As parent company of CMV Truck & Bus, the CMV Group was established in 1934 and began originally in Adelaide. The company expanded into Victoria and CMV Truck & Bus was created in 1989. This year, CMV Truck & Bus proudly celebrates 55 years of close partnership with Volvo Group Australia, having delivered thousands of Volvo buses over the decades, each tailored to support customers’ specific transport needs.
With eight dealerships across Victoria and a sister dealership, South Central Truck & Bus, operating in Adelaide, CMV Truck & Bus is the name that comes to mind in relation to Volvo’s bus and coach presence in the two southern Australian states.
“From a Volvo perspective, we have responsibility for all of the Victorian and South Australian bus market,” CMV Truck & Bus General Manager Miles Crawford told ABC.
“Our bus division is headquartered in our state-of-the-art Derrimut dealership, with a team of dedicated and passionate bus industry experts, including sales, parts and service support, based here.”
The 80,000 square metre purpose-built Derrimut facility helps keep Volvo buses and coaches serviced and maintained in conjunction with the other Victorian dealerships in Clayton, Dandenong, Epping, Gippsland, Shepparton, Wodonga and the newly added Warrnambool, as well as an extensive network of affiliated regional Customer Service Centres.
More than 10 Derrimut staff are dedicated to supporting the bus industry, including factory trained Bus Technicians specialising in the servicing and repairs of Volvo buses and coaches. There’s a standalone bus service and repair centre on the premises with eight dedicated and fully equipped workshop bays.
On top of this, Derrimut also hosts an extensive spare parts warehouse and runs the Bus Parts Plus business from this location. The site is stocked in specialised bus and coach parts to supply any fixes needed by Volvo bus and coach customers.
CMV Truck & Bus Aftersales and Service Manager Nick Curran says CMV Truck & Bus’ decision to operate a dedicated bus and coach division of the business is paying dividends.
“This set-up has distinct advantages for Volvo bus and coach customers,” Curran told ABC.
Crawford says the set-up is customer focused, with the bus side of the Derrimut dealership being an integral part of the entire site.
“Because we have dedicated staff working with bus and coach customers, reception is always 100 per cent bus oriented and provides exceptional service that doesn’t end after the purchase of your new vehicle,” Crawford says.
“We pride ourselves on taking the time to get to know our customers personally. It’s great to see the sector rebounding from a tough few years during COVID-19. Enquiries have really increased for Volvo buses and coaches recently, which is a great sign of where operators are at.”
For CMV Truck & Bus, the Derrimut location is special not just for its bus focus. Late last year, the dealership was signed off by Volvo Group Australia as the first fully certified Volvo Trucks Electric Vehicle Dealer in Australia. CMV Truck & Bus Clayton has since achieved the same certification.
To achieve this ground-breaking electromobility milestone, Crawford says its Workshop, Parts and Sales teams undertook extensive EV and safety training, plus CMV Truck & Bus invested in the latest tooling, equipment and charging infrastructure so that it could offer its customers industry leading transport solutions.
“We’re working on electric certification for our Adelaide and Dandenong dealerships as we want to be ready to support customers that take the step to electric by having the necessary competency and equipment ready,” he says.
“We’re incredibly proud that CMV Truck & Bus is at the forefront of supporting customers in their transition to more renewable energy sources. While now both our Clayton and Derrimut dealerships are EV certified, we acknowledge that this is just the beginning.”
Whether it be dropping buses off for service or supporting customers wherever they need help around Australia, CMV Truck & Bus is committed to helping keep its network of Volvo buses well-maintained.
Crawford says the team does so by adhering to CMV Group’s five core values, starting with safety first. For the company’s 715 staff across Victoria and South Australia, Crawford is focused on ensuring everyone gets home from work safely each day. This means ensuring staff follow its procedures, as well as Volvo Group’s comprehensive repair instructions.
Plenty is happening at CMV Truck & Bus currently – while it continues to focus on new technology, it’s also continuing to operate two foundations in the CMV Group Foundation and the CMV Group Staff Foundation. Crawford says these foundations are very important to CMV Truck & Bus and the wider CMV Group, providing meaningful support and financial assistance to the communities in which it operates.
CMV Truck & Bus is always looking to grow, ensuring it’s in the right geographical position to support its customers. In 2019, CMV Truck & Bus’ operations made a big jump, expanding with the opening of a new dealership on Cooper Street in Epping, Victoria.
Crawford says the new site has been great when it comes to providing parts and service in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
Two years later it then acquired the Shepparton-based sub-dealer D & S Truck Repairs and recently appointed its 25th staff member at that branch. CMV Truck & Bus is preparing to build a new, state-of-the-art dealership in Shepparton in the years ahead which will also be Volvo EV certified from day one.
Its latest dose of expansion occurred this year when CMV Truck & Bus acquired Warrnambool Truck & Trailer Repairs to add a ninth site to its network and grow its customer service in the southwest of Victoria.
This growth, coupled with CMV Truck & Bus’s electric and hybrid bus expertise, is all about ensuring that it’s providing the best service to its customers both now and well into the future.