Strong business growth has led to Volvo opening its first Western Australian-based bus service centre
May 20, 2013
Volvo has recently opened its first stand-alone bus service centre through its Western Australian distributor, spurred on by continuing contracts with the WA’s Public Transport Authority.
The bus service centre currently supports 182 Volvo city buses on Perth’s roads.
The bus service centre is part of Truck Centre Western Australia (TCWA), managed by dealer principal Phil Winkless.
Winkless says the contract between Volvo buses and PTA provided the opportunity to separate buses from trucks to establish a definitive bus department to focus solely on Volvo Bus aftersales support.
“This is the first bus-specific service centre in WA,” claims Winkless.
“Other manufacturers have a combined workshop with trucks, which means that bus operators may end up having a truck mechanic working on their bus, although buses and trucks differ greatly as products,” he says.
The new Welshpool facility is staffed by four bus-specific mechanics who deal solely with bus operators with a new apprentice starting in July.
“It is important to have a bus specific service centre because technicians develop from experience,” Winkless says.
“If they have good product knowledge and have worked on buses before, they can diagnose and fix the issue a lot quicker,” he says.
“We don’t want operators to have their buses sitting on the side of the road instead we want them back on the road as soon as possible.
“Our mechanics are in constant contact with the Volvo Bus service team, which keeps them up to date with diagnostics and strengthens the relationship with Volvo.”
Thanks to his father Max Winkless, son Phil has ‘lived and breathed Volvo’ since he was ten years old.
Described as the father of Volvo in Australia, Max Winkless was the first to import Volvo products, first cars then trucks, back in the 1960s.
Phil Winkless understands the importance of maintaining a service-oriented business.
“In order to do that properly, we need to make sure that bus people are dealing with bus people, so that customers like PTA and other contractors are getting the level of service that maximises their uptime,” he says.
“High attention and reaction to customer needs is a philosophy that we share with Volvo.
“In aftersales, Volvo is persistent in coming up with a solution that works.
“This, coupled with the high quality of products and technical innovation, are what sets them apart.”