If you think of the quintessential Australian road trip, chances are you picture wide open highways, rolling hills and plenty of scenic countryside.
For the team at Apple City Tours in Orange, New South Wales, that’s just another day at the office.
With a history stretching back over 60 years, Apple City Tours has evolved from a small family-run bus service to a thriving transportation business. It all started back in 1956, when current owner John Woodhouse’s parents were running a little shop in the heart of Orange.
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“I was only four years old when they purchased their first bus, an old GMC,” Woodhouse told ABC.
“My father was helping out at the shop while also doing some school runs.”
It wasn’t until Woodhouse turned 21 that the business began picking up, after he officially took it over from his father.
“We got our second run around that time, and it just grew from there,” he says.
The family business was renamed to Apple City Tours in 1981, reflecting the agricultural efforts of the region, and began branching out to different areas.
While school runs make up the bulk of the work these days, the business also branches out into charter work and most recently, mining transportation.
Apple City Tours has now grown to a fleet of 52 buses, where between its combined depots, it has 22 Scania models that have become the backbone of its operations.
“It all started with the purchase of a Scania-Higer A30 over a decade ago,” Woodhouse says.
“I was looking for a way to drive down operating costs, and entered conversations with the team at Scania about models that would help reduce my fuel spendings.
“They showed me the A30 and after biting the bullet and purchasing my first, I haven’t looked back,” he says.
The first Scania he purchased was used on one of the typical school runs, running 140km both in the morning and afternoon.
“The school runs radiate in all directions in Orange and Oberon. As far as Orange is concerned, they go as far to the north as Stuart Town and Canowindra, Panuara in the south and Lewis Ponds in the east,” he says.
“Those ones are usually good runs, but when you go out around our original school runs, and to the west, the roads get quite hilly.”
Through it all, the Scania buses have proven to be reliable workhorses.
For the past two years, Woodhouse has been running a fleet of eight buses every morning and afternoon to shuttle workers to and from a nearby gold mine.
“That run however, is very undulating. It’s pretty up and down out to the mine,” he says.
“I rely on the Scanias for that sort of work, because for the whole time we have been making those runs, we haven’t had a single failure.”
It’s that unwavering trust in the Scania brand that has kept Apple City Tours coming back for over a decade. Woodhouse admits he’s a “creature of habit” when it comes to bus purchases, preferring to stick with what he knows works best.
“We’re having such a good run with Scania that I haven’t even bothered to look anywhere else. Why would we?” he says.
A large selling point for Woodhouse has been the purchasing process at Scania, allowing him to customise and create a bus that perfectly suits his needs.
From adding bull bars, changing seating configurations and more, the Scania team have always made his requests work.
“The team have always been accommodating and great to work with,” Woodhouse says.
“For example, I always like to purchase Australian 3-for-2 seats, and they have stood by with me for that, even if the wait is longer.”
Woodhouse says he appreciates the reliability of the product and would rather spend the money to ensure he is getting top quality.
“I think that’s where I differ from other operators. I would rather pay more for a product that I know has longevity and can stand the test of time.”
With a fleet that’s 42 per cent Scania and growing, it’s clear this partnership has been a fruitful one.
“We have tracked John’s success with Scania product with a good measure of pride,” Scania Bus and Coach national sales and contracts manager Ian Clarke told ABC.
“John’s business requires unwavering reliability as with all school run operators, because if the bus doesn’t turn up you have a lot of unhappy parents.
“Scania has worked hard to maintain the relationship with Apple City, to deliver what the customer wants.
“John has had a lot of success with the Irizar bodies on Scania chassis as well as with our Scania-Higer A30 school and charter bus, and we look forward to continuing to build the relationship with the delivery of further vehicles this year and into the future.”
As Apple City Tours continues to navigate the ups and downs of the industry, it can count on its trusty Scania buses to keep them cruising the district of Orange, Sydney, Canberra, Dubbo and all the places in between and beyond.
“We have built up this amazing rapport with the people at Scania, and I can’t see us going any other way,” Woodhouse says.
“We have another two already on the way, and I think any operator would be pretty happy to have a fleet full of Scanias.”