Ashok Leyland has been one of the strongest players in the country when it comes to buses and has enjoyed great success in the school bus space. With a deep understanding of the domestic market requirements, Ashok Leyland has come up with impressive products which cater to the specific demands of the segment, backed by very good customer support. We hear from Mr. T. Venkataraman, Sr. Vice President, Global Buses, Ashok Leyland, as to why his company is a front-runner in the school bus segment.
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Ashok Leyland’s strengths in the segment
Ashok Leyland is the fourth largest bus manufacturer in the world and the overall market leader in the bus segment in India. We will consolidate and build on this solid foundation. School buses are a unique segment in terms of customer needs, innovative application, and focus, and a high-growth segment in terms of both volumes and technical evolution. Our school buses can be seen transporting children on the streets of Delhi as well as school districts in Dubai.
Product range
The Ashok Leyland MITR is our award-winning 27-seater school bus, recently recognized as the ‘School Bus of the Year’ by Apollo CV Awards, while Lynx is a class leading product for seating requirements of more than 28 seats.. All our school buses are designed and manufactured to meet all regulatory norms, including the Bus Body Code and rollover compliance as per the notified regulatory norms. Viking is best suited to carry 57-62 children.
Our school buses are built to stringent standards, either at our two own plants in India, at our three overseas facilities, or through identified strategic partners. Given the rapid growth in this segment, our capacity remains flexible to meet the growing market need.
Addressing growing market demands
All our school bus products are derived with the needs of our key stakeholders – schools, bus operators, parents and regulatory authorities. While schools and institutions lay emphasis on reliability and aesthetics, bus operators focus on cost-per-seat and uptime. Similarly, parents are interested in security and tracking solutions. The Government has recently laid the Bus Body Code applicable from this financial year. We are very proud that every single school bus from Ashok Leyland fully meet the growing demand.
Market outlook
While the South has been our traditional bastion, we have made significant in-roads into the North, East, North-East and Western markets, and hope to grow aggressively on the back of a very wide and omnipresent network. With nearly 680 touch-points, ably supported by 200 retail parts stores and over 17 bus body repair centers, a touch-point will offer on-time support within a 75 km radius of any customer.
In terms of the market dynamics in the five-year timeframe, we see the following big trends having the impact on the market, both in terms of quantity and quality:
• Safety needs of schools, parents and regulators
• Stringent regulations, leading to outsourced fleet management models.
• Comfort expectations from both parents and schools will lead to new types of school bus platforms with Air suspension, AC, etc., becoming the norm
• New schools being set up catering to every class of society and also spreading to hotspots outside city limits.
• Increasing focus on environmental concerns opens up opportunities for hybrid/electric buses, for which Ashok Leyland is geared up through our Optare EV portfolio of buses.
