Australasian Bus & Coach - April 2018

busnews.com.au April 2018 ABC^27

The industry and our

customers are changing

and evolving faster than

ever before.

ABC: And what about seatbelts
on buses? School buses or
coaches – should seatbelts be in
all buses?

LD: It’s a very topical question
at the moment; the challenge
is – and I’m sure you are aware of
the regulations – as soon as we
put seatbelts on all buses then
with ADRs, standees become
problematic. That would mean
more buses required to do services,
so great as an OEM [laughs], but
obviously creates new challenges at
the same time.

ABC: In NSW, many operators
are complaining that
everything is being privatised
and they are losing routes, that
the government is squeezing
out the little operators
and contracts are going to
other companies, and those
companies are possibly just
managing the routes. How does
that affect a company like Volvo
Bus and what does it need to
do? If its objective is to have
more buses sold, but with many
operators moving out of the
industry – or some would say
arguably forced out – is there
not less demand on supply
from OEMs?

LD: As I touched on before the
industry is rapidly changing, and we
clearly see our customers changing
in terms of their management
styles, their perspectives, their ideas,
their services.
And so we see competencies
such as corporate affairs, lobbying,
project and infrastructure
management emerging and
growing in importance. Moving
forward that’s what I see us
focussing on and really enhancing,
so we are ready to address the
needs of our customers.

ABC: What’s an interesting
order that Volvo Bus has had
lately? Are you selling more
buses than coaches, or what’s
the ratio?

LD: I think one of the exciting ones
was the Latrobe order of the first

hybrid fleet; that’s eight hybrids

going in to Latrobe Valley Bus Lines.

So in terms of that technology –

Euro 6 hybrid – it’s really exciting.

But, ultimately, we’ve been

blessed that we’ve been number

one for eight years now, so we have

a number of customers who have

put their support and their trust in

us for a long time, so we thank them

for their ongoing support.

Yet we also want to assure them

that we are working harder than

ever to not be complacent and are

constantly trying new things and

looking to continuously improve the

service that we deliver.

ABC: Around the world, where

does Volvo sit in terms of being

number one in regions or

countries? Is it number one in

most countries now?

LD: When it comes to the

Europeans, we are number two,

and obviously places like Germany

are dominated by the German

manufacturers, so you have a bit

of a split there, but typically we

are number one or number two in

almost all markets worldwide.

ABC: What’s the relationship

like between Volvo Bus

and Volvo Trucks? Are they

treated and operated as

separate entities, or is there a

cooperative link between the

two, or an overlap of sorts?

LD: No, no we are all part of the

Volvo Group, so in terms of our

dealer networks – we have one of

the largest dealer networks in the

country with our co-operation with

Trucks – we work very closely.

In saying that, however, we have

a number of dedicated Bus Service

Centres and have key bus-trained

technicians that work at those

dealerships as well.

And then there’s our Bus team;

we actually have the largest

dedicated bus team here in

Australia, so our team of 19 people

Above: A

homegrown

Aussie general

manager of a

global transport

giant in Oz.