Thousands attend manufacturer’s biennial inhouse show as new Citaro and FleetBoard are unveiled
GERMANY The manufacturer’s biennial in-house show attracts private bus and coach operators and public transport specialists from across Europe. Around 6000 visitors from over 20 countries attended this year’s Bus and Coach Show which took place between 17 to 20 November.
Alongside the interesting programme of events, customers were able to take a look at, find out about and experience the entire bus and coach product range from Mercedes-Benz, covering urban and rural-service buses with coaches for excursions or long distance tours – all of which were displayed in 3500 square metres of exhibition space.
An obvious star exhibit was the new Mercedes-Benz Citaro, the first low-floor bus to be available with ESP. The touring coach range also featured a Travego Edition 1 with a ‘futuristic’ drive system and another equipped with the claimed Euro 6 compliant engine.
“Visitors were able to test-drive our entire product range during the Mercedes-Benz Bus and Coach Show. The highlight was undoubtedly our new Citaro”, says Roman Biondi, brand spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz buses and coaches at EvoBus GmbH.
Another highlight was FleetBoard. Formerly, the fleet management system tailored specifically to the bus sector was called Omniplus BusFleet. The telematics system for rural, touring and urban buses has been further developed and will in future be supplied by Daimler FleetBoard GmbH. “Trust is good but, as fleet operators definitely know, transparency is better, and indispensable if you aim to manage a business cost-effectively. Together with Daimler FleetBoard GmbH we are therefore offering customers a bus-specific fleet management system,” says Angela Titzrath- Grimm, head of sales, marketing and aftersales at Daimler Buses.
“We have more than ten years’ experience in commercial vehicle fleets. Our customers have come to appreciate – particularly when diesel prices are so high – the ability to substantially cut fuel consumption by using FleetBoard” added Markus Lipinsky, managing director of Daimler FleetBoard GmbH.
The Mercedes-Benz Symposium got underway on the first day of the Mercedes-Benz Bus and Coach Show 2011 with four presentations relating to future mobility.
The presentation “Public transport in the context of the conflicting demands of government and business” given by Winfried Hermann, Baden-Württemberg minister for transport and infrastructure, was eagerly awaited by delegates.
“Through the Mercedes-Benz Symposium we aim to provide a forum to shape future mobility and to discuss together with customers and experts the kind of opportunities opened up for public transport. Thanks to the top-class participants, we also managed to fulfil these aims once again this year”, says Angela Titzrath-Grimm.
This year’s event was regarded as special as it marked the 125th anniversary of Karl Benz creating the first automobile and 115th anniversary since he created the omnibus.
