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DRIVER’S SEAT
dedicated to the road ahead
In 2021, we are proud to reflect on our 5 decades supporting the Bus & Coach Industry. This year, we also celebrate 11 consecutive years of market leadership, which has been facilitated by our solid product and service offering, enabling us to foster strong relationships with customers, dealers and partners across the country - establishing Volvo Bus Australia as a well-respected and trusted industry partner. We look forward to seeing these relationships continue with our electromobility efforts. Our S-Charge chassis has demonstrated great success and we are working hard on the development of the awaited BZL electric chassis, due for release in 2022. We are grateful to have been a part of the Bus & Coach Industry these past 50 years, and we look forward to remaining your trusted business partner into 2021 and beyond.
www.volvobuses.com.au
THE CHANGING COMPLEXION OF OUR BUSINESS
The Covid crisis has again altered our lives, just when we thought we were emerging from the pall that this dreadful disease had cast over us.
Clearly I am not telling you anything most of you don’t already know but the crisis has affected the bus industry in oh so many ways, both positive and negative. The fact that inbound tourism has stopped completely has put enormous pressure on those operating tour buses around the country, state border closures have made intercity bus operation intensely difficult and even city route bus operations have been under pressure with city dwellers using their personal cars instead of indulging in the jeopardy of mixing with other humans on a commuter bus.
The only glimmer of light that has emerged from all this is the move to pivot from diesel to zero emission bus building with a range of bus makers responding to the edicts from state transit authorities to shift fleets to full zero emission sooner rather than later.
From our perspective news of anything to do with diesel buses has come to almost a complete halt. All of the news we seem to be receiving on the email appears to be about zero emission, and a scan of overseas sites reflects an even bigger focus on zero emission – whether that be hydrogen, battery electric or hybrids.
Paris has just ordered 180 Iveco battery electric buses, Ireland’s National Transport Authority has ordered 200 battery electric buses from BYD ADL, and is looking at a potential 120 hydrogen fuel cell buses. It is just all about electric.
So it was with some degree of joy that I saw local body maker Express had formed an alliance with BLK to produce electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses at its Macksville factory on the mid north coast of NSW. We have a soft spot for Express, partly because it is providing valued employment in a country area but also because Dale Hancox and his team are really great people.
In fairness the likes of Custom/Denning, Volgren, Bustech and the like are all pretty big operations and they have pivoted to the zero emission agenda, but for Express, it is great news that one of the smaller bus builders has been given the chance to prove its credentials for electric buses and secured zero emission chassis with a bus manufacturer. The fact is that Express will be able to continue doing buses with a range of established bus makers like Scania, and the deal with BLK will broaden and validate its engineering capability and its zero emission worthiness.
It also bucks the trend for Chinese buses to come to Australia largely as completely built up buses and will mean some value add can be contributed locally, producing buses that totally suit our operating conditions, demands and environment, not to mention benefiting our country with some local input and know how. We keep talking about skills shortages, but we often brush aside engineering operations like Express and don’t realise the true cost of losing something like this is often hidden in the skills we lose when they close down.
So good luck to Express, and Custom, Volgren, Bustech and all the rest, long may they continue and let’s hope they can continue and adapt to the era of green buses ahead.
There is no reason to doubt they can, but we have to be careful to nurture them and to buy from them or we will lose them.
The heartening thing is that Australia still builds trucks and very successfully too. That is a fact that a lot of Australian’s are ignorant of. When you tell people that Kenworth, DAF, Volvo, Mack and Iveco trucks are built in factories here in this country they look at you askance, but it is a reality. Most believe when Holden, Ford and Toyota shut down here that was the end of automotive manufacturing in this country, but local truck factories deliver the benefit of a product adapted for here not just a cookie cutter version produced for all markets.
We are a clever country, most of the time, not always, and we need to believe that, to produce well engineered, clever products, particularly vehicles, that work in our harsh and different conditions, and which may not be the cheapest available but work well, efficiently and last. We don’t need to engage in a race to the bottom, Germany doesn’t so why should we, we are a wealthy nation so let’s start acting that way.
Now that we are down off the soap box, in this issue of Coach & Bus we look at the future of buses and where it is all heading we take a look at the highly successful Crown Coaches in Melbourne and its close alignment with Daimler product, both Fuso and Mercedes, and we also take a visit to Belbaker in Brisbane, a bus operation that started almost by accident but has thrived and grown into a key player in the South East Queensland market.
Along with that, we take a look at a new express bus service from the Huon Valley to Hobart on the Apple Isle, we look at ZF’s electro mobility moves, as well as the latest trend in auxiliary driving lights/light bars, and we road test the Mercedes Benz Valente, a classy addition to the luxury people mover/micro bus market.
All that and a whole lot more in this issue of Coach & Bus, so enjoy the read and we will catch you next time.
Issue 047 CONTENTS
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FEATURES 16 FUTURE TENSE
The future of bus transport was looking pretty bleak a few decades ago. The buses were ageing, they were noisy and smelly and in terms of city route buses they provided the minimum standards of comfort as well as lacking convenience in many cases. Today however we stand on the cusp of some of the biggest shifts in bus technology the industry has ever witnessed, from the way buses are powered, to how we use them, how they are controlled and even how big they can be. C&B takes a look at where the bus industry is headed.
24 CROWNING GLORY
Any bus company that has been in business for more than half a century must be doing something right and for Melbourne based, family owned and operated, Crown Coaches 54 years in business has taught some pretty strong lessons about running a bus operation. We take a look at Crown Coaches and why they have embraced Daimler buses, in particular the new Fuso Rosa..
30 RISING TO THE OCCATION
How does a company running childcare centres become one of South East Queensland’s largest and most successful bus and coach companies? Damn good question, and one that involves an intriguing and fascinating answer. We take a look at Belbaker, one of the real success stories of the bus charter business and how it has risen to the occasion.
36 APPLE ISLE EXPRESS
It’s not just the big cities that struggle with traffic congestion, even smaller capitals like Hobart battle with clogged main roads in rush hour and a new commuter link bus service has been established in the Apple Isle to help a growing number of commuters from the Huon Valley leave their cars behind and bus it into Hobart town. We take a look at TassieLink’s new Huonville Hobart Express and its help in reducing car dependency.
42 GEARING UP FOR AN ELECTRIC FUTURE
German based global automotive component maker, ZF is best known for its transmissions, using the expertise and engineering capabilities that were first established to create drive systems for Germany’s Zeppelin airships. With the writing on the wall for internal combustion engines, ZF is well advanced in a pivot to electric drive trains for commercial vehicles. We take a look at some interesting electric vehicle innovations from the German drive meister.
48 SHINING A NEW LIGHT ON THINGS
Auxiliary lighting always seems to be an afterthought, but we reckon it needs to be given a bit more priority, particularly since the latest generation of LED light bars have delivered better performing, lighter and whiter lighting with a lot less heat. We recently tested the latest generation lights from British innovator Lazer Lamps and really took a shine to them.
REGULARS 01 DRIVER’S SEAT
Editor Peter Barnwell has his say on the growing technology tidal wave and what it might mean in the bus world.
06 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.
54 LCV
We take a look at the Mecedes Benz Valente.
60 COMPANY CAR
Land Rover Defender.
