an important skill for secondgeneration business members, Shane explains. “Both of us did trades elsewhere when we came out of school; I’m a marine mechanic by trade and Scott is a spray painter. We then went and…