Coach & Bus Today 16

Issue 016

Contents CONTACT DETAILS PO Box 3294 Erina, NSW 2250 www.truckandbus.net.au Enquiries Tel: 0411 099 091 Follow us on Twitter #truckandbusnews Publisher/Managing Editor Geoff Paradise gparadise@truckandbus.net.au Editor Fabian Cotter fabian@truckandbus.net.au Art Director Luke Melbourne www.groeningdesigns.com.au Senior Designer Adelle Chang www.groeningdesigns.com.au Advertising Sales 0411 099 091 0409 654 157 advertising@truckandbus.net.au Contributing Writers Chris Smith, David Meredith, Sven-Erik Lindstrand, Allen Matzel Contributing Photographers Mark Bean, Cristian Brunelli, David Meredith, Chris Smith, Paul Jakubicki, Matthew Everingham

Regulars

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Driver’s Seat

Finally the BIC Conference and Exhibition is in full swing on the Gold Coast. Editor Cotter is in full swing there hugging buses. As you do.

Fare Go

Publisher Paradise chats about the recent buyback of Custom by Mr Burgess, and how bad US school buses are after a recent trip there.

Up Front

We wrap up the key local and international bus and coach news that affects us as a global industry and where we are heading.

Hot Stuff

If you are past Lego and Meccano then these trick gadgets on the go are hard to resist. You may not need them, but you’ll certainly want them. Or is that vice-versa?

Working Wheels

Fiat is entering the small van market with its Doblo, a multi-purpose van that will appeal to many and put rivals on notice. Geoff Paradise reports.

Money

If the only certainties in life are death and taxes then we probably just focus on the latter.

Guru Paul Clitheroe recommends insurance for death and injuries, too.

Technical

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Walk This Way

Bus accidents involving pedestrians is being tackled my new technology and MAN is investing heavily into it. Fabian Cotter investigates.

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coach&bus “European cities are showing a keen interest in the electric hybrids.”

22 Features

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Bus of the Year, 2015

BIG WIN: MAN’s quite chuffed that its Lion City GL CNG Lowfloor Articulated bus is worthy of the coveted title. Fabian Cotter reports on its big win.

Volvo’s All-New Electric Hybrid NEW GEAR: Technology gets a new push with an all-new vehicle that’s in demand from some major European cities.

Fabian Cotter reports on the development.

It’s A Long Story

ON TRIAL: Scania and Irizar in the UK have teamed up to put a 15-metre bus on trial. A global trend to come? Who knows?

Fabian Cotter investigates.

Southern Comfort

COVERSTORY: BCI’s stylish re-vamped Citirider is New Zealand grown, but Aussie bound. Fabian Cotter reports on this good-looking city bus heading our way.

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Special Ex-owner Re-buys Custom

REPORT: In voluntary administration only recently, Custom has been bought back by the man who sold it. Fabian Cotter investigates.

On All Fours

It’s a jack of all trades really, but a South Aussie Operator’s 4x4 cab-chassis is doing all sorts of good for them. Fabian Cotter check it out.

The Harder They Come

OPERATOR: Explorer Coachlines in South Australia is a switched-on organisation with an attitude to match. Fabian Cotter reports.

60 Minutes With...

Executive director of the BIC Michael Apps has a chat with Coach & Bus magazine about a range of issues. Fabian Cotter reports.

Clean Dreams

One US city’s homeless community is feeling just a little bit better thanks to buses converted to bathrooms. Fabian Cotter soaps up.

004Driver’s Seat

Fabian Cotter “Bus drivers are an immeasurably more valuable asset to your bus operation than some may think.”

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t’s showtime! Who said an annual bus show would never catch on? Of course, it would. Here we are! And so are you, too...

Right about now at the time you are reading this I’d imagine you are sprawling yourselves out in the aisles, or hugging the fronts of buses and pressing your faces up against windscreens in delight at this year’s BIC Australasian Bus and Coach Show. Why so?

Well, this is the technically the first show in the ‘transition stage’ of the ‘one bus show per year’ idea, so all that pent-up bus-loving enthusiasm may well cause such an outpouring of emotion, rendering you besotted with all the chassis and bus bodies and bus parts and bits on offer at the show. Then again, maybe it will just be me.

If you do see me doing this all I ask is that you forgive me and turn a blind eye to my inane bus shenanigans, as had there been more shows per year I would have been a lot more calm, cool and collected about it all. Alas, I think it was a good move and I’m happy to be just a bit excited about the 2014 event this year on The Gold Coast.

And I guess that is the point of the exercise: less shows not only meaning exhibitors and supporters save time and money from not travelling around the place and setting up major displays so often, but also when the annual shows comes around we are all looking forward to it with great gusto. Some more so than others ... obviously. Not mentioning any names. Fabian.

This new format is no bad thing and congrats to the BIC and the various state associations for coordinating and compromising here and there to make a sole annual event happen.

To that end, I think while it will be easy for manufacturers and operators to easily get wrapped up in the fanfare of the latest

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machines on offer, I think it is wise to remember the one crucial aspect that makes any good bus business great, and the great ones even greater: quality bus drivers.

It’s a theme we hear all too often by some of the more successful operators in Australasia, this issue’s story on Explorer Coachlines being another recent one of them. You see, quality bus drivers are an immeasurably more valuable asset to your bus operation than some may think in that they are the face of the customer service that your organisation predictably professes to possess. I say it that way because there will be those companies that are actually dedicated to supreme customer service, while others probably just bluff it. And they’ll only ever really learn they don’t have it when something bad happens and or when customers vote with their social media feet, never to return for a trip or advise their family and friends to not do so as well.

Now while not all bus drivers are perfect – there’s enough media reports of those mounting curbs, running into parked houses, or allowing their social-life habits to affect their driving work (not cool) - there are many who do the bus industry a wonderful service as ambassadors of what great public transport is all about. I can only hope discerning operators are always on the look-out for such admirable traits and commending and rewarding them for such. It’s all part of making our industry the best form of public transport out there. And given what many drivers have to put up with each day on their routes and services, they deserve a Skippy badge at least I say.

And let’s not forget those who spend their time piecing buses together, be it in factories here or abroad. They are at the coalface of quality and safety standards of buses that ensure not only your products last and perform

well over its intended life-cycle and beyond, but also that commuters happily travel in comfort and style from their A to B. This issue is jam packed with a whole stack of interesting stuff that reflects the current state of play in the global coach and bus industry, and then some. It includes a report on the unexpected yet seemingly universally welcomed buy-back of Custom by original owner Mark Burgess; we look at MAN’s ‘Bus of the Year, 2015’ win and its latest UR:BAN driver education initiatives; Volvo debuts a new electric-hybrid bus at the IAA Commercial Vehicles Show in Germany this year; we’ve a great example of bus conversion from the United States that’s helping San Francisco’s homeless community; and BCI’s NZ-market low-floor bus as shown on our cover looks to be a real cracker – and it’s coming to Oz really soon we hear.

Also we talk to Bus Industry Confederation executive director Michael Apps about what’s been going on with the peak body and what the future holds, while Scania’s 4x4 cabchassis with Coach Design pod is doing wonders in the South Aussie tourism market – be it travelling the rugged outback or taking in the sweeping sights of the stunning Great Ocean Road.

There’s plenty of stuff to sink your teeth into this issue and when not sinking them why not come say hello to us when you see us at the BIC show. We don’t bite. Much. :) Until the next thrilling instalment...

006Fare Go

Geoff Paradise Back to the future? The Burgess buy-back of Custom sounds a little too familiar.

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n a move reminiscent of Kerry Packer buying back Channel Nine for a fraction of what Alan Bond paid for it, Custom’s Mark Burgess has mirrored the late media tycoon’s good fortune and regained ownership of the company he sold to the UK-based Alexander Dennis Ltd a little over two years ago.

While it probably wasn’t what Mr Burgess or his family envisaged when they sold Custom to the gung-ho British company, that he has come to the rescue is a combination of sentiment and a sound business decision.

After all, who is better placed to reinvigorate the business than the man responsible for running it in the first place?

With the buy-back there are winners and losers. The winners are obvious and the losers less so. Yes, the company has emerged debt free, has been renamed and has a new board and management team, but ADL’s decision to bail out has left a lot of people out of work and out of pocket.

Personally, I am livid with ADL. That they could march in here and declare they were making a commitment to the Australian manufacturing and do all sorts of wonderful things only to pull the pin when the going got a bit tough was reprehensible. Good riddance to them.

Of the people who lost their jobs as a result of ADL’s actions and the restructuring needed

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to make the company viable, nothing will make them feel better other than to find a job somewhere else. It may be that as Custom is gradually turned around there will be a need to re-hire or simply hire more people, but it’s early days and every penny spent needs to be watched.

I wish them well.

On other matters I spent a week visiting Navistar in the US in early August - yes, I was wearing my truck journalist’s hat representing our beloved sister magazine, Transport & Trucking Today.

Navistar is a massive business, but one that has, in recent years, fallen foul to the GFC and very bad management. Its share price has tanked, it seems to be facing legal action on a number of fronts and still posts losses that would make a glass eye bleed.

Yet they are recovering, which supports what I’ve always said about the US, its manufacturing base and its economy - never underestimate them.

Navistar builds International trucks, a brand known to many reading this. They will be re-released here in the next 18 months, but that’s another story that you can read in the aforementioned TT&T if you are so inclined.

What amazed me during my visit to the Lisle, Illinois, factory were the archaic school buses they knock out in huge numbers.

You’ve seem them in countless movies

(ConAir, Speed and others). They are those generally yellow and black contraptions that really do look like prisoner-transfer buses designed in the ‘30s, which I’m sure they were.

From the driver’s seat back you couldn’t, or wouldn’t, find a more uninspiring, technologically retarded bus in a third world country, much less in the United States.

Bench seats, no seatbelts, no crash protection, no nothing! For a country that puts so much emphasis on the safety of its future generation I can’t believe they put their kids in these death traps.

While the chassis and running gear may be state-of the-art from the frame up it’s pure Fred Flintstone. And the rear overhang! Good grief, it must be close to two metres on some I saw. Are there no driveways or hills these things negotiate?

It’s said nostalgia never goes out of style, but I’m afraid in this case this is one design that needs to be hit for six quick smart.

There’s not much we can teach Americans, but I think in this department we have the drop on them. For goodness sake, put your kids in a safe bus, not a metal tube with padded park benches for seats.

Volvo Bus Australia

NSW, QLD & NT: Tony Lowrey 0413 049 153 Ray Andrich 0418 213 320 VIC, SA & TAS: John Louder 0418 365 356 Darren Cottle 0419 500 324 WA: Mark Port 0418 824 004

UpFront

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VOLGREN ARTICULATES FOR JAPAN AUSTRALIAN BUS-BODY builder Volgren – now under majority ownership

by Brazilian bus giant Marcopolo SA – has struck a mighty blow for Australian manufacturing and entered the Japanese bus market selling its articulated buses.

As Japan seeks complementary alternatives to its heavily rail-based public transport system, it’s a burgeoning and potentially lucrative segment and so this September Volgren will ship its first articulated bus for the Japanese city of Niigata. The bus is the first in an initial order of four for the city, a bustling and prosperous port and business centre on the northwest coast of Honshu, Japan’s largest island.

Another three buses will be delivered in 2015, followed by a further four the following year, and potential to build another 12 buses for the city by the year 2020.

“We are very proud and exited that Niigata and Mitsui have put their trust in our design, safety and manufacturing quality standards,” said Contracts and National Business Development manager Jon Tozer. “And we think

Volgren says there are no images yet of the articulated bus destined for Japan, but it is expected to be similar to the local Volgren product (pictured).

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the people of Niigata will enjoy the experience of riding on our vehicles.

“We also believe there is terrific potential for the future. Volgren has had several discussions with a number of other cities in Japan, with the prospect of further sales looking very favourable,” he said.

Perhaps incredibly, this order alone will see the entire Japanese fleet of articulated buses doubled as currently there are only 20 such vehicles operating across the whole country.

All have been produced overseas, but none completely meet strict Japanese road regulations. The Volgren articulated bus will be the first to meet these regulations.

This is the first time Volgren has built a bus for the Japanese market and follows an approach to the company three years ago, from new partner Mitsui, one of Japan’s largest corporations.

This is a new and potentially large market for Volgren. The Japanese bus-building industry has shown no interest in building articulated models, largely due to low volume requirements

and inflexible production processes.

Also, the country’s public transport is overwhelmingly rail based, in both heavy and light rail modes.

But an increasing number of governments there are looking at Bus Rapid Transit as an option. Niigata, a city of more than 810,000, has begun establishing a BRT system in order to help revitalise its downtown.

With Japanese central and local governments increasingly insisting that future vehicles must comply with regulations, in 2011 the buying house Mitsui approached Volgren seeking its capability to design and build a highcapacity articulated bus that would meet both the city’s needs and, for the first time, those stringent regulations.

“What followed,” explained Tozer, “was three years investment in market viability; investigation into the vehicle regulatory and specification requirements; and material testing and certification. We also needed to secure a willing and compliant chassis provider.

“That was achieved in partnership with Scania Japan, which had been established as a truck-only office, but

had the only European chassis – the K360UA Euro6 – available at the time that met the stringent Japanese emission standards.”

The 26-tonne articulated buses for Niigata will use Volgren’s clean and modern bodies and the unparalleled Co-bolt aluminium frame and will be 18 metres long by 2.5 metres wide and 3.8 metres high.

Established in 1977 and with manufacturing plants in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, as well as service centres in Newcastle and Sydney, Volgren has grown rapidly in recent years thanks to a focus on safety, reliability and high environmental standards. With a majority stake held in the company

by Marcopolo SA, one of the world’s largest bus body manufacturers, the company also offers genuine global capability.

Japanese public transport is heavily rail-based at the moment, but an increasing number of governments there are looking at Bus Rapid Transit as an option. This opens an exciting market opportunity for Volgren.

Business Buses For Melbourne CBD MELBOURNE COMPANY SUITJET could have potentially started a commuter revolution of sorts by recently launching its fleet of swanky buses targetting white-collar workers.

Essentially a ‘private club’ for business commuters, the service means Melbourne’s corporate ilk can now ignore the often packed and uncomfortable modes of public transport to and from work and travel in comparative stress-free, calm and comfy buses each day. And it’s just the

kind of thing that could well take-off nationally, we reckon. Fast!

Its co-founder and former Jetstar executive, though - Darren Heiberg – denies it will create a commuter class divide, but conceded he was considering changing the name of the company to remove the ‘suit’ reference.

“I was quite nervous about calling it SuitJet. The demographic is white-collar workers, everyone from the receptionist to the junior accountant through to the middle management,” he said.

The express ‘business class’ would be ideal for those business travellers who prefer to answer their emails in a productive environment instead of that time being spent driving their cars and or physically unable to do such work because of the possible inability to do so comfortably on regular public transport.

“That’s an hour of work you don’t have to do after having dinner with the kids and a cup of tea with your wife,” he said.

“Public transport is too successful in that demand exceeds supply, and that’s leading to people seeking new alternatives.”

The cost? A return ticket on SuitJet is $30.

Headed up by a fleet of three customised Mercedes-Benz coaches – quirkily named after Melbourne Cup winning horses – the number could increase to 20 vehicles quite soon within weeks, using surplus Dysons Bus Services vehicles.

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UpFront

Deutsche Bahn Commissions 815 MAN Buses DB REGIO BUS and MAN Truck & Bus have signed a framework agreement concerning up to 815 local and regional buses. Accordingly, Germany’s largest bus transport company will be ordering up to 435 city and intercity buses worth around Euro 100 million in 2015 and 2016. For 2017 and 2018, DB Regio Bus has an option for a further 380 vehicles worth around Euro 90 million.

The framework agreement concerns especially modern city and intercity

buses of the MAN Lion’s City, MAN Lion’s City Ü and MAN Lion’s City G/ GÜ types in various vehicle lengths and in easy access, low-floor versions.

All vehicles are equipped with powerful, fuel-saving Euro6 engines.

The buses also feature topographydependent gearbox control, which further reduces fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. On journeys, this system automatically activates the most efficient gearshift programme, depending on whether it is on an uphill

or downhill stretch.

“This order confirms that our buses and our service fully meet operators’ high expectations in terms of reliability and economy,” said Heinz-Jürgen Löw, director of Sales and Marketing, MAN Truck & Bus. “We are looking forward to continuing our partnership of many years’ standing with Germany’s largest bus operator, DB Regio Bus.” MAN Truck & Bus and Deutsche Bahn have enjoyed an excellent business

relationship for several decades now.

Across Germany, Deutsche Bahn uses around 2000 vehicles made by MAN and NEOPLAN. DB Regio Bus is responsible for the regional bus and urban transport operations of Deutsche Bahn. These include a network of 22 bus companies and interests in more than 70 transport companies and associations throughout Germany. The company is the largest provider in Germany’s bus transport market.

BUS BOSS CHARITY BASH SCANIA’S JULIAN GURNEY swapped his bus sales role to pilot a bright-pink 1969 VW Baja Beetle from Melbourne to Noosa as part of the 2014 Variety Club Bash.

The ‘Pink Panther’ was prepared by having the registration number ‘PNTH5R’ attached and a few comfort items installed, such as carpet and race seats, as well as a couple of high intensity spotlights mounted on the front.

Gurney, who lives in Warrandyte, Vic, is the National Retail Sales manager for Scania Bus and Coach, one of the country’s largest importers of bus and coach chassis, and attracted more than $30,000 in sponsorship – largely from

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the Australian bus industry – and set a new high mark for rookie participants.

“We bought the car for the event and when it arrived we were surprised to discover it needed quite a bit of love, but it has come up very well. We chose race number 112 to commemorate one of the earliest Scania buses imported into Australia in the 1980s,” Gurney said.

“My 12-year-old daughter wanted to ride along in the car with me, but instead I took my father-in-law, Bill Sanguinetti, as his company McFarlane Medical and Scientific has shared the preparation costs and is sponsoring the entry.

“A large number of bus industry

businesses have got behind the Pink Panther bash car and have been very active supporters. Variety supports kids, and kids are the biggest customers of many bus companies across Australia so it’s a really good fit,” Gurney added.

“Ashley McHarry of McHarry’s Buslines in Geelong was the first to contribute and it snowballed from there,” he said.

Around 500 cars took part nationally and the Victorian leg kicked off on August 14 in Keilor and headed to Moore Park in Sydney for the national Variety Bash gathering on Sunday 17, when all the cars drove across the beloved Sydney Harbour Bridge.

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Volvo Buses And ABB In Electro Mobility Deal VOLVO BUSES AND ABB have signed a partnership agreement regarding automatic e-bus chargers for electric-hybrid and full-electric Volvo buses. The cooperation enables the companies to deliver complete electrified bus solutions to cities.

Under the global partnership agreement, Volvo Buses will supply electric-hybrid buses and full-electric buses. ABB will supply standard-based fast-charging solutions for the electric vehicles.

“We are delighted to enter into partnership with ABB. Together, we have a complete and competitive offer for cities around the world that want to switch to a sustainable public transport system,” said Håkan Agnevall, president Volvo Buses.

“Electric-hybrid buses and full electric buses are tomorrow’s solution for urban public transport. Volvo will team up with a few global actors in this field, and ABB is one of them.”

“We are very pleased to partner with a global transportation industry leader which shares our vision of e-mobility in line with ABB’s commitment of power and productivity for a better world,” said Pekka Tiitinen, head of ABB’s Discrete Automation and Motion division.

“Urbanisation is at a historic high and is stretching the transport infrastructure of cities around the world. Our collaboration will help to

support sustainable and cost-efficient transportation solutions to meet rising commuter demand.”

The partnership involves working towards a standardisation of automatic e-bus fast charging on the market.

This can include the communications protocol between infrastructure charging solution and e-bus, electrical interface, and specification of the automatic connection system (ACS).

The ACS is located on the roof of the bus and connects the bus with the fast charger at selected charging stops.

The first joint project will be the implementation of Volvo Electric Hybrids and automatic e-bus chargers in the Luxembourg public transport system. Potentially 12-volt Volvo Electric Hybrid buses operated by Sales-Lentz will be running on existing public bus lines in Luxembourg as of 2015.

Sales-Lentz has a history of being an early adopter and was the first European operator running Volvo Hybrids already in 2009. This project is another strong example of a public and private partnership between Sales-Lentz, the ministries of Luxembourg and Volvo Buses.

The project is integrated into Luxembourg’s Mobility Network (LMN), a network that links different mobility projects in the Grand Duchy to exploit synergies and develop common visions for the mobility of the future.

The Volvo Electric Hybrid, which reduces energy consumption by 60 per cent compared with a conventional diesel bus, will be officially launched at the IAA exhibition in Hanover, Germany, in September.

Volvo’s first full electric buses will be launched in June 2015 within the ElectriCity project in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Volvo Buses launched its first hybrid bus in 2009 and has delivered nearly 1600 hybrids to 21 countries.

The company is a leader in electro mobility.

As a leader in power and automation technologies, ABB plays a vital role in

the development of sustainable modes of transport by providing efficient charging infrastructure solutions for electric vehicles. ABB technologies ensure intelligent infrastructure networks with an industry-leading uptime while maintaining good power quality in the grid. As the market leader in fast-charging solutions, ABB delivered more than 1500 DC fast-charging systems for passenger vehicles worldwide since 2010, and rolled out charging networks for automotive, utility, government and retail customers including nation-wide networks in the Netherlands, Estonia, Denmark.

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UpFront INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS WORLD CONGRESS 2014 DRIVERLESS AND INTER-VEHICLE communication is an eventuality that cannot be ignored by world public transport systems, particularly buses if so many cars will be on road using such technology. In that context, understanding what trends may come could prove crucial for the future success of bus and coach companies.

This September, in front of more than 10,000 of the world’s leading transportation policymakers, researchers, high-tech innovators and business professionals at the ITS World Congress in Detroit, USA, NICTA Intelligent Fleet Solutions will unveil its latest innovations that are injecting Smart ICT into the complex world of transport infrastructure.

NICTA is co-exhibiting with ITS Australia, at Stand 1728. In addition to its driving simulator experience, demonstrating new tools to monitor and measure driver inattention – a leading cause of crashes – NICTA will offer access to a wide range of other research projects for Detroit’s enquiring minds Members of NICTA’s Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics team are leading 20 sessions at the Congress, showcasing how NICTA’s research is making transport networks safer, more efficient and more sustainable. The team will demonstrate how its efforts are currently influencing public policy, decisionmaking and fostering wealth creation for the wider economy. Seven NICTA speakers will present in, and/or moderate sessions, at the congress on subjects including: Mobility in smart cities; Improving sustainability through Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS); Traffic incident management based on ‘anomaly detection’; Data-driven traffic and public transportation modelling; Smart parking systems, open data initiatives in public transport; Optimisation of FMCG profits through smart distribution management; The future of connected vehicles.

ITS World Congress is the leading global event focusing on innovation in transport systems, bringing together public and private sector organisations with innovators and researchers. Australia will host the Congress in Melbourne in 2016.

012 www.truckandbus.net.au

HOPKINSONS CHOOSE HIGER FOR RAIL DOWNTIME FAMILY OWNED BUSINESS Hopkinsons Coach and Bus has chosen a Higer H12300s Road Boss for its rail shutdown routes.

Hopkinsons has been servicing Sydney’s western suburbs for more than 35 years and its clients include schools, corporates, leisure groups and government - including replacement track work.

Fleet manager Geoff Cooper said this key aspect of the business demands certain attributes from any bus in his fleet.

“The deal-breaker for any addition to the Hopkinsons fleet is reliability and we have certainly found that in the Higer,” Cooper said.

“The routes between railway stations are usually much longer than standard bus routes as they’re designed with trains in mind, so when doing rail shutdown work fuel economy becomes even more important to us. The perfect combination of reliability and fuel economy is what we saw in the Higer H12300s Road Boss,” he said.

The reliability of the Higer H12300s Road Boss comes from its strong chassis, married with proven components including an Allison

six-speed transmission and an ISBe5 Cummins engine, the company states.

“The US-made components are well-known, tried and true parts.

They’re coupled with Meritor axles and Alcoa alloy wheels so we’re very confident about the bus’s reliability.”

Good dealer support is also important to Hopkinsons.

“The one thing you can never tell for sure until after you’re committed is post-sale support from your dealer.

We’ve been very well taken care of by the dealer network; nothing is too hard for them. They’re responsive, their follow-up is excellent and they understand the importance of turnaround times so our vehicles can be back on the road as soon as possible.”

Cooper said apart from reliability, passengers on rail shutdown routes are looking for a comfortable bus ride.

“Many passengers on those routes have had a hard day and they’ve already been inconvenienced by the track closures, so the least we can give them is a nice bus to ride home in. With its air-conditioning, luxurious seats and seatbelts, the Higer Road Boss really does tick all the boxes for

us,” he said.

He adds that a quality customer experience has always been part of Hopkinsons’ commitment.

“When Graham Hopkinson started the company he used to say ‘Our clients are to be treated with respect at all times. They are kings and queens when they travel with Hopkinsons’. This is still a strong part of our philosophy.

“We have always taken pride in our customer service and the quality of buses we use to service our passengers, and the Higer forms a key part of that. We have been in the bus industry for 35 years servicing the Smithfield, Parramatta and Merrylands areas in Sydney’s western suburbs.

“Michelle Hopkinson recently took over the business from her father and is continuing the family legacy of quality vehicles, including our fleet of Higers, excellent customer relationships and retention of experienced and dedicated staff and quality service,” Cooper said.

Higer will be exhibiting at the Australasian Coach and Bus Expo on the Gold Coast, 28 September – 1 October, 2014.

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Volvo Euro6 Tours Greenlights VOLVO BUSES LAUNCHED a complete new range of vehicles in Europe last year ready for the Euro6 emission legislations. Now the Australian market is in the know following a country-wide tour of Volvo Bus Euro6 Information Forums, the company says.

Awhile ago, Volvo Bus Australia held information forums in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to update and notify operators of Volvo’s new Euro6 product range and technology. The forums attracted more than 150 attendees ranging from private operators to state transit authorities, city councils and bus associations.

Discussion topics included new product design, specifications,

technology, legislation, emission levels, and body build.

“Our aim was to inform operators of Volvo’s new Euro6 product offerings and innovative technology while also reassuring them that although we have Euro6 products readily available, there is no pressure to purchase them until they have been formally legislated by the government,” explained Sean Copeland, general manager Volvo Bus Australia.

The forums were led by NSW Service manager, David Woodward, and Sales Engineering and Bodybuild manager, Dean Moule. Both employees have a solid background in the new technology and experienced the products first hand in Sweden earlier this year.

“We are confident about the latest products and believe that Volvo’s Euro6 line-up will provide additional savings for our customers,” said Woodward.

The Volvo Euro6 product range will be based around new 8- and 11-litre Volvo engines that will be used across the Volvo Truck platform, as well.

A fundamental message throughout the forums was that, for those customers who are in no hurry to move to Euro6, the proven Euro5 range will be available for years to come.

“The Volvo 7-litre models have proven to offer outstanding productivity in Australian conditions over the last five years and we are happy to offer these alongside the new Euro6 range, which is already receiving great feedback

from European operators,” said Copeland.

A final decision by the Australian Federal Government has not been made in regards to Euro6 regulation.

For those customers wanting to experience the product for themselves, Volvo will have Euro6 vehicles available for inspection and test drive late 2014.

For more information, please contact your local Volvo sales representative.

David Woodward, NSW Service manager Volvo Bus presenting at the Sydney Volvo Euro6 Information Forum.

Volvo B8RLE Euro6 chassis.

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NEW DIESEL PRODUCTS IN THE HUNTER THE HUNTER REGION’S mining and commercial businesses will be the first in New South Wales to have access to a new range of Australian-developed diesel products specifically designed to boost engine power output and reduce fuel consumption.

Caltex Australia said upgrades completed this week on Caltex’s Newcastle terminal enabled customers’ access to new fuel products that would help address a number of maintenance and performance challenges known to be contributing to higher costs of maintaining their diesel fleets.

Caltex general manager Marketing Bruce Rosengarten said the package would assist commercial diesel customers across the Hunter in their efforts to reduce these costs.

“Caltex has responded to these challenges by introducing the Caltex

TecDiesel Advantage, a holistic and cost-effective package that includes three new advanced diesel products, along with fuel filtering processes, site-specific engineering solutions and a fuel-saving low-viscosity engine oil,” Rosengarten said recently.

“Independent tests, designed to replicate Australian conditions, demonstrated that the TecDiesel Advantage programme delivers increased power output and potential fuel economy savings through improvements to injector cleanliness.”

The new products come at a time when Caltex embarked on a new multimillion dollar advertising campaign to differentiate the leading Australian-based, managed and listed fuel supplier from a number of the newly arrived multinational giants.

Rosengarten said iconic suppliers such

as Caltex, Ampol and Golden Fleece had collectively kept Australians moving since 1900 and in doing so underpinned the growth and strength of the nation’s economy.

“We have built a reputation for delivering safe and reliable fuel supply to Australian families, businesses and communities for more than a century,” Rosengarten said.

“Of course, a number of other wellknown brands have been competing to deliver fuel to Australians, too, but many are now exiting and being replaced by major international trading companies that most Australians have never heard of.

“Unlike many other well-known fuel suppliers, Caltex isn’t going anywhere. Our business is based right here in Australia – our Board is here, we pay our taxes here and our customers are here too.

“In the last five years we’ve further

broadened our range of fuel products and invested about $2 billion into the supply infrastructure needed to keep Australia moving,” he added.

“All of our customers have their own very unique needs – wherever they are, whatever the complexity, we’re here to supply customers with the fuel they require, safely and reliably.”

“The ‘with you all the way’ advertising campaign is about telling the story about who we are and what we are already doing behind-the-scenes to make Australia strong.

“While our competitors might be changing their stripes, Caltex is investing and remains committed to Australians and the success of this nation.”

The national campaign was to be delivered via prime-time television advertising and supported by billboard and digital promotion.

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follow us online at: www.truckandbus.net.au

RECORD NSW TRANSPORT APPS DOWNLOADS REAL-TIME INFORMATION continues to be a hit with Sydney train and bus customers, with new downloads for public transport apps reaching record levels in July, Transport for NSW announced today.

A spokesperson for Transport for NSW said the six apps had over 120,000 new downloads in July, which is the first month that downloads have passed 100,000.

“This figure eclipses our previous best for a month by more than 26,000 downloads. That’s a really pleasing result as it shows we’re delivering a valuable service to our customers,” the spokesperson said.

“The real-time information we provide helps our customers plan their train and bus trips more efficiently and helps them make better choices when it comes to selecting the best way to get from A to B.” The spokesperson said the popularity

of the latest app, NextThere, is one of the reasons for the spike in new downloads.

“NextThere was released in July and already it’s had more than 30,000 downloads. The Apple Store even highlighted it as one of the best new apps available just days after it had been released,” the spokesperson said.

“Customers are flocking to all of the public transport apps available, with more than two million downloads and more than 40 million requests for real-time data each month,” the spokesperson said.

Currently there are six transport apps in the marketplace:TripGo, Triptastic, TripView, Arrivo Sydney, TransitTimes+ and NextThere. They are available on iPhone and Android.

The spokesperson said work to develop and expand on real-time information that’s available to customers will continue.

“Making life easier for public transport

customers is at the centre of what we do.

This is why we will always be continually looking to create apps that empower customers by providing them with high quality information like they’ve never experienced before,” the spokesperson said.

Customers should also remember that the TXT bus service will no longer be

available from Wednesday 17 September.

“The number of people accessing information from this service has dropped in recent months and the NSW Government is moving to newer and more reliable technology.

For more information on real time transport apps, visit transportnsw.info/ apps

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Global Technology

Industry Turn-Around

EX-OWNER BUYS BACK CUSTOM In voluntary administration from ADL one minute, re-bought by Mark Burgess the next. Fabian Cotter reports.

F

ormer owner of Custom (Coaches) Mark Burgess has regained control of the company he sold to Alexander Dennis Ltd (ADL) just two years ago.

As has been widely reported, ADL voluntarily called in the administrators on May 30th when its board decided it would not inject any more capital into the business. Mr Burgess is part of a consortium that includes a private equity funds company.

In a move that had more than a few in the industry scratching their heads at the comparatively lightning fast change of events, the business and assets of Custom were sold on 15 August 2014 to a consortium led by Burgess and Allegro Funds, a Sydney-based private equity fund manager specialising in turnaround investment. The new company operating the business is Custom Bus Australia Pty Ltd. Under the new ownership, the business will operate from its existing Sydney manufacturing base at Villawood and continue to build city and school buses, offer vehicle servicing, repairs and

refurbishments. Custom Care and the after-sales business will also be maintained in Adelaide.

More than 120 current employees are being offered ongoing employment by the new owner, it’s stated.

Deloitte Restructuring Services Partners Vaughan Strawbridge and Tim Norman were appointed Voluntary administrators of Custom Coaches Pty Ltd and Custom Coaches (Sales) Pty Ltd on 30 May, 2014.

On appointment, and alongside their investigations into the financial position of the business, they immediately commenced a comprehensive sale process.

Joint voluntary administrator Vaughan Strawbridge said: “Custom Coaches is the largest bus builder in NSW and the second largest nationally.”

“This sale is a great outcome for vehicle manufacturing in NSW and means the survival of a business that has been serving customers around Australia since 1935.

“During the administration we have created a leaner, more efficient business and, importantly,

been able to secure the jobs of a large number of employees.

“Custom Coaches’ people have worked tirelessly to continue to build the highest quality, Australian-made buses in the market and it is a testament to their efforts that the buyer sees a viable and bright future for the business.

“Many of the employees have been with the company for more than 20 years and I am particularly pleased for them that so many jobs will be retained.”

Of the 300 employees before July about 120 will now stay with the new company, including 110 in Sydney. Only 13 jobs will be spared in Adelaide. More than 100 Sydney jobs and 62 from Adelaide were lost following the company going into administration in July, 2014, it’s stated.

As reported, Custom’s rented Royal Park site in Adelaide is slowly being relieved of its manufacturing duties and will be used for after-sales business while all manufacturing operations are to solely be based in Sydney.

“We are pleased that we were able to transact quickly in a distressed situation to ensure this

www.truckandbus.net.au 017

hino.com.au

45 years on, still legendary Our legendary buses and coaches are custom made to your specifications and wear the HINO badge, so you know you’re getting quality engineering.

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a 018 toyota group Company www.truckandbus.net.au

Roll with a legend

18th August 2014 Fabian Cotter Editor Coach & Bus PO Box 3294 Erina, NSW 2250

Dear Fabian,

1 2

1 Alexander Dennis (ADL)’s CEO Colin Robertson (left)

and Mark Burgess.

2 Mark Burgess in 2011 receiving an award from

NSW Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian. business can continue building the best buses in Australia,” said Allegro Funds’ partner Adrian Loader, chairman of Custom Bus. Burgess said: “Custom [will have] new and stable Australian ownership with no debt, strong cash reserves and a highly experienced management team backed by institutional investors.”

Not everyone was happy with the decision, though. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union’s Scott Bachelor says 62 workers lost their jobs in Adelaide.

“From what I understand they will get 70 per cent of their annual and long service [leave], that’s all; they won’t get a redundancy,” he said.

“They’ll have to seek their redundancy and the rest of the annual leave and long-service leave through the fair entitlement guarantee scheme,” he added.

To date, an official sale price has not been disclosed; however, industry insiders understand the final figure to have come in at less than half the $25 million plus it cost Alexander Dennis two years ago.

m Coaches from Administration Consortium announces purchase of Custo . Specialist funds manager regarding the sale of Custom Coaches today I have some great news to share with you s of Custom Coaches Pty asset and ess leted the purchase of the busin Allegro Funds today announced it had comp group, Mark Burgess. bus the of r owne r forme by led rtium of a conso Ltd, previously in Administration, as part its Sydney manufacturing alia Pty Ltd will continue to operate from Austr Bus m Custo rship, owne new Under the refurbishments. Custom and s repair ing, servic l buses and conducts base, where it manufactures city and schoo ue to provide national contin will be maintained in Adelaide. Custom Care and the aftermarket business will also coverage for parts and service. following the sale agreement.

Some 120 positions have been preserved which transitions to new “This is a great step forward for Custom, Commenting on the sale, Mr Burgess said: ienced management team exper debt, strong cash reserves and a highly and stable Australian ownership with no suppliers and staff.” mers, custo our with future t brigh a forward to backed by institutional investors. We look is an Australian fund manager Australian superannuation funds, Allegro Backed by institutional investors including nd, with more than $300 Zeala New businesses within Australia and investing primarily in private mid-market million in committed capital from investors. m Bus Australia. r, has been appointed Chairman of Custo Allegro Funds Founding Partner, Adrian Loade were able to transact tial in Custom and we are pleased that we Mr Loader said: “We see tremendous poten buses in Australia. Custom best the ng buildi e this business can continue quickly in a distressed situation to ensur ier networks. It now suppl try, great staff and strong customer and has a long and proud history in the bus indus rting this new and suppo to rd forwa look We nt. geme mana and focused has the benefit of stable financial backing successful phase for the business.” performance for the Australian highest standards of quality and delivery Custom continues to be committed to the m.

Custo rted suppo has who one bus industry. We would like to thanks every building new and stronger nships we have with our customers and relatio great the uing contin to rd We look forwa relationships in the future. the SB50 school bus products world class CB80 low floor city bus, and Custom will continue manufacturing the ents in the near future ncem annou ng exciti some have will we and (12.5m, midi, articulated, cargo variants), market. regarding new products for the Australian Yours faithfully, Custom Bus Australia Pty Ltd Stephen Jackson Sales & Marketing Director 0409 600 941

The CB80, one of Custom’s more popular models, will continue to be made.

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Best Practice

BUS OF THE YEAR, 2015 At a time when many are questioning the role of articulated buses on our roads, globally it’s another story. MAN’s award win proves it. Fabian Cotter reports.

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1 1 An award-winning design inside from day dot it seems.

2 Looks like plenty of space and everyone’s pretty chilled

out. Result!

3 ‘This man is a dentist, so we can’t show you his face’. No, he’s

a bus driver really. And behind that screen he’s cheering.

T

here will be no need to look at the exhibitors list at the 2014 IAA Commercial Vehicles Fair in Hannover, Germany, this September to check if MAN will be there or not. Why so?

The company wouldn’t miss it for the world; that’s where it will be presented with its Bus of the Year 2015 award for its MAN Lion City GL CNG Low-floor Articulate.

Clean, powerful and economical were the characteristics that wowed the panel of trade journalists from across Europe judging this year’s ‘Bus Euro Test’.

The 18.75-metre long natural gas-powered articulated bus cruised past the competition at full throttle, the company states, in order to claim the coveted place as ‘Bus of the Year’.

The Euro6 CNG engine of the MAN Lion’s City GL CNG offers an environmentally friendly public transport mobility solution with extremely low pollutant levels. When filled with bio-gas or e-gas, the articulated bus is virtually carbon neutral, offering emission levels comparable to that of fully electric vehicles, states MAN. Even without the use of bio-gas, CO2 emissions are reduced by approximately 17 per cent in comparison to diesel vehicles.

As well as being a sustainable fuel source, natural gas is also a particularly economical solution; thanks to the significantly reduced fuel costs, over a period of 10 years a MAN Lion’s City GL CNG saves approximately 15 per cent on the life-cycle costs in comparison to a diesel bus from the same model range.

MAN’s position as market leader in this sector is backed up by decades of experience with natural gas buses, the company says.

Working in partnership with erdgas mobil GmbH, MAN has taken great strides in increasing the number of natural gas buses in operation, as well as ensuring the continued development of the fuel infrastructure for the entire natural gas mobility industry.

2 MAN not only offers reliable technologies, but is also highly proficient and skilled in the servicing and repair of high-pressure gas systems, the company states.

If requested by the customer, training courses can be arranged to ensure that MAN’s expertise is competently transferred to the customer’s own service personnel, or an external service team and a global supply of spare parts for natural gas buses is guaranteed. All of this ensures that the operation of MAN vehicles runs smoothly.

The Lion’s City GL CNG’s vehicle concept, designed for inner city routes with particularly high passenger volumes, also played a role in securing the title of Bus of the Year 2015.

The 18.75-metre long articulated bus boasts a transport capacity of up to 142 passengers and features five double-width doors – making it the only five-door bus on the market. Such innovations ensure optimal passenger flow and reduced waiting time at stops. The vehicle is also fitted with three fold-out chairs, which the driver can control, meaning more standing room can be made available in the event of a large influx of passengers.

The ticket validation machines are capable of scanning electronic tickets purchased by smartphone, the bus offers passengers internet access via a free Wi-Fi hotspot and its screens are individually programmable.

Passengers will be impressed by the interior’s top-quality materials and innovative lighting: the translucent bellows, glass sunroofs and LED light strips (using energysaving diodes) combine to give the interior an energy-efficient, uniform and pleasant atmosphere. The LED lighting allows the power consumption to be reduced, which in turn means less generator capacity is required. Headlights equipped with LED daytime driving lights and rear lights employing the same technology make additional contributions to saving energy.

3

MEAN AND CLEAN The Euro6 MAN E2876 CNG engine produces 310hp and is designed to run with natural gas, bio-gas or e-gas. On the roof, the 10 CNG tanks give a total volume of 2050 litres, for a long operating range. So there you go!

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New Gear

VOLVO LAUNCHES ALL-NEW ELECTRIC HYBRID Supreme dedication to hybrid technology within a strict time-frame means Volvo’s seriously pushing ahead.

Fabian Cotter reports.

IAA COMMERCIAL VEHICLES, 2014 From 25 September to 2 October 2014, the automotive world meets at the IAA Commercial Vehicles. It is the world’s leading trade fair for mobility, transportation and logistics. It’s known for its comprehensive innovations, exhibitors from several industries and expert discussions.

At the IAA, with more than 2000 exhibitors, “demonstrates the potential of transportation efficiency, environment protection and safety of this dynamic industry”.

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T

he Volvo 7900 Electric Hybrid will be officially launched at the 2014 International IAA Commercial Vehicles show in September, in Hannover, Germany.

Said to be silent, cleaner and with significantly lower fuel consumption, “it represents a new generation of public transportation”. Volvo has already signed contracts with several European cities for supplies of the buses.

The plug-in technology reduces fuel consumption and carbon dioxide by up to 75 per cent, compared to a conventional diesel bus. Total energy consumption is reduced by 60 per cent. Three Volvo Electric Hybrids have run in a field test in

Gothenburg, Sweden, during the past year, a test which has verified the reduction in energy consumption and emissions.

Noise is a growing problem in many cities.

The noise level near to an Electric Hybrid is 65 decibels, i.e. normal conversation level. The Volvo 7900 Electric Hybrid runs in electric mode in average 70 per cent of the route, silent and emission-free.

The Volvo 7900 Electric Hybrid offers great flexibility in operation, says Volvo. It can run as an electric bus in selected areas and performs as a hybrid on any route. Charging at end stations takes six minutes. The Volvo 7900 Electric Hybrid shares the technology of the well-proven Volvo 7900 Hybrid, securing high uptime and availability.

A number of European cities are showing a keen interest in the Electric Hybrids.

Hamburg, Luxembourg and Stockholm have already signed up for supplies of the buses in 2014 and 2015. Serial production is scheduled to commence early 2016.

How does it work? The bus is equipped with an electric motor that is powered by lithium batteries. It also has a small diesel engine as part of the system.

The bus is charged quickly at charging stations via an overhead power connection.

The bus can be driven about seven kilometres on electricity alone, covering the distance silently and entirely without exhaust emissions – this enables indoor bus stops.

Fuel saving is stated to be 75 per cent.

AUTO BRAKE TECH LAUNCH At the 2014 IAA, Volvo will also introduce an auto brake technology for the coach range.

Volvo’s Forward Collision Warning and Emergency Braking functionality is able to brake also towards standstill objects in curves three years before the legal requirement comes in 2018.

The functionality is part of the Volvo Driver Support System, which includes an Adaptive Cruise Control that automatically adapts the distance to the vehicle in front and a Lane Keeping Support System. The Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) uses radar to determine the distance to the vehicle ahead, when approaching a slower vehicle the ACC will override the cruise control speed setting and instead adapt the speed to the vehicle in front. The Lane Keeping Support System warns the driver if the vehicle drifts across a lane marking.

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A Bit Different

IT’S A LONG STORY The question of if bigger is better - for buses at least might well soon be solved by UK trials of a 15-metre Irizar i6.

Fabian Cotter reports.

024 www.truckandbus.net.au

1 i6 headlights give it an unique look.

2 Front wheelchair lift (PLS and Magic

iSPY The Irizar i6 was presented to the market at the International Bus and Coach Fair (FIAA in Spanish) that took place in Madrid, in November 2010. Two years later and the coach body had received a warm welcome from customers in the various markets where it is sold.

Last year Irizar had sold its 1000th unit, which was in addition to the more than 800 units sold at other Irizar production plants since 2012.

The Irizar i6 has reached Australia, Brazil, South American countries, South Africa and Mexico.

1

2

3

4

I

n Australia the issue commonly debated is about bus width, but in the UK it seems everyone’s talking about bus length. And if they aren’t they soon will be with a 15-metre Scania trial underway.

The UK’s first 15-metre overall length Scania Irizar i6 coach is set to enter service later this month when it embarks upon long-term trials on a megabus.com route. The initial trial will run for six months, during which time the vehicle is to be based at Stagecoach’s Rugby depot and will operate on routes across the United Kingdom.

Based on a Scania K 410 EB 6x2*4 rearsteer chassis, the vehicle features Scania’s 13-litre DC13-115 engine, which complies with the Euro6 exhaust emissions standard using Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) only. Power output is 410hp@1900rpm and the unit delivers 2150Nm@1000-1300rpm.

Transmission is by way of Scania’s GR875R eight-speed gearbox with integral retarder and Scania Opticruise fully automated gear selection system. The vehicle is also equipped with Scania’s C200 OnBoard fleet management system (‘Scania Communicator’).

In addition to being the UK’s first 15-metre Scania Irizar i6, the vehicle is also the first to be equipped with a 13-litre Euro6 engine, a front wheelchair lift (PLS and Magic Floor) and a full-height emergency door with foldout cassette steps.

Inside, the coach provides seating for 61 passengers on Irizar PB passenger seats with three-point seatbelts, leather headrests and centre armrests. Seating capacity is reduced

Floor) and a full-height emergency door with foldout cassette steps.

3 At 15m, you’d hope to be able to still see the screens from the back. You’d hate to miss Scooby-Do. 4 The three-axle Scania chassis works well under the longer Irizar body.

to 59 if the vehicle’s NMI Magic seats for wheelchair passengers are in use. Three-pin electrical sockets and USB charging sockets are provided at each double seat. Other interior fitments include Hannover DDAcompliant destination equipment, a Synetics CCTV system and a rear offside surfacemounted Shades freshwater toilet.

“Scania has long enjoyed a productive and mutually beneficial business relationship with Stagecoach and we are delighted to have been given the opportunity to prove this exciting new vehicle on its megabus.com service,” commented Tony Tomsett - Bus, Coach and Engine Sales director for Scania (Great Britain) Limited.

“The Scania Irizar i6 is highly appointed, provides exceptional levels of passenger comfort and undoubtedly has the wow factor.

We are therefore confident it will be extremely well received both by megabus.com and its customers.”

Travel company Megabus.com managing director Elizabeth Esnouf said: “We are always keen to look at new options that have the potential to enhance our fleet and deliver a continued high standard of service for our customers. This is potentially an exciting new vehicle for us and we look forward to the results of this trial.”

Interesting times. So with Britain being a right-hand drive bus market as well, is this the start of an emerging trend that might make it to our shores, too, one day? A spokesperson for Scania Australia said: “We don’t have any plans for this, but will advise if that changes.”

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Coverstory

SOUTHERN BCI’s Citirider gets some further education for the New Zealand market and its clever tips and tricks will soon head back to Aussie shores. For use in a university area, the Tranzit Group-run low-floor is turning heads for all the right reasons. Fabian Cotter reports.

026 www.truckandbus.net.au

COMFORT

www.truckandbus.net.au 027

“...purpose-run for Auckland University of Technology’s (AUT) needs, with each one painted in a different colour scheme.”

028 www.truckandbus.net.au

I

t would be foolish to think that the saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ has any real weight when it came to machines of any sort because decades of technical improvement, or ‘fixing’, is the cornerstone of where things are at today and where they will be tomorrow. Build a better mouse trap? You betcha. It seems like that’s the only real way forward when it comes to making so-so things better, but perhaps more importantly it’s almost crucial when it comes to making good things better.

Now that may not make sense at first and seem like it should be the other way around, but consider that while it’s in our nature to make ill-thought-out ideas or badlycrafted things work better, our real sense of achievement is when we take something that works pretty darned well but then enhance and embellish it so that it’s the best it can be. Help it reach its full potential rather just let it rest on its laurels. And that let’s us stand back and walk away in admiration and think ‘Yep, we done good’. Bad grammar and all, it adds that authentically chuffed touch as we smile away.

When it comes to buses, for every brandspanking-new model that comes out onto the market over the years from every manufacturer there are those nameplates that don’t get superseded and pushed to the wayside, but are solid performers and have earned a discerning nip and tuck to improve the breed for the future.

Bus and Coach International’s (BCI) Citirider has gone through a recent transformation that has performance and cosmetic enhancement that won’t just limit it to one geographic market – as so many buses that are released around the world are intended to do, when they are custom made for that particular segment. This new Citirider was customised for a university route service in Auckland, New Zealand, after much consultation with local Tranzit operator personnel, but BCI says the result of the collaboration is something that will easily find a home on Australian roads, too.

Touted as the ‘New Generation Citirider’, there will be no less than 20 of these new BCIs on the Tranzit fleet, which will join the two BCI Explorer coaches and five Classmaster mid-engine mount buses already run by that operator. The 11.7-metre, two-door Classmaster city bus seats 42 passengers and features two good-sized wheelchair positions for those with special needs. Standing room?

Try 30 of them, no dramas.

The first order is for six of these Citiriders, which will be purpose-run for Auckland

University of Technology’s (AUT) needs, with each one painted in a different colour scheme, says BCI general manager Sales, Jason Eldred.

“We are investing into developing our city bus bodies to penetrate the low floor market, and Tranzit are a respected player and important in validating our position as a city bus builder,” Eldred explained.

The Tranzit Group is a family owned and operated company and one of NZ’s largest operators, with Tranzit subsidiary company Pacific Tourways Auckland operating the contract on behalf of AUT. As Eldred explains, when Tranzit was awarded the contract late 2013, dialogue started between Tranzit, BCI NZ and BCI engineers at the production facility led by BCI Technical director Boyd Denning, in consultation with Tranzit Coachlines managing director Paul Snelgrove, Transport and Operations director Keven Snelgrove, as well as Tranzit’s mechanics and maintenance managers. They all worked together to develop this new operator and passenger friendly vehicle, she says.

“Paul and Keven came to the workshop during build. It took three months development and a further three months to bring the new Citirider to market,” she said.

Saving weight, ease of maintenance and astute dedication to driver comfort were three key areas targetted for the new Citirider, and from what we can tell BCI seems to have delivered on those superbly.

A new, distinctive front end heralds a raft of cool changes, some obvious at first glance, others only after a third or fourth, while a few will go unnoticed either by necessity of location of where they are or what they are supposed to be, but are nonetheless they’re innovative and much welcomed by those dealing with this bus day to day.

Some of the key features of this next-gen Citirider include: a new shape front with easier maintenance access - the washer bottle for wipers is more easily accessible; bolt-on boltoff corner panels; easily adjusted headlights; all lights are LED on the rear (the top indicator and brake light are in one); there’s a wide front door entrance; German-brand Hubner wheelchair ramp - rated to 350kg; a spacious driver’s area that will accommodate 6’2” driver BCI says; a wide and convenient mother-child seat , plus two rear-facing wheelchair positions.

There’s also air-conditioning venting over the front windscreen; stronger hinges and latch on the driver’s door; easily accessible and functional driver controls for light switches,

www.truckandbus.net.au 029

1 Inside, everything is laid out well

in terms of space and feels good to touch.

2 German-made Hubner wheelchair access. ‘Sehr gut, ja?’

3 Different colours, take your pick!

suspension et al; improved Fainsa seating with extra padding; hard-wired call bells (passenger signals); an eight-camera surveillance system and heavy-duty exterior Versus mirrors.

Weight saving and faster replacement time in the even of an on-road collision was tackled by making the lower panel higher to cater for car/bumper damage and it’s equipped with international quality stainless steel speed nut.

All lower panels are bolt-on bolt-off and so too is the rear bumper. Previously steel, the interior front wheel arches are now moulded fibreglass moulded.

The inside electronics were upgraded with a Thoreb CAN communications system, plus coach sound entertainment system is linked to a driver’s head set. And they should be able to read things a bit better thanks to a new white LED display systems, with things looking sharper. This should give them a bit more time to check the rear-view mirror to see if any angst-ridden student decides to have a crack with some creative texta-ing at the anti-graffiti film on the interior glass. Apparently, it’s pretty good – so good luck, kiddies!

“A key factor in the design is to reduce the long-term cost of operating the vehicle through the design and materials used,” explained Eldred, emphatically.

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According to BCI – which has been building city buses for the Australian and international markets for nine years – the new Citirider was engineered after extensive consultation with many bus operators.

In terms of styling, inspiration was drawn from the latest overseas trends and the new exterior is both stylish and functional.

“The front and rear panels are all bolt on and all brackets are jig located to ensure interchangeability for ease of repair and less downtime to keep the vehicle on the road,” said Eldred. “Likewise all the lower side skirt panels are attached with stainless steel quarter-turn Allen key fasteners for quick replacement of damaged panels. The main side panel is fibreglass, chosen for strength and ease of repair as well as weight saving.”

The headlights look really cool and really set this bus’s appearance off commandingly. The high beam includes driving lights as well. The strip LED light around the headlights acts as a daytime running light for improved safety.

All side rear and marker lights are LED for reliability and lower operating costs, according to BCI. Up front, the windscreen is laminated with the outer layer being 4mm (normally only 3mm like the interior layer) for extra strength to

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reduce breakages from stones and other road debris. The side glass is 5mm (some builders only use 3-4mm to save weight) toughened dark tint safety glass for improved strength, it’s claimed.

Perhaps the biggest improvement was the weight advantage, which in turn directly correlates with fuel usage and thus cost savings.

“Some competitors are weighing in at up to 650kg heavier for a similar size model,” said Boyd Denning, BCI Technical director.

“The chassis and body monocoque is a well proven design and has now travelled collectively millions of kilometres in a variety of conditions. These operating conditions have been considered with the new lightweight heavy-duty design,” Denning said.

“BCI has always prided itself to be one of the lightest heavy-duty bus suppliers. The weight saving gives the operator lower running costs through less fuel consumption and greater paying passenger load for the allowable road limits,” he said.

Interestingly, the new Citirider can be specified using European stainless steel for both chassis and body, Australian standard galvanised steel for both chassis and body,

or either of the materials mentioned for the chassis and an aluminium body. Using Denning’s approach stainless steel can be the lighter body, with aluminium heavier.

Maintenance is greatly aided by the intercooler radiator and oil cooler being side by side, rather than in front of each other, which gives full access for removing and cleaning .

“This makes for much easier cleaning as no other components need to be removed to clean behind them. Normally the intercooler and oil cooler are mounted in front of the radiator and this area between the coils collects leaves, grass and road debris and the intercooler needs to be removed to clean between the two coils,” said Denning.

“It is also more efficient as all coils use the same ambient air temperature. The conventional way, the poor radiator uses preheated air from the engine intercooler. This is a good saving for the workshop and ensures the easy-clean system is always operating at peak performance.”

“BCI also have as standard a fine stainless steel screen behind the exterior punched door to catch road debris and stop blocking the cooling coils. Also BCI mounts the radiator package on the O/S (clean side) away from the

“The headlights look really cool and set this bus’s appearance off commandingly.”

leaves in the gutter,” he said.

At the back, the Euro5 6.7-litre Cummins engine now features a hydraulic fan drive system controlled via the bus CAN system.

There are five fan speed settings from ‘Off’ for quick engine warm-up to ‘High’, which enables the cooling package to operate in 50-degree ambient temperatures. The result is the fan runs more efficiently and is not always running at engine speed via belts, says Denning. Also, the system includes a large stainless steel reservoir and separate oil cooler.

“The Parker pump is directly coupled to the Cummins engine Knorr-Bremse two-cylinder air compressor, thus eliminating belts to the fan and further reducing maintenance and running costs for the operator.”

This bus is also fitted with standard inferred bumper mounted reversing camera (with colour display in the dash instrument cluster) and additional optional rear radar sensors.

Additional LED side indicator lights are fitted near the rear wheel to give motorist more visibility of a turning bus for greater safety.

All engine and exhaust system piping is heavy duty stainless steel, coolant and air hoses are high quality silicon. All main clamps are spring tension stainless wide band clamps

GO FOR GOLD! Tranzit Group was recently announced as a winner in the Supporting Gold Category called Professional Services & Infrastructure Providers at the 2014 Wellington Gold Awards.

The award acknowledges the contribution Tranzit has made to the region over 90 years and four generations and excellence in business in the Wellington region.

Founded in 1924 and still family owned, it operates around 600 vehicles with over 600 staff working nationwide, with its HQ in Masterton, near Wellington.

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When you’re tired and travelling to and from study or work at dusk or dawn on a bus you want something modern, comfy and reliable like the new Citirider.

for better seal and durability.

The engine bay has a three-layer sound and heat insulation protection using a punched galvanised steel screen. There is a full steel barrier between the engine and passenger compartments and the passenger side also has the same three-layer insulation between the steel seat riser and internal marine grade timber flooring.

Inside, there’s a new fibreglass driver’s barrier and the materials used are easy-clean durable gloss-finish light grey Formica with black or grey moulded PVC window surrounds. Seats can be wall canter-leaver, or leg mounted.

Heavy-duty double-sealed floor traps are positioned to improve service access for maintenance, but not allow any dust or noise into the vehicle.

New fully moulded front wheel-arch boxes incorporate passenger seating for mother and child or two-full passengers. The aisle is still wide enough to comply with DDA wheelchair requirements, states BCI. The back of the front wheel box incorporates a luggage area for passenger carry-on.

To keep inside temperatures regulated as desired, the air-conditioning ducting also features continuous strip outlets along the window and aisle.

Signage is well thought out with the front main bus stopping sign able to be programmed for next stop information or other operator information, but optionally there’s also centre back-to-back bus stopping signs, so the backward wheelchair user and side-sitting passengers can read. Very cool.

So is having blue LED lights above the

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N/S wheelchair position to reduce glare for the driver when travelling with the lights on low at night, while two-stage LED lighting is throughout elsewhere.

Yet one of the main areas tackled was the driver’s. And they’ll love this. The distance from the steering wheel to the seat was increased by a further 92mm to ensure maximum comfort to all size drivers.

“We have also increased the shoulder width by 50mm to further increase the space when driver optional protection barriers are fitted,” explained Denning.

Additional ventilation is also provided with four adjustable overhead eyeball vents, as well as a complete curtain of air around the driver including the front screen and side.

As for the usual buttons and knobs, all the main controls are on the right of the driver and away from the reach of any passenger.

All switches are within easy reach of the driver, though. And the really clever addition?

The footrest can be made to incorporate an optional duress call switch.

As Denning explained: “The drivers are sitting in these seats for eight hours a day, so it has to be ergonomical. Everyone loves the driver’s area for the roominess and functionality of the switches – we’ve had great feedback. They say it’s the most comfortable they’ve come across.”

A range of other things can be tailored to each individual operator’s needs, which means as an overall low-floor city bus package basis, the new-generation BCI Citirider is well placed to win over a fair few hearts and minds on both sides of the Tasman.

BUS SPECS MODEL: BCI Citirider 11.7m Low-floor ENGINE: Cummins Euro5 ISB6.7E5 250B; intercooler radiator oil cooler are side by side mounted; Parker hydraulic fan system; Knorr-Bremse two-cylinder air compressor; Cummins Tec-Infinity lifetime coolant. Power 184kW@2300rpm, 1020Nm@200-1600rpm TRANSMISSON: Allison T325R SUSPENSION: WABCO Ecas WHEELS/TYRES: 8.25x22.5-inch, 275/70R22.5-inch BRAKES: WABCO EBS CHASSIS: BCI Lightweight heavy-duty monocoque design BODY: New Generation Citirider, seats 42, 30 standees; two door; two wheelchair positions; new shape front with LED headlights; bolt-on bolt-off corner panels; Hubner wheelchair ramp; hard-wired call bells (passenger signals); eight-camera surveillance system; heavy-duty exterior Versus mirrors; bolt-on bolt-off cooler panels and rear bumper; rear LED lights; fibreglass front wheel-arches MISC.: Thoreb CAN communications system; Coach Sound entertainment system with drivers head set; new white-LED display; antigraffiti film on interior glass; Fainsa Metropolis 3 (or as ordered); Foot rest with (optional) duress call switch

CUSTOMS SB50/DELTA

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Unique Wheels

Photography: John Kruger

ON ALL FOURS With the ‘off the beaten track’ tourism sector seemingly a burgeoning market in Australia these days, some coach and bus companies are struggling to meet demand – with purpose-built vehicles the key to success. Fabian Cotter reports.

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here’s just way too much cool stuff to see in Australia in one person’s lifetime and some of the more exhilarating sights and places of note are in some of the more inhospitable regions and down offroad tracks – or on none at all.

The limitations of a traditional bus or coach are quickly realised when operators are faced with the task of reliable transport being able to ship hundreds of passengers to idyllic hard-to-get-to tourism spots each year, in what has to be some of the tougher environmental conditions for vehicles on the planet.

So what kind of a bus is that rugged, robust and reliable? Well, none really. But a truck designed for intense workloads in areas like Australia’s tough mining fields might be a bit more like what the doctor ordered.

Scania’s P360 is a 4x4 truck chassis that, according to the company, ‘keeps going no matter what’, and it was exactly the kind of thing South Australian charter company Explorer Coachlines needed as the basis for a very special order custom ‘bus’. ““It’s had plenty of dirt on it” said Explorer Coachlines managing director, Steve Nesbitt, adding that’s it’s done around 77,000km which includes all the APT tours, plus other arduous South Australian journeys.

“It’s done work in the APY Lands, a lot of mining work, plus other charter work.”

“It was originally designed around a contract

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we had out in the APY Lands, including school runs; we built around seven vehicles for that.

But once this hit the road we found we got more contracts in the tour market. However, with programmes we had put into place for booking extended tours with accommodation and such a few years earlier, we found there was a crossover of dates with the school runs, so of course the vehicles were double booked. We were able to source other people to do the school runs and now we just concentrate on the tour and charter parts,” he explained.

“It’s going to be on charter this week touring the Great Ocean Road, so it doesn’t just do the outback; it does a variety of work. It does corporate groups so if they just don’t want the minibus; if they want a large and comfy 26-seater that they can utilise for that.”

“It’s done some work for Santos, up in Moomba doing the Cooper Basin, and then out in the Jackson oil fields. The board will fly up to Moomba, we’ll take the bus up there, they’ll land at Moomba airport and we’ll do site visits and have meetings [on board]. Or they’ll be doing a tender and so instead of the mining company putting them into two groups of 4WDs they can put them all on the one vehicle so that everyone hears the same story,” Nesbitt proudly said.

“And when you are looking at multi-million dollar tenders it’s pretty important that everyone hears the same thing; you don’t want some who hear something completely different.”

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1 A tough-looking front end. Just what you want while rampaging

through the outback ... scarring off buffalo and bunyips.

The man, himself: Steve Nesbitt.

Custom-spec compartments; the walk-in rear storage is choice.

In action roughing it - and lovin’ it.

Long hours behind the wheel means you need things well laid out and comfy. Nice work.

6 Custom side-exiting exhaust looks trick.

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The project has been so successful for Explorer Coachlines that it’s just ordered another two Scania chassis, which go into production later this year.

In essence, before the Coach Design body is attached, the Scania P360 truck chassis is brought in, but in a custom spec that sets it apart from others, says Nesbitt.

“A lot of thought went into it before: wheelbase, length of chassis, the cab, what sort of engine, gearbox to put in – we went with an Allison full automatic transmission,” said Nesbitt. “And drum brakes all around as discs have a problem rattling over rough and rugged roads.”

“The cab was chosen so it was the same height as the pod on the back, so the aerodynamics that Scania has done for the truck works over the whole vehicle.”

“And then airtanks and everything were all shifted because you can imagine where the door is; your braking airtanks were all shifted because the chassis had to be like a coach.

So it landed in the country as a bare chassis, then down to the body builder where we said we needed ‘this’ shifted. It went back to the Brisbane branch where they shifted it all and ran new air lines and everything, then it was back, built, then pre-delivered,” he explained, before the R&R was done in Melbourne.

It had to be second complianced, of course, because it arrived as a truck but was now a bus, with brake tests and other safety monitoring conducted. Even the side-exiting exhaust had to be checked given laws about exhaust distance from open windows and etc.

So is it unique? At this point, yes. It is the first 4x4 Scania for the company, but there have been custom 2WDs built for Explorer Coachlines. These first ones were built by Swagman Tours, near Geelong.

In terms of this particular vehicle being ultra-tailored to the company’s needs, Explorer Coachlines had good groundwork from examining many other examples to know what worked and what didn’t work from them. A rear walk-in storage compartment with door access, 600L fuel tanks either side of the body – what Explorer wanted it basically got.

“So the other day it fuelled in Cooper Pedy, then across to William Creek, William Creek to Marree, Marree to a tour of the Flinders, Flinders down to the Barossa, Barossa down to Adelaide. And then we filled it up back here,” said Nesbitt of the Scania 4x4’s awesome fuel-carrying capacity.

“It’s extremely good on fuel per litre for a four-wheel drive. Extremely good. And no

AdBlue!” he said.

“This allows us to be do long distances on dirt and not have to worry about the facility of AdBlue.”

Nesbitt says it does around 28 litres per 100km, which gets up to around 29 litres on city cycles, so in price comparison to similar competitor vehicles out there it’s definitely been economical, especially with it being fourwheel drive.

“We do a lot of contract servicing for other outside vehicles, about 160 of them for clients, and a lot of them have been 4WDs. The APT fleet, Outback Spirit... And we had a look at how they used the same body supplier, but we shifted it and tweaked it a little bit to the Scania chassis. We get a little more luggage space and we’ve laid it out to how we wanted to lay it out and how we were going to use it.”

The Scania P360 larger ‘G’ cab was specifically chosen so as to bring it closer to the Coach Design body, meaning the tunnel kit isn’t as long, so this allows the vehicle to use its bunk facility, which also gives a bit more storage on either side of the vehicle, says Nesbitt, proudly.

Power comes from a Scania Euro5 DC13 06, 12.7-lire engine, pumping out 360hp (265kW)@1900rpm and 1850Nm@10001300rpm, all driving through an Allison automatic transmission.

“We found the automatic handles better in the dirt than a manual; it just grabs a gear quicker, less wheel-spin, less getting caught.”

The pod itself is fitted with ThermoKing air-conditioning and features LED lighting throughout; as Nesbitt said, “All the boxes were ticked.”

Inside it really is a comfy and luxurious-look pod with fine attention to detail of finish from what we could see and welcoming leather seats and sundry other appointments – electrical outlets, good-sized toilet and all.

It started its service with the company early last year and while not used every weekend, it is scheduled to complete 16 extended tours for the company this year – nine of which are APTs while the rest are general touring charter work.

“And that’s not including the local charter work we do as well,” he’s quick to point out.

“It’s gets us a lot of repeat business and, as word starts to filter out, we get a lot of new business from it,” he said. “But we don’t want to market it too much as we’ve already had the problem of having this double booked already,” Nesbitt added.

In terms of servicing, it is a joint effort between Scania and Explorer Coachlines itself,

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Truck at the front, bus at the back. From this angle at first glance you’d never know, really.

“We’ve been stuck in some pretty horrible terrain and it [4x4] has been extremely good at getting out of it.”

BUS SPECS with general lubing done on-site and any major work being sent over to Scania technicians.

So how important is full 4WD to Explorer in targeting the market, and why so the change from 2WD? “There are certain roads, say, around the Birdsville Track, where you can have light 4WDs and heavy 4WDs legally using them, but then there are many roads that only permit heavy 4WD on them. So you could build one of these in light 4WD, but as soon as you step onto one of those roads it technically becomes illegal,” he explained.

“We’ve been in the predicament of being stuck in some pretty horrible terrain and it [4x4] has been extremely good at getting out of it.

It’s been flooded out at Arkaroola and there was 132 creek crossings it had to go through and it did them extremely well.”

Drivers report its really comfortable to drive on dirt roads, handling corrugations with aplomb, even so much that with a speed limit

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on certain outback roads (80km/h) it’s hard to know you are doing it as it feels so smooth over it, Nesbitt says.

Other cool aspects are dust-proofing of the internal storage compartments with 5psi of air running through them from outside – running through its own air cleaner at the rear - to force the dust out from inside. That is, other systems have pressurised air running from the floor of the cab to the luggage bins to pressurise them, which is great, but it’s actually de-pressurising the actual cab, so it’s actually trying to ‘suck’ the dust in, he explains.

Nesbitt was delighted in the service and support by the Scania team in delivering such a chassis to his custom specification and in always being there advising as all the key modifications were made.

It’s been a big part of Explorer Coachlines not just to tap into these hard-core extended outback tours, but also master that market segment.

MODEL: Scania P360 4X4 Mining spec (custom) ENGINE: Scania Euro5 DC1306 12.7-litre with Scania two-stage EGR and Scania VGT; Scania XPI extra-high-pressure fuel injection.

Power – 360hp(265kW)@1900rpm, Torque – 1850Nm@1000-1300rpm.

TRANSMISSION: Allison fully automatic with in-built retarder SUSPENSION: Front Scania 7500kg capacity (up to 9000 kg options), 3x 29mm parabolic springs; Scania RP736 hub reduction, engageable front drive with diff lock. Rear Scania 11,500kg capacity, (13,000kg option), 3x 24mm + 1x 41mm parabolic springs, Scania RP735 hub reduction, 4.2:1 ratio, diff lock BRAKES: Pneumatic braking system with drum brakes, ABS, Automatic slack adjusters WHELLS/TYRES: 8.25x22.5-inch 10-stud steel disc rims, front 295/80R22.5 tyres; rear 295/80Rx22.5-inch BODY: Custom Coach Design pod MISC.: 2x 300L steel tank mounted on either side of chassis

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Future Proof

WALK THIS WAY Bus accidents relating to pedestrian injuries and fatalities unfortunely highlight to the media and the public that for all the safety measures in place, such incidents can – and will – happen. Future visual techology might help fix that, though. And MAN is on the case. Fabian Cotter reports.

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t is perhaps ironic that for all the car, plane, train, ferry and beloved bus journeys taken by millions of people each day worldwide that those that go flawlessly and safely unnoticed, these are never really celebrated until something bad happens. And even then … it’s not really the stuff that comes to mind straightaway.

Many of these instances will enither involve human error, technical error or abominably a combination of both – and that, unfortunately, is just on a good day.

The reality is supreme public transport safety should not and hopefully never reach an apathetic state based on its own belief that nothing bad can happen because human skill levels are at their optimum. If such a belief is ever firmly entrenched into the hearts and minds of those guiding any chosen mode of public transport, travelling on any chosen

mode of transport, or god forbid shaping government policy relating to such chosen modes of transport then that would be just silly.

And that’s putting very, very, very, very politely.

Humans will stuff up, machines will falter and break down. Get over it. The strength of any society is to acknowledge the frailties of any such commuter system and diligently prepare for it in the unfortunate event it should, and statistcially would, happen. It is in this mindset that humanity is best placed to empower itself to avoid and or control such instances to emlininate or reduce an injury toll or unfortunate loss of life.

In Sydney, Australia, for example, there have been recent accidents where pedetrians have been run over at crossings, or buses mounting footpaths on busy streets. Whilst the causes are still under investiagtion and no doubt complex in their execution, such events raise

greater awareness of their random inevitability and directs us collectvely to invest time, energy and money into helping avoid such worst-case scenarios.

German bus manufacturer MAN has recently contributed to the UR:BAN project with research into assistance systems for efficient and safe urban mobility.

As part of the UR:BAN research project, MAN looked into ways of making commercial vehicles safer and more efficient for city driving. After two years of working on UR:BAN, researchers presented the results of the first phase of the project on 14 May in Braunschweig, Germany.

Eberhard Hipp, head of Research at MAN Truck & Bus, coordinated the research project: “The traffic situation in cities is getting more complex all the time. Road users are driving in very dense traffic conditions, which

“... to avoid and or control such instances to emlininate or reduce an injury toll or loss of life.”

The way forward! Buses calculating their speed to reduce or eliminate stop starts because of traffic lights. Brilliant!

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THE GREEN WAVE ASSISTANT

Pedestrian safety is crucial at bus stops and the latest tech aims to help drivers safely negotiate these areas.

makes reaction times short. Our aims in this project are to analyse traffic movement using innovative systems and new technologies, and determine driving strategies to optimise fuel consumption, identify dangerous situations and protect drivers from possible human error.”

“In doing so, we hope to make a significant contribution towards increasing efficiency and safety on the roads. All our research is centred around the driver,” explained Hipp.

MAN researchers explored how vehicles can most efficiently provide information from assistance systems to the driver in busy urban traffic and how the cockpit can be designed so as to display exactly the right information to the driver in any given traffic situation.

In urban driving, communication between vehicle and driver is extremely important: traffic is dense and so drivers have to maintain high levels of concentration in order to react to situations which change much more rapidly than in out-of-town driving, states MAN.

Cars and commercial vehicles already have numerous electronic assistance systems to support drivers. The benefit to drivers and other road users is that assistance systems are always alert – they never get tired, so they can always warn the driver and intervene in an instant should the situation arise. While the abundance of systems is set to expand still further it is still important that drivers do not get overwhelmed with displays and warnings from assistance systems. Consequently, one of the key research topics at MAN is the interface between driver and vehicle (human-machine interface).

The aim of the MAN research is to keep distractions to the driver to a minimum.

Information must be reduced to the minimum required and then conveyed to the driver in an intuitive manner.

In the first stage of the project, MAN worked with professional drivers using a driving simulator. The researchers were determining

In the Networked Traffic System subproject, MAN is developing a Green Wave assistant. The aim is to optimise the use of the green traffic light phases on main inner-urban routes in order to save on fuel and time.

Anticipatory driving saves on fuel – this is especially true in the case of trucks and buses, as it takes a large amount of energy to get a 40-tonne vehicle from a standstill up to a speed of 50km/h. Frequent stopping and starting in inner-city streets diminishes the high efficiency of modern commercial vehicles.

“You can save a lot of fuel by getting the vehicle to move at exactly the right speed so as to make it unnecessary to keep stopping and pulling away,” said Walter Schwertberger, Group head of Research into Driver Assistance Systems at MAN. “This is the idea behind the Green Wave assistant. The traffic light system wirelessly transmits its switching intervals to the vehicle via a server. The vehicle then takes this data and comes up with a suitable strategy to enter the green light phase for the planned route. In other words, the vehicle automatically chooses its own most appropriate speed.”

For this to happen, the necessary communication infrastructure first needs to be set up: servers need to be able to transmit information from the city’s traffic light management system.

The UR:BAN project is working with two model cities: Düsseldorf and Kassel.

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With the latest accurate information to hand, drivers have instantaneous knowledge of their buses immediate surrounds.

ALL-ROUND VISIBILITY

“...making commercial vehicles safer and more efficient for city driving.” the information needed by drivers in the unfamiliar situation in which their vehicle automatically sets its own speed in the city.

Karlheinz Dörner, head of Research into Driver Assistance and Electronic Systems said: “This gives us a realistic picture of the information HGV and bus drivers need and expect in order to be able to drive safely and understand vehicle systems. For example, we can learn how to give drivers information from a Green Wave assistant in a way that they can make best use of it.

“Then we can apply that in designing specific aspects of the human-machine interface.

This includes both the hardware; in other words controls, displays, audible and sensory warnings, and the software - for example, when information is displayed and in what level of detail. The result should provide the driver with a relaxed, efficient and safe driving experience in urban traffic”, Dörner said.

This Human Factors in Traffic sub-project ties in with the other areas MAN is exploring within

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the UR:BAN project: the Green Wave assistant and all-round visibility. The driver-vehicle interface is a very important part of these projects, too, and is being given particular attention, according to MAN. In the second phase of the project, researchers will present a prototype cockpit showing off the results of their work.

UR:BAN is a joint initiative involving 31 companies, universities, research institutes and cities. They are working together to develop driver assistance and traffic management systems to enhance mobility in urban areas.

The objective: safe and efficient urban traffic – which flows freely. The overall budget allocated to the project is €80m, with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) providing 50 per cent of the funding. Cities are the focal point of EU traffic policy, as 70 per cent of Europeans are citydwellers. UR:BAN will run until 2016.

Further information on the UR:BAN research project is available at www.urban-online.org

In the Cognitive Assistance subproject, MAN is working to advance the development of an all-round visibility system to meet the complex requirements of buses and trucks in urban traffic.

Bus drivers in urban areas face special challenges as they negotiate narrow inner-city streets. These include letting passengers on and off safely at bus stops, handling road junctions with pedestrians and cyclists, streets with bottlenecks, oncoming traffic and lane changes.

“The camera system is designed to give the driver an easily comprehensible overview of the situation around the vehicle,” said project manager Walter Schwertberger.

Researchers are working to optimise a bird’s eye view display of the vehicle environment especially for commercial vehicles. The focus here is also on conveying information to the driver in a way that matches the needs of the traffic situation. The system automatically selects an appropriate camera view for the given driving situation – for example, the front right corner of the bus when pulling into a bus stop (for left-hand drive vehicles).

The project is engaged in essential groundwork to meet the needs of commercial vehicles, with complex technical hurdles to be overcome, such as how to combine images from a number of cameras into a single display which the driver can then easily take in at a glance, and also how to correctly display changing angles in articulated buses. The research project is not concentrating on creating warnings for specific hazards, rather the objective is to develop a system that gives drivers the best overview in complex driving situations, e.g. reversing.

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130-132 Freight Drive Somerton VIC Australia 3062 t. (03) 9305 2299 f. (03) 8339 0265 e. info@hvagroup.com.au CAB-HVA-0914-SD

Operator

Photography: John Kruger

THE HARDER THEY COME

It hasn’t always been easy, but for South Australian tourism operator Explorer Coachlines the future is looking a lot rosier than the start. A diversified operation and customer-focused outlook seems key to that. Fabian Cotter went for a visit.

I

t doesn’t take long to get to Keswick, in South Australia, from the Adelaide CBD. Nor from Adelaide Airport on the other side of it, either. And in that convenience it seems Explorer Coachlines has placed itself in the heart of a town in which it has steadily grown itself into one of the city’s most successful bus operations to date.

A family-run business of 12 staff presently with origins to the famed transport and logistics company IPEC, starting up in the mid-1950s, the Nesbitt crew has seemingly mastered a competitive bus market for more than 25 years by not just generally being good at what they do, but by being good people. Or such is the sense you get in hearing how they work, what they do and how they strive to do it each day.

“Both my parents, Barry and Sue, are still involved as is my brother, James; we all have our own separate identities in the company. I mainly look after all the operational side, my brother looks after our freight section and our parents look after the administration area of it,” said affable Explorer Coachlines general manager, Steve Nesbitt.

“Once I originally left school, as I played a lot of sport I was lucky enough to get into the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) on a rowing scholarship, and then spent a number of years in

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national rowing teams. But once my father had a nasty car accident where he broke his neck I ended up coming home and working in the family business full time,” he explained.

So how did it all begin? His father, Barry, enlightened us: “My father, Charlie Nesbitt, and uncle, Alf Charlson, were involved in setting up IPEC (IPEC began operations in Adelaide and Melbourne early 1955 as Interstate Parcel Express Company. It’s now owned by Toll).

“IPEC was going alright, but then they were approached by Rex Transport Bardon and they sold out because dad was pretty sick at the time.

“They started with nothing, just three little Peugeot utes and we ended up with over 250 trucks. And then once he sold out we went farming,” he said.

“We went to Kenalpin first then back to Meadows and then my father passed away,” recalled Barry.”So we sold the farm and I came to the city and started out in real estate, but I was just more hands on with things with wheels, so we went to buy Adelaide company Dial-A-Bus. “We couldn’t negotiate and come up with a decent price, so I thought ‘Well, why don’t we start our own bus company?’ And so we did. We bought four buses from Alf Brewer out at Glynde and went from there,” Barry explained.

“At the start we had plenty of opposition and

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ALL UP Explorer Coachlines operates a modern, clean and meticulously maintained state-of-the-art fleet and strives to ensure it’s regularly upgraded. It boasts having the newest fleet of fully seat-belted coaches in

Adelaide, South Australia.

The company can assist with: airport to accommodation transfers; sightseeing tours with full commentary; corporate charters; weddings; extended tours; conventions/conferences; seniors and

our biggest mistake was not finishing up buying Dial-A-Bus, which meant we created our own opposition. It was a struugle for about five years. In the meantime I broke my neck and that put us behind a bit, but once I got better again things started to snowball; we were marketing our own tours and all.”

With his son, Steve, returning to the business after his sporting exploits – around 20 years ago now - Barry took on a more administrative role in the company.

“What I’ve tried to do is put Steven out in the forefront as manager and I’ve got another son that looks after the freight and I’m just behind in administration supporting where I can.”

So after all these years, what advice does Barry offer to other operators looking to survive or get ahead?

“Being a bus operator is extremely hard work. It’s long hours and you are working when everyone else is enjoying themselves,” he chuckled. “But you need to keep your maintenance up and your cleanliness up, keep your fleet up to date and make sure you have good drivers, or coach captains, he emphasised. “Remember you are out there to please customers, not to upset them. ‘Setting new standards’ was our motto when we first started,” he said.

It wasn’t all easy recalls Barry from when they first started. It took Explorer Coachlines a long time to get on top because, “everyone was virtually against us as soon as we started, being new competition on the block, so we just plodded away.”

Interestingly, Dial-A-Bus is now Coachlines of Australia, which was pretty hard to topple says

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Probus groups; educational tours and sporting teams.

Explorer Coachlines was recently awarded with an ‘Industry Excellence Award’ by the Bus & Coach Association of South Australia.

Barry. That company is now owned by Sealink.

“This made it easier for us because we became the ‘older identity’ and they became the ‘new identity’.”

With customers seemingly making more of a connection with the ‘longer established’ company that was now Explorer, was that the only key to the company’s success?

“No, I think it’s setting your mind to be longer term and not short-term. You can’t just come in for a short term, buy a few buses then get out of it in a hurry. You’ve got to get in there and establish yourself and be in it for the long haul,” he advised.

Barry says they are very fussy when it comes to choosing product, doing service work or choosing who to deal with, all part of the high standards they aim for each day.

“We try to work in with other operators. If anyone charters us then we are not out to grab their work. We’ll do the job and not hand out cards and not race around to the operators and try to get their clients away from them. You need to be in it for the long term and adopt that attitude and it works.”

After renting a few locations to run the business from, about 10 years ago Explorer Coachlines was able to buy Premier Greyhound’s old yard in Keswick when it came up for auction. It was perfectly set up for a bus company.

In that time the company has been able to diversity its services, but has done so gradually so there was no big dramatic change that occured and risk was minimised.

As Steve explained: “If you take the 4x4 [Scania] vehicle on its own and the other

coaches that we had before, we were already doing the school run in the APY Lands and also doing tour and charter work as well. Once we acquired the 4x4 we have now, the touring programme stepped up a gear and so it wasn’t a hard transition across.”

“We put a lot of respect in our drivers. It doesn’t matter how good a quality vehicle you can offer, you’ve got to have the right person at the coalface of the client,” he said, a sentiment held by his dad as well.

“We can do everything behind the scenes from an operational side, mechanical and cleaning, but the person delivering the product at the end of the day is the driver, so there’s a fair bit of emphasis put onto the driver and that side of it. And with the group of guys that we’ve got - admittedly we are small enough to not have to worry about having a group of 5060 employees - we’ve got a core driving staff of nine and the quality of the driver is there.”

Yet perhaps what strikes observers most is how well Explorer Coachlines has handled diversification of its services.

“Here in the yard we do a bit of washing for outside operators or inter-state operators overnight for them. We’ve also got maintenance set up here, plus we do a bit of storage, which all helps to pay the outgoings,” explained Barry.

“Storge is popular because when people park their vehicles around town they have a tendancy to get graffittied around a bit, so they bring them around here [overnight etc] and nothing gets damaged. Unfortunately, it’s a big problem here in Adelaide with coaches getting graffittied,” he said.

Interview

60mins with...

Michael Apps Executive director, Bus Industry Confederation (BIC)

As the face of the national peak industry body that is the Bus Industry Confederation, executive director Michael Apps is there to help guide it for the benefit for all Australasian bus and coach parties, so he was happy to chat to Coach & Bus magazine about what the future holds. Fabian Cotter reports. www.truckandbus.net.au 049

Q

G’day, Michael. Cheers for chatting with Coach & Bus magazine. Can you give us a bit of a rundown on your background and how it led to your role as executive director of the Bus Industry Confederation (BIC)?

MA: “My most recent role was the deputy chief executive of the Australian Trucking Association (ATA), which was 12 years ago when I applied for this job at the Bus Industry Confederation, where I set up the national secretariat here in Canberra. I was with the ATA for eight years. Before that I worked in the ACT and NSW governments as a political advisor, and worked with the tobacco industry as their advocacy efforts in the early ‘80s – which was an interesting way to learn how to gracefully lose.”

Q. How is the BIC functioning these days, in terms of areas covered and what are the challenges it faces in achieving its goals?

How are these challenges being met?

MP: “When I first started the job I said it would take a decade for the Confederation to establish its credentials in Canberra; that doesn’t happen overnight – you have to have a solid research base, a solid policy foundation and that needs to be supported by strong advocacy efforts - not just in Canberra visiting Parliament House, but within the states through state associations and on a state government level. I think today we are well established and recognised as a leading advocate not only for the bus and coach industry but for some of the broader challenges that relate to the development and growth of our cities and how you move people in those cities, how cities are planned and, in turn, relates to integrated transport networks.

So I guess our priorities are still today ongoing research and to lead the policy discussion in Canberra nationally about how we move people in the nation – country and city – route services, school services, long-distance, charter and express. I think we are well recognised, trusted and respected at a Federal parliamentary and state government level, and with each of the Federal and state jurisdictions related to transport.”

Q. What is the relationship with the BIC proper and the State associations? Are their concerns being addressed and, conversely, are they working well with BIC directives from a national perspective?

AP: “I don’t think BIC has ever been in a position to provide directives to the States

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“...a fairly significant shift over the past decade in the number of bus operators.”

to tell what to do or what not to do. I mean, we work in a fairly close and collaborative way with the state associations in trying to agree on policy positions that we believe the industry needs to adopt nationally and agree at state and national level. Sometimes we have to agree to disagree because there are different issues around that arise, or relate specifically to a state, but I guess the challenge for the industry – and one that we’ve been talking about at a broader level – is the challenge of future industry representation and how we best deliver that. I think we’ve no doubt seen a fairly significant shift over the past decade in the number of bus operators; we’ve moved from a predominantly family owned business industry to one that’s seeing national and multi-national companies operating in our capital cities. And the number of operators in each capital city has reduced dramatically – and this, in turn, means as an industry we need to look at how we represent ourselves on a national level through the Bus Industry Confederation, but also look clearly and closely at the role of state associations moving forward. That has been an ongoing challenge. This discussion really started at the annual conference in Fiji in 2011 to do a bit of navel gazing and look at ourselves as an industry - where we need it to be, to be as effective as we could to represent the industry’s interest. Trying to ensure we remain relevant and that we are meeting the expectations and needs of the industry. We are unique in that we have a strong supplier membership. Every chassis supplier or manufacturer is effectively a member – there may be one or two smaller ones not – all, or if not all most, body manufacturers are members. And, in fact, we have around 100 associated service members, who range from seat manufacturers to glass providers, so we have a very broad church and we need to manage the needs of both bus operators and suppliers. Getting that balance right sometimes is an interesting challenge because sometimes operators agendas don’t always meet those of suppliers.”

Q. We’ve seen it in the truck industry with an abundance of ‘shows’; is the bus industry suffering the same malady? Too small a market, too many shows and for what purpose?

AP: “The discussion in Fiji included issues raised by the suppliers to the industry who in 2011 made it pretty clear that they thought that there were too many bus shows and

that the size of the market didn’t necessarily justify having three to four shows a year in each different state. One of the progressive steps that have been made is that this year’s Australasian Bus and Coach Expo is actually the first stage of transition to a single show this year; next year the BAV will run the Australasian Bus and Coach Show in Melbourne – and they will run it very much along the same lines as BIC and QBIC are running this year. And that will effectively mean that if you are a bus supplier or member of BIC you’ll get discounted rates to exhibit. If you are non-member of BIC you’ll pay a premium, and BAV have agreed they will adopt the same policy as BIC. I think that shows between the operators and the suppliers there’s a lot of goodwill and it’s an important step in rationalising the number of shows and making sure that suppliers are getting value for money and at the same time industry associations and operators are getting to see, on an annual basis, all of the latest vehicles and technology .”

Q. Michael, given the recent voluntary administration of iconic Australian bus company Custom, how has the Alexander Dennis decision helped or hindered the Australian bus industry now and in future?

How can the BIC help those affected if at all?

MA: “Obviously the past decade has seen competition in the bus manufacturing side of the business increase dramatically. I think a decade ago you could pretty much guarantee that nearly 100 per cent of school buses and route buses were Australian made, or at least they were built on a European chassis. I think today with the impact of fully built-up Asian and other vehicles coming into the country that competition has seen a drop off in the business for the Australian bus manufacturer, and hence that’s probably part of the reasons for Alexander Dennis deciding to sell the business. The industry has a very small market at the best of times, with around 1500 buses sold each year, and within that we have a lot of bus manufacturers competing for that and it’s tight, but the industry seems to be able to continue to function well and I wouldn’t expect to see too many changes and the Australian bus industry will continue to fight on.”

Q. How has the amount of Asian bus body and chassis manufacturers in the Australian market changed things and what are the pros and cons of such changes? Are there too many or too few? How has the BIC embraced this segment of the industry?

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MA: “All of the fully built-up manufacturers – except for Bon Luck, who are not a member of the BIC; I’m pretty sure they are the only non-member – I think the BIC has managed to tread a fine line, where we are supportive of competition into the marketplace and support Australian bus manufacturers who need to be able to stand up for themselves in a market that’s going to become more competitive. Importers of vehicles have every right to participate in the Australian market, so that’s part of the game. It’s interesting to look at the Australian car manufacturing sector at the same time as the bus industry, which has continued to thrive and grow over the last decade or 20 years without any government subsidy to support the local manufacturer.

Now that says a lot I think about the health of the industry; I think it says a lot about the quality of the Australian product and what draws a lot of the Australian bus operators to the Australian vehicle. But clearly, it’s like the Datsun 180B when it first came out from Japan and people first thought ‘what a piece of junk’, over time the Japanese and the Chinese manufacturers of cars improved their game and now most people believe the quality of their vehicles on the road is right up there. So where the quality issues have been raised in the past about some of these Asian importers, I think they have very much been on the improve as well over the past decade and it’s good to see a competitive marketplace thriving in Australia that will continue to grow. I think it’s important for the industry to recognise that the passenger task will continue to grow. The Henry Taxation Review by Ken Henry the Secretary of the Federal Treasury reviewed the tax system in 2010. This included a look at the future transport task, which for buses is going to increase from 20 billion passenger kilometres currently per year, to 50 billion passenger kilometres per year by 2050 - and that’s just based on a small incremental increase in population and no increase in fuel price.

So the projections are that the bus and coach industry is going to vastly grow as our cities’ populations grow; that’s obviously going to mean that there will be even more bus required to service the task, and so we are going to have more buses on the road, suppliers will be selling more and we’ll have more bus operators running more services, so I think it’s a growth industry and it’s looking good for the prosperity of bus suppliers and operators.”

Q. What are your thoughts on alternative fuel

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buses both in terms of their use here and from a global perspective?

MA: “Alternative fuels are a reality. I think that actually getting them to operate effectively has been the challenge. I think if you looked at the Australian bus fleet the majority are diesel vehicles. Basically the CNG fleets are the large government-owned fleets, and that’s for a variety of reasons, but I think that CNG and some of the issues around CNG technology is not fully trusted by all bus operators in the context of their maintenance and their reliability and the temperatures they run at. I think they are issues that are commonly discussed, but I think that the proof’s in the fact most bus operators are continuing to buy diesel vehicles. Having said that alternative fuels will become a reality; hybrid vehicles – whether they are - diesel-electric - are operating effectively in Europe and the US. The trick to getting hybrid vehicles working effectively is that that have to be on the right work cycle so that you actually get the best value out of the electric aspect of hybrid vehicles. Alternative fuels will become more and more the reality.

Australia produces a lot of gas so it’s natural that we should use more gas. Getting the technologies to work as effectively as we can is the challenge. Now the engines? It seems diesels will continue to dominate the scene and it will be interesting to see how that all develops over the next decade as we move towards hybrids, fully electric, or CNG or other gas-type vehicles or even maybe biofuels will see a return, so all of that stuff is of interest but we’ll just have to wait to see what works.”

Q. Which is your preferred form and is the technology progressing to slowly or two fast?

MA: “There’s a whole range of issues that relate to the different fuels and the different benefits. I guess if you are talking about emissions then there’s not much difference any more between a Euro5 or our soon-tobe Euro6 diesel vehicle and or any other alternative-fuelled vehicle. Fully electric is obviously totally clean depending on where the electricity is generated, so if it’s coalgenerated electricity then it has a greenhouse impact.

In terms of progress, federal governments tend to force this issue based on emissions of alternative fuels. On the other side of using alternatives to diesel is whether you are actually a believer in peak oil and the fact the we are actually slowly running out of fossil fuels and that we need to be looking at

“...importers of vehicles have every right to participate in the Australian market.”

alternatives. If the amount of fuel that we can pump out of the ground is decreasing then the price is increasing then there comes a tipping point where other technologies are actually more viable. And I think being a technology taker, when it comes to buses, we are importing a lot of stuff primarily from Europe and Asia, those technologies will become more and more a reality as their operation becomes more frequent. The decisions that revolve around fuel use will usually be related to price, and may also be related to Federal government subsidies or grants provided to purchase such vehicles, so the incentives or drivers to move to new technology is driven by a variety of factors. I’d probably say that it’s moving at as fast a pace as it needs to be and the reality is diesel vehicles are still at the moment providing the best value for energy versus power output.”

Q. If you were an operator is there any one technology that stands out to you that you think you’d prefer to run?

MA: “I’m no expert and I’m not a technical person but just going on some of the basic reading and other bits and pieces and experience I’ve had in Europe and the US, I think the diesel-electric hybrid seems to be the next logical step. But as I say getting that technology to work as effectively as possible means making sure the vehicle is working on the right routes and has the right work cycle to maximise the benefits out of it.”

Q. What are some of the concerns, if at all, of BIC members? And how are these being addressed?

MA: “From a BIC perspective our primary role is to try to achieve with provision of the Federal government and State governments some sort of consistent approach to the bus services and the bus industry in general. At a state level they have a range of other different issues which I guess largely when it gets down to it relates to contractual arrangements, which states deal with on a state by state basis, and ultimately it’s about the operator’s livelihood and the amount of money they can make out of their business. Obviously an issue is the tendering for the procurement of bus services versus negotiating arrangements with the incumbent. I guess at a BIC level an ongoing issue and one that we are pursuing in the context of ongoing services and the procurement of contracts is the need to at least agree nationally – and that means each of the states and territories work with the industry to try and develop a framework

within which the procurement of bus services takes place. Rather than what happens at the moment which is contracts come up for renewal and every time that happens, state governments tend to go and re-invent the wheel and go and review the costs of operating buses and employ consultants to do the job they’ve done a decade before.

And BIC thinks there’s scope for industry and state and territory governments to agree the frameworks within which those contracts are negotiated and what the principles and parameters are in which that should occur.

And at the same time if governments decide to tender businesses we think that should done in an agreed nationally and consistent way to ensure everybody knows the rules when contracts come up for renewal.”

Q. Is that a way in which Federal government policy in the past has failed the BIC? In what ways is it either doing that now, or is it properly addressing certain key issues?

MA: “In our view the Federal government has no role in the running of bus services or the contractual arrangements, so in that context when I talk about national it’s actually more about dealing through the Council of Transport and Infrastructure Ministers (COTI), through the Transport Industry Senior Officer Committee (TISOC), which is all the director generals of the States and Federal Transport Departments, who at that national level can actually agree that all of the states will adopt a common and uniform approach. So BIC has a variety of area or forums in which it operates.

One of those is the Federal government, but when dealing with national issues that’s dealing with the Council of Transport and Infrastructure Ministers, that’s dealing with the Transport Industry Senior Officers. We also work through the National Transport Commission and the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator. So it’s interesting if you look over the past decade, Federalism and a national approach has really become the norm, and I guess that all reflects back to what is the role of BIC and what is the role in future of state bus and coach associations. These are ongoing challenges.

Q. What are the BIC’s core future objectives and how will it endeavour to see these met?

Is there some master gameplan as such, or do things move issue to issue?

MA: “BIC has a long-term strategy and business plan; we work on a three-year plan.

It articulates the BIC’s work programme. If you looked at the strategic areas we focus

www.truckandbus.net.au 053

on, they are: taxation and infrastructure, safety, environment and the technical issues that relate to the vehicle, industry regulation, research and policy development, the industry education and events. And we have a communication strategy that supports the work programme. We have a long-term agenda that pretty much relates to growing the public transport pie, which is probably the simplest way to view it. Everything we do is about growing the public transport pie, which grows operators and supplies businesses.

Q. What are the BIC’s official views on 2.55m buses being allowed to operate in Australia, given that now Mercedes-Benz has been given approval for such? If X per cent of your membership represents body builders, did the BIC do enough to prevent such buses being made legitimate on our roads, or

will their approval actually be good for the industry in future?

MA: “There are a couple of issues there. The BIC has a policy that we support Australian Design Rules. The ADRs prescribe a defined vehicle width and 2.55 or 2.60 metre wide vehicles currently aren’t legal under the ADR. There has been an approval for a single 2.55 vehicle through the Performance Based Standards (PBS) scheme to be allowed into the country. At the moment, PBS is the only mechanism to allow such vehicles on the road. I’m not actually sure at this stage what the view of State Governments will be with regards to where they will allow that vehicle to operate. BIC’s position is that we support the ADRs and we also see that the PBS is a good system, which is supported by the industry.

If those vehicles that are wider than 2.5m are approved through PBS then the next stage will be for each state to determine whether those vehicles will be provided access to the road network. How that works is still up in the air, but it will be interesting to ‘watch this space’.”

Q. Of the states and territories, which ones are the standouts in terms of their handling of the bus transport needs of bus users?

Which ones could do better and why?

MA: “It very much depends on the size and number of the operators in each of the states.

The most effective associations are those that are best resourced, and that means NSW and Victoria – they have obviously a lot more bus operators in those states.

Queensland does very well, but is not as well resourced as NSW or Victoria. I think all of the associations do a very good job. Obviously some of the smaller states are limited; they are a one-man-show and they have to look after the interests of the industry and leverage off the knowledge and advice of bus operator members to do their thing on the ground in each state. All in all they do well. But NSW and Victoria just based on the size and scope of their membership are better placed to deliver to their members.”

054 www.truckandbus.net.au

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We Want

CLEAN DREAMS The changing dynamics of the global bus industry is forcing some companies to re-evaluate just what their vehicles can do, or what they cab be made to do. Stateside, once such organisation has taken radical steps designed to help the homeless. Fabian Cotter reports on this noble cause.

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T

he world has thousands of beautiful cities, adorned with glistening skyscrapers, luxurious shopping malls, historic architecture punctuated with modern sculptures and thought-provoking artworks. And whilst millions of locals and tourists spend each day admiring such sights as they traipse around the city streets, only a discerning few may catch a glimpse of a stuffed bag of clothes or bundled blankets often tucked surreptitiously away in some cosy corner or less-trafficked spot.

‘Cosy’ being somewhat of a paradox because the homeless and destitute citizens that live on the streets with no place else to go find such locations far from cosy. But as cosy as they can get.

In summer, the outdoors living and sleeping maybe be somewhat marginally more bearable for lack of decent warm covering needed, but come the icy winter nights – well, you get the bone-chilling picture.

And while many of these people never get a lucky enough break to somehow enable them to remove themselves from such a misfortunate existence, their lives could be made a little more pleasant by giving them the one thing society – by this point – will subconsciously deny them the most: dignity.

San Francisco-based Lava Mae is tackling the lack of access to showers and toilets for the vast number of homeless who live on San Francisco’s streets by putting mobile hygiene machines – that’s buses, basically - on the

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1 Okay, so it’s not the Waldorf

1

road for them.

After a recent tour of several major cities in the U.S., Catarina de Albuquerque - the U.N.’s first special rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation wrote that: “The United States, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, must ensure that everyone, without discrimination, has physical and economic access, in all spheres of life, to sanitation which is safe, hygienic, secure, socially and culturally acceptable, and which provides privacy and ensures dignity.”

This is Lava Mae’s charge: provide sanitation, assist in deterring potential public health problems, and, perhaps most critically, provide a much needed service to help a population struggling to retain a sense of dignity and selfworth. Soul enriching and noble stuff, indeed.

In essence, Lava Mae sought to solve a small piece of what the United Nations and World Health Organisation define as, and Lava Mae believes is, a basic human right: access to water and sanitation.

The pilot project began in San Francisco late 2013, with Lava Mae securing an agreement with the SFMTA, which is donating San Francisco MUNI buses to be retrofit with two private showers, changing rooms and two

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toilets to provide upwards of 80 showers per day. Lava Mae also works with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to access the necessary water resources.

Local non-profit organisations working with the homeless, such as Project Homeless Connect, San Francisco’s Mayor’s Office of HOPE (Housing, Opportunity, Partnerships and Engagement), Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center, Hospitality House, Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, and the San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium among others, are key partners in this effort.

“With key constituencies from local government to non-profits behind us, Lava Mae is now working to finalise the bus design, retrofit our first bus, and get it on the streets of San Francisco,” said Lava Mae founder, Doniece Sandoval.

“The first bus, which we will receive from MUNI in October, will serve as a prototype for future buses. We plan to add three more by 2015, as well as provide a blueprint for groups — some of which have already reached out to us — seeking to bring a programme like Lava Mae to their community.”

The bus hit the streets in Spring 2014 thanks, in large part, to Sacramento-based

2

Astoria, but it’s chic and clean enough to do the trick.

2 Surprisingly good use of space and appointments within this bus.

3 Even at first glance from outside you wouldn’t expect what’s inside.

AIRCO Mechanical, Inc., South Carolinabased Continental Tire the Americas, LLC, and Wisconsin-based Kohler Co, whose contributions are making the bus service and road-ready.

The retrofit, which began mid-January, is being led by AIRCO, Northern CA’s leading designers of state-of-the-art mechanical systems for major commercial, industrial, and institutional projects throughout the region.

Representing a huge departure for AIRCO, the build out of Lava Mae’s bus provides a very visible opportunity for the company to demonstrate its commitment to the community while showcasing its ability to think outside the box and deploy existing systems in new ways.

“Ever since opening a fabrication facility on Treasure Island last year, we’ve been looking for a way to connect to the region in a meaningful way,” said Joe Hanely, AIRCO’s chief operating officer. “Working with Lava Mae fits the bill and then some as it’s a project that could have global impact as communities look to replicate it and, internally, our employees are having a great time doing something so totally different from what they normally do.”

With the donation of four sets of new

commercial tires – for the first bus and three more to be retrofitted in 2015 – Continental Tire the Americas, LLC is helping to fulfil Lava Mae’s dream of mobility by ensuring safety and sustainability for its buses. Equally significant, Continental’s commitment to observing human rights is echoed in Lava Mae’s mission to address what the U.N. and World Health Organisation define as a basic human right – access to water and sanitation.

“Continental is proud to have the opportunity to step in and provide the bus tyres that will be needed to bring the Lava Mae buses directly to the areas where people need this important service. It is our hope that this donation of tyres will help jump start this unique mobile initiative and get it ready to serve the homeless community. To this end, we have also chosen to supply them with bus tyres that are specifically designed for the urban environment, so that the Lava Mae initiative can keep rolling safely and helping people for a long time,” said Tom Fanning, Continental’s director of replacement truck tyre sales for North and Central America.

Also contributing to the outfitting of the first bus is a donation of bathroom fixtures and taps from Kohler Co. The Lava Mae project

is a natural fit for the company’s corporate social responsibility platform “Believing in Better”, which focuses on making the world a better place through employee and corporate projects. And fair enough.

“Kohler Co. is pleased to be part of this project,” said Robert Zimmerman, Sr. Channel manager, Sustainability.

“Our Mission Statement compels us to contribute to a higher level of gracious living for those touched by our products and services.

We hope that San Francisco’s homeless who use Lava Mae’s Hygiene Machine are able to experience what many of us take for granted — a clean, relaxing and dignified place to take care of washing and sanitation needs.”

All three companies have worked closely with Lava Mae bus designer Brett Terpeluk, who was lead architect under Renzo Piano for the California Academy of Sciences and now heads his own residential and commercial architecture firm.

Lava Mae is a project defined by collaboration between local government (SF Mayor’s Office of H.O.P.E, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency/MUNI, San Francisco Department of Public Health), key

local non-profits (Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, Project Homeless Connect, San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium, and others) and now the private sector.

By working together, we strengthen our community and, in this case specifically, make it possible for people to recover their humanity by delivering dignity one shower at a time. Lava Mae is close to meeting its funding goal of $375,000, but needs to close a gap of $60,000.

So what are the implications of this? Aside from providing cities around the world with a noble blueprint as to how it can help its homeless populations, it also shows how buses can be retrofitted – or fitted from new for that matter – with interior designs that can serve other purposes and uses for the humble bus. A mobile cafe or food outlet, play area for kids, mobile work or conference areas – the sky isn’t the limit … the mind is. And at a time certain bus-related companies involved in the manufacturing side of things may be questioning just how many buses are needed from a traditional design sense, and assessing the competition vying to supply product for that demand, thinking outside the square as shown by these San Franciscan buses might just be what’s needed.

3

“...shows how buses can be retrofitted – or fitted from new – with interior designs that can serve other purposes and uses.”

ABOUT LAVA MAE Lava Mae is a San Francisco-based non-profit project working to address the massive shortage in showers and toilets available to the homeless. While addressing the need locally – providing hygiene for

the city’s homeless – Lava Mae is also working to build a sustainable model that can be replicated by organisations around the globe. Find out more at www.lavamae.org.

www.truckandbus.net.au 059

Hot Stuff

By Fabian Cotter

Gadgets on the go

We’ve scoured the globe for all the latest gadgets and gizmos for when you are on the go.

Elgato Smart Key Let’s face it, few of us have never ever been locked out of the house or lost our keys and freaked out just a little. And in the worst case, you end up like the guy in the 1980s TV ad for Holeproof Underdaks, from memory, unable to scramble for cover in just his undies because ‘one day you’re going to get WHAT? WHO? WHERE? HOW MUCH? CONTACT?

caught with your pants down’.

If that’s your greatest fear then fear not! As with all things these days it seems technology has come to your exposed-bottomed rescue and offers the Elgato Smart Key thingymajiggy so you don’t lose your keys (for long) ever again.

The Elgato Smart Key connects

Elgato Smart Key Elgato Online Approx. $60 www.elgato.com

your keychain to your iPhone, so now your iPhone can notify you whenever you leave your key behind, let you know where it was last seen, or help you find it by playing a sound.

With low-energy Bluetooth Smart technology, the replaceable battery lasts more than half a year, and you won’t even notice a hit on your iPhone’s battery life, it’s claimed.

Using sturdy materials and IP65-certified dust and water protection, the compact Elgato Smart Key looks a winner.

Backbeat Go 2 Wireless Earbuds These incredibly small, amazingly light Bluetooth®ready earbuds lets you connect to your smartphone or tablet for music, movies, and calls.

Available in white, black and red, they are funky as and use P2i military-grade nanocoating to protect the earbuds against sweat, moisture, and spills.

Inline controls make it easy to take calls, skip tracks, and adjust volume, while its compact design easily slips into your pocket and tangle

free cable keeps things simple, it’s claimed.

With everyone’s ears being different, three sizes of cushioned eartips and stabilisers make the fit custom and comfortable for active use and all day wearing. And you can enjoy your favourite music or movie with up to 4.5 WHAT? WHO? WHERE? HOW MUCH? CONTACT?

hours of listening and 5 hours of talk time, which is aided

by DeepSleep mode putting the buds into hibernation when away from the phone, extending battery readiness up to six months. The headset battery meter automatically shows on-screen for iPhone® and iPad®.

Backbeat Go 2 Wireless Earbuds Plantronics www.officeworks.com.au Approx. $88 www.plantronics.com

UP24 Jawbone

WHAT? WHO? WHERE? HOW MUCH? CONTACT?

UP24 Jawbone www.jawbone.com Approx. $150 www.jawbone.com

If we are not getting fitter then we are probably getting fatter. Not even sure if there’s proper logic involved in that statement, but the fact that our smart phones are now being used to improve our lifestyles speaks volumes about where our hearts, heads and waistlines are heading.

The UP® is a system that takes a holistic approach to a healthy lifestyle. The wristband tracks your movement and sleep in the background. The phone app displays your data, lets you add things like meals and mood, and

delivers insights that keep you moving forward.

UP24 is always connected, providing real-time feedback so that you can stay motivated and live better. Notifications and nudges help you understand your progress throughout the day, while the home screen serves as your daily dashboard to check overall progress and see what your friends are up to.

Comes in a range of funky colours and is an under-cool way to get your health back on track. Word!

STANDARD

Setting the standard in safety HIGER DEALERS NSW Adtrans, Smeaton Grange Newcastle Commercial Vehicles Thomas Bros, Wagga Wagga West Orange Motors, Orange

02 4655 5755 02 4974 7800 02 6926 0102 02 6361 1000

VIC Prestige, Dandenong South Blacklocks, Wodonga

03 9212 5588 02 6057 8777

QLD Zupps, Eagle Farm Zupps, Burleigh Ray Grace, Forest Glen Macquarrie Corp, Cairns Macquarrie Corp, Townsville

07 3268 3400 07 5569 5111 07 5452 0700 07 4035 3442 07 4725 0799

WA WA Higer, Welshpool

08 6365 2954

TAS Tas Truck & Bus, Launceston

03 6335 9166

Higer’s range of 28 to 57 seat buses come with an impressive array of standard safety features including 3-point lap sash seat belts on every model.

Best-in-class components, a five year warranty* and other standard safety

features – including ABS, ASR and reversing camera on every model – ensure maximum safety, comfort and class-leading reliability.

For more information and a free test drive, call your nearest Higer dealer on 1300 850 206 or visit higer.com.au * Optional 3 year driveline warranty extension available (5 years total). Conditions apply.

Working Wheels

Doblo or nothing Fiat is entering the small van market with its Doblo, a multi-purpose van that will appeal to many. Geoff Paradise reports

D

ue to production issues the Fiat Doblo won’t be available in Australia until early next year.

It was intended to have it here earlier but according to Fiat pressure for the van in Europe has taken precedence over right-hand drive, Australian-spec’ versions.

When it gets here it will be taking on wellestablished players such as the Volkswagen Caddy and the Renault Kangoo. The Caddy is the clear market leader and the Kangoo is finding increasing market acceptance so the Doblo will have its work cut out for it.

The Doblo offers a wide range of diesel and petrol engines from normally aspirated to turbocharged, manual and automatic transmissions and various body and passenger configurations.

We drove – albeit briefly – an entry-level Doblo in Italy earlier this year and quite enjoyed it. It was a nice package in that it handled, steered and rode extremely well.

One engine on offer is a turbocharged 1.4-litre engine – the only such offing in this

062 www.truckandbus.net.au

sector - and pumps out 120hp. Fiat says by “pressing the accelerator it unleashes an energetic response.” Straightaway that suggests it’s a bit of a hot rod and given the Italian’s habit of understatement then you can bet it goes like the proverbial off a shovel. A six-speed manual gearbox is used.

The Italian-designed Doblo has personality and design, in both the interior and exterior, all of its own. It has touches of Fiat passenger car and snippets of Alfa Romeo in the cabin.

Outwardly, its appearance will appeal to those wanting to stand out from the herd.

As is Fiat’s want, lashings of red figures heavily in the trim, accents and instrumentation. Depending on the model a red dash pad is featured as opposed to the hum-drum black or grey items we’ve become so used to in other vehicles.

The steering wheel is generous in its girth and has radio, telephone, Bluetooth and info’ centre controls within thumbs reach. The gearshift is a short stubby unit in a floormounted console rather than springing from

the dash like other similar vans.

There are 11 versions of the standard van and internal dimensions are a load compartment length of 1820mm while the width will vary from 1518mm to 1714mm, depending on the model; the load volume is 3.4 cubic meters.

Step up to the Maxi Van and things become more generous. With seven versions available the load compartment length is now 2170mm, the widths remain the same and the load volume is increased to 4.2 cubic meters. Both versions have a maximum one-tonne payload.

The van offers rear barn doors or a one-piece tailgate and either one or two sliding side doors, making loading and unloading pretty easy. The width between the wheel arches is 1230mm.

It’s apparently frugal as well; Fiat claims as little as 4.8L/100km, which is miserly even by Scrooge McDuck’s standards.

The exact Doblo model line-up, pricing and warranty details were yet to be confirmed at press time but given it is Fiat Australia’s intention to steal Volkswagen’s thunder you can assume a sharp pencil will be used.

PROMA low-floor 29 Seat, Wheelchair Access City Bus Sub-$200,000

PROMA

29-33 Seat, Coach option avail.

MERCEDES-BENZ 43-57 Seat Stylish Coaches

CRUISER 12

57 Seat Coach, other sizes avail.

CLASSMASTER

41 to 65 seat 2-axle / 87 seat 3-axle

064Money Matters

Paul Clitheroe YOU CAN’T WORK IF YOU ‘CAN’T WORK’ – SO YOU NEED TO LOOK AFTER YOURSELF.

T

here are more than two million actively trading businesses in

Australia - and around 96 per cent of these are small businesses - often with just a husband and wife team, or a few employees.

For many of these ventures the business runs smoothly most of the time and it makes running your own show exciting

and potentially very financially rewarding.

But things can rapidly unravel if something goes wrong - and recent studies show many businesses are under-insured.

According to industry research, up to 70 per cent of Australian businesses don’t have

adequate insurance cover in place. The threat of under-insurance ranges from inadequate cover for buildings and/or plant and

over the past few months, competition in the insurance market has pushed down the cost

of business cover.

According to insurance group Austbrokers, premiums across a range of different types of cover have fallen by an average of about six per cent. That can make taking out insurance for your business more appealing, or if your venture has cover in place now could be the

time to see if you can secure a better deal.

With a large number of insurers offering business cover it’s certainly worth speaking with several providers to get an idea of what’s a reasonable premium for your venture. The cost of cover varies in line with the nature of the policy and also, according to the industry you work in, the size of your business.

Another type of cover worth considering if

doesn’t work. Too often the economic worth of a child rearer’s contribution is overlooked.

Both professional child-minding and housekeeping are expensive services and it makes sense to insure the house-wife’s, or

house-husband’s, life at similar levels to the breadwinner’s.

With this in mind it’s worrying to come across research by comparison site Finder that found women could be settling for life insurance policies with a payout worth around 15 per cent less than their male counterparts.

“Illness, injury, or death affects business owners and their businesses...” equipment through to less obvious types of protection like business interruption insurance, which protects the venture against loss of

you are self-employed is ‘key person’ cover.

This involves insuring the most important people in the venture for death and/or

The average policy for men, for instance, is worth about $513,130 while women sought

disablement - with a payout that can be used to pay off business debts.

cheaper policies with an average value of $445,849.

So how much should you insure your life

yet another cost small businesses must wear - and that’s understandable. The thing is a business isn’t just a source of income, it’s

mortality, the reality is that illness, injury, or death affects business owners and their businesses just like it affects anyone and

say anywhere between three and 10 times

appropriate insurance in place.

The good news is that business insurance could be a lot more affordable at present than

like the family home - as they often are.

And you must also consider personal life insurance. I’ve always thought life insurance

profits if trade is temporarily halted through, say, a fire at the business premises.

I realise that insurance is often viewed as

also a valuable asset - and one that many selfemployed people rely on to fund their future retirement. This highlights the need to have

many self-employed workers may expect.

A recent industry study has found that

While no-one likes to think about their own

anything else. A personal tragedy can quickly turn into financial hardship particularly if business loans are secured by private assets

for? Well, many insurance agents suggest a reasonable figure is 10-15 times the annual expenditure needs of your dependants. Others your annual salary, in addition to whatever amount is needed to cover your debts.

Relying on the life insurance available

through your super may be a low-cost option.

It’s something many Australians choose to do; though, it’s still important to check you have

be called ‘death insurance’ because death is what you are insuring against. More to the

adequate cover - or indeed any cover at all.

Protect those who matter in your life by asking your super fund how much cover you

have life cover in place for both parents.

Life insurance is designed for anyone with

insurers.

is something of a misnomer - it should really

point you are insuring against untimely death, and for families in particular it’s important to

a family, dependent relatives or debt. If you die and your life is insured, your beneficiaries receive a lump sum payout.

In the case of families it is sensible for both parents to be insured even if one parent

have. If it seems a bit on the lean side ask about arranging a top-up, or consider taking out life cover directly through one of our big

Paul Clitheroe is a founding director of financial planning firm ipac, chairman of the Australian Government Financial Literacy Board and chief commentator for Money magazine. Visit www.paulsmoney.com.au for more information.

MAN204 C&B

The future will be rolling on Lion’s Chassis.

Lion’s Chassis form the ideal basis for coaches, city buses and school buses, combining premium quality with innovative engineering.

EBS electronic brake systems and body friendly electronic structures are standard features of all Lion’s Chassis whilst an electronic stability program (ESP) is a series feature of the coach and school bus versions.

The modular two-and three-axle chassis give body manufacturers great freedom and flexibility in designing individual solutions with five module groups available:

is standard. A stabiliser is fitted for increased stability and optimum safety, especially for high bodies. An actively steered trailing axle is available for three-axle coach Chassis.

Driver’s work-place module: The ergonomically designed driver’s workplace offers body manufacturers flexible integration options.

Driveline module: The driveline can be perfectly configured with efficient common-rail engines for low-entry, school bus or coach chassis. The engines meet exhaust emission standards Euro 5 and EEV. Available gearboxes include manual, automated manual (MAN TipMatic®) and automatic.

Front axle module: Highly convenient independent wheel suspension is now standard for coach and school bus. An optional rigid axle is also available for two-axle coach and school bus chassis. The Low Entry chassis is fitted as standard with the proven rigid axle.

Wheelbase module: A short transfer wheelbase lowers transport costs and the final wheelbase can be individually specified by the body manufacturer.

Rear axle module: A low-noise hypoid drive axle with low weight, high load capacity and long oil-change intervals

Evolve to MAN

To find out how your business can benefit from our continuing evolution contact your local MAN Sales Representative.

VIC, SA & TAS: John Dernaj M: 0419 329 636 QLD, NT & WA: Russell Bayfield M: 0421 613 143 NSW: Les Atkins M: 0418 293 077 www.man.com.au

The EDUCATED CHOICE

Check out the newest member of our bus family, the Fuso School Bus. Fuso has been producing a range of large and small buses in Japan for years, and our experiencevw shows. Just like our famous Rosa, which is the best selling bus in its class*, the School Bus offers a level of quality and reliability that’s second to none.

Ability to Japanese quality body choose number and chassis & type of seats (46 or 50 including the driver)

ONE stop 3 year warranty ^ ^

excludes seats

Call 1300 429 134 or visit fuso.com.au to find out more *Rosa is Australia’s top-selling bus in its class for the last ten years based on Vfacts sales volumes 2004-2013. Fuso is distributed by Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific Pty Ltd ACN 004 411 410. Fuso Financial is a registered business name of Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Australia Pty Ltd ABN 73 074 134 517 AFSL 247271.