Subscribe to RSSKiwi Bus Company Buys Kiwi
Great to find a Kiwi bus company providing work for New Zealanders and really supporting things Kiwi.
Ritchies has chosen NZ-made for buying 120 new buses to replace its nationwide school fleet - a mix of 40 and 48-seaters with the latest in emission controls.
It’s spending $21 million, buying the buses from Christchurch-based DesignLine over the next four years.
The company says it’s buying NZ because of their quality and safety features. Company director, Andrew Ritchie, said the company wanted to invest in a New Zealand company - “ after all, it is New Zealanders who we are carrying around the country.”
“We could have looked at second hand Japanese buses, but their emission levels are too high, and we could have gone for a cheaper Chinese version, but they are just not the quality of DesignLine’s buses.”
The company building the buses says the company’s new Rolleston facility is able to produce a ost-efficient, lightweight aluminium extrusion body.
DesignLine’s Andrew Green says: “There are many Japanese imports on school bus routes throughout New Zealand that are due to be replaced and we believe that the confidence shown by New Zealand’s biggest bus operator in our vehicles will be reflected in what other operators do when it comes to ordering replacements.
3 Comments
Nice.
As a school bus driver in Independence, Missouri, School District #30, USA I realy like it when my bus needes parts and maintance that its back with me soon and having the manufacture in the same country sure help.
i hope they are all similar like american buses