Asia Motors has never been busier, again winning the SA school bus tender and launching a new citybus
By David Goeldner | November 28, 2012
Persistence appears to be paying off for Sydney-based Daewoo bus distributor Asia Motors, this month winning the South Australian Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) school bus tender for three years running.
Asia Motors director Bruce Campbell says his team is delighted to announce the successful contract to supply five 43 seater and eight 57 seater buses to DECD.
“The contract was put out to tender and we were successful in securing the major part of the contract for the third year in a row,” Campbell says.
The first two 43-seat buses will be ready for the 2013 school year, and then four-a-month until supplied by the end of May deadline.
Chiron UBC was the chosen body supplier, also for the third year in a row. The 43 seaters will be built on the Daewoo BH090 chassis (pictured) and the 57 seaters will be on the BH117L chassis.
The buses will be shipped directly from Malaysia to South Australia and processed for pre-delivery at Asia Motors new Adelaide office managed by Daryl Nissen, a former DECD employee.
Campbell also revealed his company has a super-low floor Daewoo BH120SN city bus in build at Custom Coaches in Sydney, which will roll out of the Villawood factory late December, and be used as a demonstrator during 2013.
“We are looking to get into the city bus market, and we will take the demonstrator to all the big operators over the next 12 months,” he says.
Campbell has an expanding book of orders for larger three-axle coaches, one of which heads to Premier Motor Service at Nowra soon.
“And we are doing well in Queensland,” he says.
Toowoomba operator Stonestreets has place more orders for coaches out of Brisbane-based Coach Design on Daewoo chassis, and Queensland Asia Motors agent Dick White has just delivered a Daewoo mining bus to an Xstrata minesite near Mt Isa.
And the innovations continue with a quirky order for a NSW police Random Breath Test ‘booze bus’, also in build at Gemilang Coachworks in Malaysia, although Campbell says it is more a van than bus.
“There will be a breath testing laboratory in the back with two doors, one behind the front wheel on the left hand side, and one in front of the rear wheel also on the left, and divided into two sections,” he says.
The front section will be police crew quarters and the back will be for drug and alcohol testing.
“So we are very busy and things are looking good at the moment,” says Campbell.