For years, the Dyson Group of Companies, or Dysons, has stood as a pillar of the Victorian bus and coach industry. Based in Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs and continually expanding since the Dyson family first founded the company back in 1952, the operator has seen a whirlwind of growth in recent years.
With around 700 buses and more than 1,350 employees spread across Victoria and southern NSW, Dysons is now the largest Victorian-owned bus company following Ventura’s recent sale to Keppel Infrastructure Trust. Acquisition has been a common theme among many of the large Australian bus companies over the past decade, but Dysons has bucked that trend and has instead begun preparing for the future.
Dysons CEO and managing director Andrew Jakab is focused on providing better outcomes, both environmentally and operationally, for all Dysons passengers spread across the state.
“Dysons is fully committed to Victoria’s zero-emissions target of net zero emissions by 2045. This means we are proactively investing in a decarbonised future with electrified bus depots in metropolitan and regional Victoria,” Jakab told ABC.
“Dysons has re-invested in Victoria for more than 72 years. Nothing has changed. We are incredibly excited about the introduction of electric buses and what that means for passengers and communities where we operate.”
With an experienced executive leadership team maintaining the Dyson family’s steadfast commitment to re-investment growth and innovation, the business is now poised to put Jakab’s words into action with a groundbreaking project to fast-track zero emissions buses into regional Victoria.
The idea to establish a new regional Victorian hub began roughly five years ago. With depots in Wodonga, Wangaratta, Shepparton, Moama and Deniliquin, and hundreds of Dysons buses criss-crossing north-eastern Victoria every day, it made perfect sense for Dysons to invest in further infrastructure to prepare for the inevitable growth and incoming electric buses across the region.
The search quickly started to find a piece of land in regional Victoria that could hold a Dyson Group regional home base.
It landed on Shepparton – a growing regional hub that sits perfectly in the centre of Dysons’ current regional operations in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales. It also made sense because the current Dysons depot in Shepparton is bursting at the seams.
“It makes sense to situate the depot in Shepparton as it’s central to our operations in the region,” Dyson Group regional operations manager Roy Dyson told ABC.
“A lot of our V/Line network services run through Shepparton, so it creates opportunities for us if we have a secondary mini headquarters established in the region.”
While Dysons’ expansion has seen it grow out of Victoria and into NSW, the operator remains dedicated to continuing its investment within its home state. The Shepparton depot will be its sixth site that it has developed in Victoria, with Dysons once again partnering with industry leader Dzine for the design and construction of the Shepparton hub.
Over the past 18 months, Dysons and Dzine have worked together through the various permit and design plans required.
“Having Dzine on board once again has helped us lots, as they know what we look for and have a lot of experience in building bus depots,” Dyson says.
The new site will include a cutting-edge workshop that features advanced facilities such as brake testing, a fully operational spray booth and a body repair shop. This will alleviate pressure on the Melbourne headquarters, with Dysons’ growing fleet of more than 300 regional buses to undergo major maintenance and body repairs at Shepparton instead of heading back down the Hume Highway to Melbourne.
“It’s been a challenge in recent years completing minor maintenance works in the region – often we’ve had to engage external sub-contractors to complete the work,” Dyson says.
“Being established in Shepparton means we can hire local and grow our maintenance work in the area. We’ll also have the chance to complete major reconditioning work on our regional vehicles.”
The Shepparton site will also include an administration centre for Dysons’ regional driver trainers and people and culture coordinators, allowing them all a home base to work from.
With the Victorian government’s policy of all new buses to be electric by June 2025 fast approaching, Dysons is ready and waiting to deliver on those goals in Shepparton.
“Configuring the new Shepparton depot for electric bus operations was considered to be a ‘no regrets move’ which is intuitively aligned to the Victorian government’s emissions reduction policy,” Jakab says.
“While the metropolitan transition is well underway, we wanted to get ahead of the game in the regions.”
Instead of waiting for the hub to be constructed before adding in zero-emissions infrastructure, Dysons got ahead of the curve. With the Shepparton depot providing a fresh opportunity, the operator has laid the groundwork already for electric bus chargers and spaces to house its growing fleet of battery electric buses and coaches.
“We know that installing chargers and infrastructure can be difficult to do later on in a depot’s construction, so we wanted to have the background work done and ready to go from the start,” Dyson says.
“When the time comes and we operate a large zero-emissions bus network, the Shepparton depot will be ready to house the vehicles.”
Although it’s been a lengthy process that has left Dyson and his depot development team frustrated at times, they’re keenly awaiting the opening of the depot. Dyson says the company expects the Shepparton depot to be completed in the opening weeks of September.
Dysons isn’t the only party sitting patiently for the depot to open – Nationals member for Shepparton Kim O’Keeffe is excited about what the hub will do for jobs and opportunities in the regional area.
“The new facility will serve as a hub for the maintenance and repair of more than 300 regional buses, removing the need to transport damaged buses to be repaired in Melbourne and saving time and resources,” O’Keeffe told ABC.
“When companies like Dysons expand their business in such a significant way, it showcases the progress and opportunities in regional Victoria. Its investment in this new facility shows the company’s confidence, not only in the future success of the company, but also in the region.”
O’Keeffe says calls are coming in each day asking for a better bus network in the area, leading to her raising it with Victorian public and active transport minister Gabrielle Williams. With Shepparton having grown considerably since Dysons acquired Shepparton Transit in 2017, she says there are many who want the bus network in the town to reflect the population increase.
“The population growth has outpaced the network, so this depot gives us the chance to grow in the region,” Dyson says.
O’Keeffe says Dysons’ expansion in Shepparton is testament to the growth of the region, with the last Shepparton bus review conducted 15 years ago. Now, with Dysons nearly set to roll out a site ready for the future, O’Keeffe is one of many looking forward to modern business’ enhanced presence in Shepparton and its surrounds.
“This business is investing in the region, and we need the state government to do the same and fund a bus review for Shepparton,” O’Keeffe says.
“I look forward to seeing the new depot completed, and I congratulate Dysons Bus Group on this exciting next stage of their business.”