Bus and coach deliveries continued to decline in September, with deliveries down 10 percent on the corresponding month of 2008. Deliveries
Bus and coach deliveries continued to decline in September, with deliveries down 10 percent on the corresponding month of 2008.
Deliveries dipped to 126 in the month, down on the 140 units delivered in September of last year.
After hitting a peak of 242 in June, monthly deliveries have steadily dropped off, to 152 in July and then 130 in August.
Year to date, deliveries are still up a very healthy 34.5 percent on the same period of last year, with 1,380 vehicles delivered so far (versus 1,026 in 2008), according to new figures compiled by ABC.
Driving the market higher were large deliveries to NSW operators CDC (16 Scanias), Busabout/Nevilles Bus Service (11 Mercedes-Benz), STA (10 Volvos) and Premier Illawarra (4 Mercedes-Benz), PTD in SA (7 Scanias) and Queensland’s Sunbus (6 Bustechs).
Scania topped the deliveries list in September with 30 vehicles, followed by Mercedes-Benz (27), Volvo (25), Scania (23), BCI (14), Bustech (9), Hino (8) and Iveco (5).
By body, Custom Coaches came out on top with 31 deliveries, just ahead of Volgren (30), Bustech (20), BCI (14), Coach Concepts (5), Chiron/UBC (4), Mills-Tui (4), Express (3), North Coast (3) and White-Higer (3).
Thermo King topped the air-conditioning market, with a dominant 50 units, followed by Carrier (18), Cooltek (16), Coachair (15), Denso (12), Kingtec (4), Daewoo (3) and Hispacold (2).
McConnell and Styleride maintained the stranglehold on the seating market, with 46 and 36 units respectively, ahead of Custom Coaches (23), APM (7) and Transport Seating Technology (5).
Some 50 percent of deliveries were for city/route buses, down from 70 percent in August; while school buses accounted for 34 percent of deliveries, up from 22 percent in the previous month; and charter and long distance 16 percent (8 percent in August).
A majority of deliveries were to NSW operators (51 percent), ahead of Queensland (22 percent), Victoria (13 percent), WA (11 percent), Tasmania (3 percent) and South Australia (2 percent).
For the full data set click here (PLEASE NOTE: The total of 119 in this spreadsheet is incorrect and should read 126, an error that will be corrected ASAP).