News
New Titan on the Block: New Player Joins Type-A School Bus Market
WRITTEN BY RYAN GRAY |
RYAN@STNONLINE.COM T
he school bus industry will have a sixth Type-A school bus body to choose from this fall as the new Ti- tan Bus prepares to go into produc-
tion. Titan Bus Company, LLC announced its official formation March 13, with co-founder and industry veteran Brian Barrington com- menting that “there’s a hole and a niche to be filled, and we’re looking to fill it.” Last year’s school bus production survey conducted by School Transportation News shows 9,402 Type A school buses were manufactured, the largest figure since 9,623 were built during the 2000-2001 year. Barrington said Titan Bus will go into production during the second quarter, meaning likely within the next month. Titan will come in two configurations, single- and dual rear-wheels, built on Ford and GM chassis. Titan Bus options will include a Ford Tran- sit as well as flat-floor buses on both GM and Ford E-Series chassis for special education routes.
Titan Bus will also offer standard 5/8-inch plywood floors, tinted glass, LED lighting, one-piece flooring, and multiplex electrical system. Te dual-rear wheel model will offer a 92-inch-wide interior with 14-inch aisles to accommodate 39-inch seats as well as a 30-inch-wide entrance door to ease loading and unloading. Te single-rear wheel model will come with
three-two seating configurations for a 20-passen- ger capacity in a four-window section body. At this report, Barrington said Titan Bus already
underwent roof-crush testing and side-crash testing was underway. Barrington said he is now partnering with Ed Verhoff, owner
of Verhoff Machining and Welding in Continental, Ohio, which supplies fabrication, installation and repair services for General Dynamics, Braun Ambulance and Crown Lift Trucks. Barrington got his start in the school bus industry at Type-A manufacturer Mid-Bus, which his father Fred co-founded 1981. Te company was eventually assimilated by Collins Bus. ●
Tire Price Hike Hits Commercial Vehicle Industry It was bound to happen sooner or later.
Te five-year ride of stable tire prices is officially over. So announced the major commercial tire manufacturers over the past two months, with across-the-board price increases of up to 8 percent on entire product lines—including commercial vehicle, light truck and passenger vehicles—as commodity prices once again shadow the increasing price of petroleum and other raw materials. Cooper Tire said during its fourth quarter and full-year 2016 results on Feb. 17 that raw material costs remain “volatile and difficult to project, but the company’s latest forecast an- ticipates raw material costs to be up approx- imately 25 percent year over year in the first half of 2017, with slight sequential increases throughout the balance of the year.” Cooper’s tire increase went into effect
26 School Transportation News • APRIL 2017
shortly thereafter, with Bridgestone Firestone’s price increase hitting on March 1. It was no joke when Hankook Tire’s raised its prices effective April 1. Michelin North America also said it is also raising prices by up to 8 percent, with increas- es being implemented separately by individual segments. Included in these price increases, several of the manufacturers told us, are the new Low Rolling Resistant Tires that will be mandated starting next year. But the companies reiterated that the higher prices are due to increased costs of raw materials as well as technology enhance- ments and other “market conditions,” and not because of the federal Phase II rule on green- house gas reductions and increased corporate fuel economy of commercial vehicles. ●
—R.G. CELEBRATING25YEARS
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