Volvo Buses
Global
The magical number 1,000 is among eight new Volvo B7R buses delivered to Buslines in the past month. The final delivery destination will be the Picton depot, in the South Western fringe of Sydney. The new buses will enter school bus operations in the district’s main towns of Picton, Thirlmere, Tahmoor and Buxton.
Buslines bought its first five Volvo buses (B7R) back in 2001, and now with these deliveries scheduled for 2012, the number of Volvo buses in its existing fleet will increase to 94, the majority of them being Volvo B7R buses, but also including the low floor model B7RLE.
“The Volvo B7R bus chassis has a great history and acceptance in Australia. It is not surprising to me that 1,000 have been sold, as I am sure most operators who have purchased the B7R, are very pleased with its performance,” says Peter Ferris, Chief Executive Officer of the Buslines Group.
The Buslines Group initially started off as a small company called Reo Motors Ltd in 1926 that sold cars, trucks, buses and tractors. As business grew, the company ventured into the bus operations industry after acquiring a company in Parkes, NSW that served the RAAF training facility. After several more successful acquisitions throughout the years, the company decided to focus on bus operations in 1996.
The group now operates in ten regional NSW locations providing a network of route bus services, as well as, regional and inter-regional school transport services throughout New South Wales.
The key behind the success of the group is its high focus on providing quality, reliable and safe services to the public and continuously catering to changing passenger needs. This fits well with Volvo’s long-term ethos of providing high quality, safe and environmentally sustainable products.
“The Volvo D7E engine has outstanding fuel economy, reliability, low emissions with all of the high quality safety features you would expect from a modern day school and charter bus” says Ray Andrich, Regional Sales Manager of Volvo Bus Australia.
With operations spread out in such a vast area of regional New South Wales, and the landscape varying from mountainous to flat plains, reliability and support of the product is crucial.
“The B7R school bus is very reliable, performs extremely well, delivers a smooth ride and is very popular with our drivers because it is an extremely good vehicle to operate. In addition, Volvo’s support for the product in regional NSW is excellent. It is not always possible to get that level of product support outside the capital cities, “says Ferris.
With its past history of expanding business, Buslines continues to constantly look for growth opportunities. However, the company does not strive to be the biggest player in the transport industry, but rather focuses on ensuring high quality standards throughout its operations.