A fleet of buses were yeseterday handed over, following a recent deal to supply and maintain 25 of the units.
The transaction was between Al Futtaim Motors, the UAE distributor for Hino-brand buses, and Emirates Transport – a fleet operator of school buses in the country.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but at the handover ceremony both parties looked forward to further co-operation.
“It’s an entry level deal, but it is a deal which I think gives a very good platform to move into the future” said Paul Henning, GM of Hino at Al Futtaim.
“What the customer will experience in the next year is the ease of operation, in terms of maintaining the units and it will be a very cost efficient vehicle in their fleet. We hope this vehicle will outperform all competitors in this fleet” he added.
Mohammed Abdulla Al Jerman, General Manager, Emirates Transport commented: ”The contract of the new buses is a part of the annual plan, to upgrade and increase our bus fleet to meet the growth of services we provide to our clients, notably the Ministry of Education and the different education councils. Our agency transports about 209,000 students daily to 720 schools nationwide and the new Hino buses will be deployed to ferry some of these students accordingly across the Emirates.”
Emirates Transport is the biggest single operator of buses in the Middle East with more than 2,500 vehicles running. The group is known to sell vehicles after a set amount of time, paving the way for bus dealers to pitch their latest products.
Hino, for its part has re-entered the UAE bus market after a 20 year hiatus. The latest vehicles were revealed at a commercial vehicle trade show in Dubai earlier in the year.
