Volvo Bus and Irizar have jointly celebrated a major customer milestone, with Irizar Australia handing over its 1,000th bus to Kangaroo Bus Lines (KBL) at the Volvo Group Headquarters in Brisbane recently.
Irizar Australia’s 1,000th bus was an Irizar i6s coach body on a Volvo B11R Euro 5 chassis delivered to Kangaroo Bus Lines.
According to a statement issued by Volvo, Irizar has worked closely with Volvo Bus as a business partner throughout the past eight years.
“The delivery of the 1,000th Irizar vehicle into the Australian market is an important milestone and one that we are very proud of,” said Irizar Australia managing director, Steve Heanes.
“It is the result of hard work and dedication of many people over the relatively short journey to hit this milestone and we couldn’t be happier that KBL was the customer who ordered the 1,000th vehicle, and more importantly our flagship i6s coach body.”
“Since the delivery of the first vehicle to Kangaroo Bus Lines almost five years ago, the relationship has grown into a partnership of trust and we thank KBL for this trust in our ability to deliver a first-class product and customer support, now and into the future,” Heanes said.
According to the press statement Irizar officially entered the Australian market in 2014 after a change of business strategy and has since established strong relationships with customers and chassis manufacturers, including Volvo Bus Australia.
“Volvo Bus and Irizar has remained close business partners over the years,” said Volvo Bus Australia general manager, Mitch Peden.
“It’s great to share similar values and aim to consistently offer, safe, reliable and sustainable solutions for our customers. It’s certainly exciting to see the 1,000th Irizar unit fitted with a reliable Volvo B11R chassis, and to see this bus handed over to our valued customer, Kangaroo Bus Lines,” Peden added.
Kangaroo Bus Line’s new Irizar is a 6×2 Steerable tag axle, 450hp Volvo with iShift and is fitted with a lightweight, robust Irizar i6 coach body.
Owned and operated by the Webster family, Kangaroo Bus Lines has been servicing South East Queensland for more than four decades, and has worked closely with Irizar and Volvo in recent years.
“Kangaroo Bus Lines’ relationship with Volvo Bus commenced in 1986 with the purchase of four B10M Fuji bodied articulated buses for our school bus network,” said Kangaroo Bus Lines, chief executive officer, Darren Webster.
“Those B10M Volvo’s remained on our fleet for 25 years and were the most reliable vehicles over the time. In 2000, KBL purchased a Mk4 B10M Volvo school / day charter bus, which we still operate today, which is a clear testament to Volvo.”
“During recent times, KBL reviewed our future vehicle requirements to meet client and customer expectations and to remain a market leader and through our partnership with Irizar, we have introduced these new state of art Volvo B11R coaches into our coach fleet,” Webster added.
“In 2020, we commenced operating B11R coaches and the support we have received from Volvo Bus has been second to none, giving us the confidence to establish our partnership with them as our preferred chassis supplier in this new era in the bus industry.
“With the evolution of the zero emission bus market, KBL needed to partner with a chassis supplier who we felt could support our future needs.”
“KBL is honoured to receive the 1000th coach from Irizar for our fleet of Irizar coaches”, Darren said.
Kangaroo Bus Lines says it has seen rapid growth and new development in all aspects of its business, and with continued support of the community, the Moreton Bay Regional Council and the Sunshine Coast Council has ensured its team is consistently able to provide the high standard of service its passengers are accustomed too.
