A busy three days saw the annual national conference of the Bus Industry Confederation (BIC) discuss a range of pressing talking points and introduce an international flavour to topics.
Held last week at Hobart’s Hotel Grand Chancellor, the conference program officially kicked off on Thursday following a range of meetings held the day prior.
In the aftermath of Wednesday night’s Volvo Welcome Reception, attendees were greeted by the BIC auction bus and car out the front of the hotel, with the Volvo/Irizar bus gleaming in the Hobart sun while the BYD Dolphin 6 also enticed many.
The official conference opening saw BIC Chair Tony Hopkins introduce the attendees before Simon Kuestenmacher of The Demographics Group provided an interesting data driven insight into the habits of public transport passengers in Australia.
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With National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) CEO Sal Petroccitto OAM on hand to address the crowd and discuss the latest heavy vehicle updates pertaining to the bus and coach sector, the opening session quickly got conversations going.
The following session took it to the next level, with Professor David Hensher AM discussing fair contracting models in a challenging operating environment for operators. Hensher was joined by some of Australia’s leading operator figures, including Transdev John Holland Buses (NSW) managing director Mark McKenzie, Kinetic Group CEO Michael Sewards, Transit Systems executive general manager of people, communications and safety Tanya Smith, CDC Australia CEO Nick Yap and Keolis Downer chief operating officer of bus Jay Zmijewski, to chat about the state of current bus contracts.
The discussion led to Hensher calling for bus contracts to be reset, with an interesting tangent including the role of trust in the industry.
After lunch, future transport and fuels was the dominant topic as a variety of ministers, energy companies and alliances took to the stage to highlight fresh ideas to revamp the zero-emissions technology space.
The day ended with BIC/APTIA’s new national industrial relations manager Kirsten Jongsma leading a chat on future workforce and providing the latest updates on industrial relations.
At night, the Scania/Irizar evening function saw BIC’s national industry awards handed down, with the award winners able to be viewed here.
The next morning, a lovely Hobart Friday saw the conversations quickly return at the networking breakfast. With operator Kinetic providing constant bus tours of tourist attractions such as Nelson Signal Station, Rosny Hill and Battery Point, the topics were broken up by fruitful chat.
The BIC auction came to a close, with the bus won by Flagstaff Coaches and the car auction winner impending, before the connect session took a deep dive into antisocial behaviour on buses. With technical updates preceding an intriguing trucking industry update from Senator Glenn Sterle, who also brought his experience and framed it in a bus industry lens, various operators gave their take into what they are doing to curb antisocial behaviour and what more can be done by policy makers.
The adapt session post lunch took a global approach, veering into new territory as chief customer officer of US company Modaxo Paul Comfort discussed his transit show tour and what is happening in the US. From there, Transit Systems’ Mark Peters detailed his experiences from his rise in the bus sector, discussing what the operator is doing in the zero-emissions infrastructure space, while init SE CEO Heiko Bauer detailed his brand’s latest technology and how it is changing the face of transport globally.
In a local sense, Energy Australia’s Jack Kotlyar and Tropic Wings’ Colin Anderson discussed their Far North Queensland new energy project and what it means for electrifying bus depots, while the Trapeze Group and InfinitEV discussed their own roles in embracing sustainability.
The final session of the conference brought out the manufacturers, with a star-studded panel highlighting the forces at play in the manufacturing space both in Australia and worldwide.
Starting with Scania Sweden’s head of sales, people and transport solutions Niklas Walter, the focus was on the latest in Europe’s bus manufacturing sector and challenges that continue to make bus production difficult.
From there, a panel including Walter, Volgren Australia’s John Allen, Yutong Asia-Pacific CEO Kent Chang, Go Zero Group’s John Featherstone, Scania’s Julian Gurney, Irizar Australia managing director Steve Heanes, Volvo’s Mitch Peden and BYD’s Jon Tozer discussed the main issues impacting supply and manufacturing both in Australia and overseas.
Major topics arising included local content rules, or a lack thereof, and supply chain challenges continuing to threaten materials transport.
By the end of the event, the industry was well updated about the latest solutions that can be used to make the sector better moving into 2025.
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