Bus numbers keep adding up

AUSTRALIA’S biggest bus builder Volgren Australia bought its 5000th bus last week.
Victorian Transport Minister Martin Pakula attended a celebratory ceremony in Melbourne where the bus was handed to the Melbourne operator Dysons.
The bus is the 3100th manufactured at Volgren’s Dandenong plant.
Volgren CEO Peter Dale said it was remarkable that in 33 years of bus production, the company has grown into the biggest bus company in Australia.
“We recently opened state-of-the-art bus manufacturing facilities in Newcastle and in Brisbane, which complement our plants in Dandenong and in Perth,” he said.
“Today we are the biggest bus body builder in Australia. Some 650 people are employed in our plants in Australia and at least another 1500 jobs are created in the local supply chain.
“This is at a time when manufacturing in Australia is becoming tougher, particularly with the strengthening Australian dollar making imports cheaper. Yet we take particular pride in the fact that our buses are the most innovative in the country, and the safest.”
Mr Dale said this year Volgren had made an average of two buses every day, with more than 700 buses set to be produced by year’s end – a record for the company.
He said he was delighted the 5000th bus produced was for Volgren’s long-term customer Dysons, who over the years has received about125 buses from the factory.