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Operator

Chinese bus manufacturer Yutong has been around on Australian roads for a few years now and has built a reputation as a cost effective and reliable bus that copes with Australian conditions. Coach & Bus editor Peter Barnwell sat down for a chat with Gold Coast based coach company, Surfers Paradise Coachlines, a fleet that has embraced Yutong and is a strong advocate for the Chinese brand.

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The Gold Coast is the epicentre of Australian tourism and conventions with a huge influx of holidaymakers and delegates

arriving on the sunny beach side strip each year. Coaches play a vital role in servicing that marke4t, ensuring all of those people are transported around the region and to and from the airports either at Coolangatta or the Brisbane international airport.

One such coach operator fulfilling that demand is Surfers Paradise Coaches

``While the wheels go around, we turn a profit,’’ says Allan Russell of Surfers Paradise Coaches, which has been operating on the Gold coast for more than 20 years.

Surfers Paradise Coachlines is a charter company with a lot of good things to say about Chinese manufacturer, Yutong.

Allan’s first exposure to the Chinese brand was two years ago when he bought a 50 seater for general charter work.

``We compared the Yutong with some other Chinese brands and overall, it offered better value for money and the added benefit of a Cummins/Allison power train.’’

``After two years, our decision was vindicated because the bus has had zero breakdowns and only received regular scheduled servicing,’’ Mr Russell said.

``It has turned out to be just a solid, quality unit that does the job reliably and with impressive fuel economy,’’ Mr Russell said.

Surfers Paradise Coaches has subsequently purchased two more Yutongs, another 50-seater and a 27-seat midi bus specifically for the tourist day trip market.

``We went for the smaller Yutong instead of a Coaster or Rosa and the 27 seater compares extremely favourably and our experience is that the Yutong’s aftersales service is second to none,’’ Mr Russell said.

Surfers Paradise Coaches is set to buy another Yutong when the HiLine model is launched later this year because, as Allan Russell says ``We wouldn’t have a second or third dig if we weren’t happy.’’’

Surfers Paradise Coaches was started back in the early ‘90s by bus stalwart Don Phelan and has grown into a robust charter business with 19 buses ranging in size from small to large. The company employs about 45 people including some 30 drivers along with multi-lingual guides to cater for the international group tourism market.

Don says they very quickly realised the need for guides fluent in Chinese and Japanese to satisfy customer needs.

``We do a lot of charter work including the international stuff but also lots of school

charters so we need a variety of buses to suit various applications,’’ he said

To that end Surfers Paradise Coaches utilises a number of buses including some from BLK and Autobus along with Toyota Coaster and Commuter models and the Mitsubishi (Fuso) Rosa.

``A while back the Chinese came along and we decided to mix the model line-up and see how they stacked up,’’ Mr Phelan said.

``We liked Yutongs from the outset and found them to be `a good product’ that give reliable and economical service.’’

``They are on the money for service costs as well as purchase price which is comparable with other brands.’’

``With the Cummins/Allison powertrain there’s some parts commonality with other brands that helps us control running costs.’’

The arrival of Chinese buses in Australia coincided with a downturn in the second hand bus market that has had a knock-on effect through the industry.

But as Don Phelan says, ``Why would you buy second hand when you can buy a new Chinese bus as good as these Yutongs.’’

``We used to recondition our buses and string them out to 25 years but now there’s no point.’’

Surfers Paradise Coaches is set to buy

“ It has turned out to be just a solid, quality unit that does the job reliably and with impressive fuel economy”

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another Yutong when the HiLine model comes out soon because, as Don Phelan says ``We wouldn’t have a second or third dig if we weren’t happy.’’’

You can’t argue with that.Yutong buses have been offered to

the Australian market since 2012 and have proven a popular choice with many customers including the education sector and charter operators.

Starting out in the hands of a private importer’s, Yutong head office took over the reins and established a factory owned distribution office based in Sydney.

Yutong’s Australian product offering includes three models with the 27 seat, 39 seat and 53-57 seat configurations. This represents just a small proportion of the number of models made by the giant Chinese manufacturer who cranked out some 77,000 buses last year.

According to Allan Russell apart from the strong after sales service and reliability the brand’s price competitiveness alongside similar spec buses on the market.

“It seems to me that they pride themselves on offering value and service which has won over plenty of customers in the past few years, including us,” said Allan.

“I believe that the fact that all the Yutongs roll off the boat completely built up and fitted out is a great advantage as buyers

only have to wait a week for the pre-delivery service before driving their new bus out the dealership doors,” he added.

“With other manufacturers there are long lead times for the products or in the case of locally built bus bodies there are often months waiting for the manufacturing process to be completed,” he said.

“Sure it yields super high quality buses but they come at a cost and in a competitive and hard fought market you have to gain every advantage you can.’

Yutong takes pains to distance itself from other Chinese buses some of which are not held in high regard here.

In fact, one or two have only this month decided to depart these shores leaving the turf to fully players like Yutong.

Yutong buses utilise quality component suppliers with Cummins engines and US made transmissions from Allison to name just two.

Its clear that Yutong benefits in terms of reliability reputation given these key components which rates highly within the industry and have helped the Chinese maker open more doors than it might have.

Aiding this are the advanced manufacturing techniques used at Yutong where extensive R&D is carried out according to the market the bus is being sold in.

Yutong has set up the only centre in the world specializing in the experimental study of buses and coaches. Additionally, Yutong has the world’s leading cathodic electro-coating lines designed for whole vehicles including chassis.

Strict raw material quality control is applied at the source along with quality control monitoring during the entire manufacturing process.

They spend four per cent of the company’s annual turnover to research state-of-the-art technologies for buses.

In safety terms Yutong has, for example, conducted rollover tests many times with the tilt angle reaching 42 degrees. The deformation after rolling was very small and the bus could still run after the rollover test. It has met the European standards, which not only provides a safety guarantee for the operator, but puts passenger’s minds at rest

Yutong is fully committed to so called new energy buses, and to that end has developed a number of hybrid and electric models, including China’s first electric sightseeing bus and 18-metre hybrid city bus. Up to now, Yutong has launched a series of 10m -18m hybrid city buses and 7m-14m electric city buses. In addition, Yutong also has practical operational experience in more than ten different cities with a total mileage of over 25.68 million km.

Yutong has set up the only centre in the world specializing in the experimental study of buses and coaches