Bus maker drives away with award win

Written on the 30 September 2015 by Gold Coast PR company Consulting Hall

 

Robina-headquartered Transit Australia Group has driven away with another business honour after collecting a Gold Coast Business Excellence Award for August.

The company, which builds buses under the Bustech brand and runs Surfside Buslines, recently launched Australia's first fully electric bus and has been selected as the lead design and manufacturing partner in a $176 million dollar electric bus project with the Malaysian Government.

In recognition of its efforts, the company was presented with the Mayor's Innovation Award at a Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards ceremony held at Bond University this week.

Transit Australia Group chief executive Michael McGee said the group now manufactured five different makes and models of buses and employed 1400 people throughout Australia.

"When we build one of our standard Bustech buses, over 80 per cent of the components are sourced from suppliers and manufacturers within a 100km radius of our Burleigh Heads factory," said Mr McGee.

"This means that more than 2000 people on the Gold Coast are employed directly or indirectly through our bus manufacturing operations."

Mr McGee said the company's double decker buses were already operating on the Gold Coast and they had completed a successful trial in Sydney that resulted in an order of 70 busies from the New South Wales Government.

The South Australian Government has also commenced trial of an airport shuttle service using the double decker design.

The company now has more than 1500 buses in service across Australia but it's the company's electric bus designs that have really been grabbing international attention in recent months.

"The aim of developing a fully electric bus was to realise the environmental benefit of zero carbon emissions, along with reduced maintenance requirements due to the low number of moving parts required compared to standard combustion or hybrid vehicles,'' said Mr McGee.

"Over the next few years electric buses will grow in popularity due to the increased battery performance, decreasing costs and governments around the world demanding solutions for inner city pollution."

In the other categories Natura Pacific cleaned up the Environmental and Sustainability Award, Bentley's Camera House Robina snapped up the Family Business category, Australian Fitness Supplies ran away with Health and Fitness, John Henderson Professionals Mermaid Beach sealed the deal in Trades, Services and Professions, Crema Espresso proved to be cream of the crop in the Retail, Wholesale and Distribution sector, Condev Construction built on its reputation to cement the Manufacturing and Construction title, Opmantek collected the Knowledge Management and IT honours, RACV Royal Pines Resort claimed the Tourism, Hospitality and Events honours and Gold Coast Organic Meats cooked up a victory in the Emerging Business honours.

The awards' sponsors include City of Gold Coast, Suncorp Bank, Department of Industry and Science, OntheNet, Griffith University, Regional Development Australia Gold Coast, Pindara Private Hospital, Flight Centre Business Travel and Gold Coast Airport.

The major supporters are SMART McCann Worldgroup, KPMG, Document Solutions Australia, Consulting Hall, Regina King Photography, Jupiter's Gold Coast, Dreamweavers, Bruce Lynton BMW and Land Rover, Bond University and Gold Coast Suns.

The awards' media sponsors include the Gold Coast Bulletin, NBN Television, 92.5 Gold FM and 90.9 Sea FM.