Conference program

Moderator: Peter Pantuso, CEO ABA

Introduction by Jan Deman, Director Busworld Foundation: presentation of the Frost & Sullivan North American motorcoach market analysis

Top Executive panel:

• Brent Maitland, Vice President Private Sector Sales & Marketing, Motor Coach Industries

• Roman Cornell, President & CCO, ABC Companies

• François Tremblay, General Manager, Prevost & Volvo Bus North America

In this session you will hear from the leading bus & motorcoach manufacturers in the North American market about the state of the industry currently and what the future will look like.

COVID has had a massive effect on the bus and motorcoach industry, how is that affecting manufacturing? When will sales return to pre-pandemic levels? What will be the leading power train technology? What new features are coming in the future? How is bus design evolving? How will manufacturer-operator relations evolve? What will vehicles, depots and services will look like in a couple of years from now?

Closed workshop, consisting of 2 sessions

Price: $100,00 for the two sessions (it only makes sense to follow both, not just one)

As people start traveling again, passengers want to know that their mode of transportation is clean and sanitized to help stop the spread of viruses.

During this presentation, you will learn sanitization strategies, methods and products that can be added to present operations. Come and listen to best practices, learn how to implement necessary hygienic measures, and how to increase ridership by marketing your efforts.         Moderator: Richard Tackett, Busride

Speakers:

1. Jan Deman, Knowledge Director Busworld: 'The need for air purification and sanitization in addition to the existing ventilation'

This presentation includes the remarkable results of Busworld Foundation's global study on the cross contamination risk for viral and bacterial infections in motorcoach services; which provides scientifique guidance for cleaning, sanitization and purification of motorcoaches.

2. Dominic Manuele, Coach USA: 'Effective sanitization of surfaces in buses and motorcoaches in daily operations: products & processes'

It is critical that we provide a clean, safe environment for our drivers and passengers as the transportation industry begins to get back to business as usual. This presentation will highlight the various cleaning and sanitizing options that are available and how our present process was developed. It will also show how we tested the process for effectiveness and how we manage our present cleaning and disinfecting procedures.  One of the key components to effective cleaning, sanitizing, and protecting the interior of our buses, to provide a measure of comfort to passengers, is how we communicate our commitment to our drivers and customers. We believe these effective and efficient solutions can be adopted by any form of public transportation.

3. Ryan Stephens, Valeo: 'UV based air purification against viruses for more safety on board'

This presentation introduces an innovative solution to protect public transport users during their journeys. The Valeo UV Purifier, currently the most powerful air sterilization system for buses and motorcoach cabins, uses germicidal short-wave ultraviolet light to eliminate more than 95% of viruses, including Covid-19, as well as any bacteria or mold present in the air within vehicles traveling with passengers on board. The effectiveness of the Valeo UV purification system has been proven in tests with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and scientifically validated to be an effective method of infection prophylaxis for use in bus interiors associated with COVID-19. 

4. Ryan Baker, Sanz Clima/Kenway: 'Secure air: setting the new air quality standards'

Considering its relevant role in the public transportation sector, Sanz Clima has allocated all the resources available on developing and testing air purification technologies for providing safe environments to operators and OEMs. In its willing to keep providing thermal comfort and healthy environments for its customers and end users, Sanz Clima is in constant research of new technologies to introduce within Sanz Clima Secure Air tailor-made solutions.

5. Caleb Creer, Eberspächer: 'Alternate air treatment solutions for buses and motorcoaches'

The global Eberspaecher team has developed a range of air treatment solutions including filtration, cleaning and sterilisation. It is important that we gain passenger confidence and get them back into buses now. With this in mind all Eberspaecher air treatment solutions can be retrofitted to existing rolling stock or fitted to new build. All of our solutions treat 100% of the air moving through the A/C unit without producing ozone. We show examples of global applications and discuss their suitability and effectiveness.

6. Toby Drysdale, Salus Product Group, LLC: 'Analysis & evaluation of sanitization products'

This presentation includes an overview of EPA’s List-N for Disinfectants , Cautions of using Traditional “Brand Named” Cleaners and their Toxicity, difference between "cleaners"-"sanitizers"-"disinfectants", a review of the OSHA Guidelines, types of Mist Spray Applicators and the Myths surrounding Electrostatic Sprayers on Buses and the overlap between Surface Disinfectant and Air Purification.

Closed workshop, consisting of 2 sessions

Price: $100,00 for the two sessions (it only makes sense to follow both, not just one)

In this four-hour-total workshop, consisting of 2 sessions of 2 hours each, attendees from various backgrounds in the bus industry will learn to look at their business from a customer-centric point of view. This workshop aims at all staff members involved in increasing ridership, as well in transit, on demand services, and motorcoach operations and tourism.

Session 2 is all about being creative.

We will shift to small groups to discuss specific issues impacting the global motorcoach industry, as well as answering your individual questions about your own commuter and motorcoach businesses and close with actionable items to take back and implement in our day-to-day operations.  

Moderator & leader: Mr Ryan Knapp, Head of Sales & Partnerships, CheckMyBus.com

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) matter. More than 1.3 million people are killed in road traffic accidents globally each year and research suggests that human error is a major contributing factor. ADAS capabilities, such as automatic emergency braking, lane and highway assistance, and driver monitoring, help make our roads safer and save lives.

Increasing demand for enhanced driver safety, comfort, and convenience is transforming ADAS systems. Understanding this evolution can provide valuable insight into how technology requirements are changing, helping to inform key business decisions and approaches, and improving the safety of your motorcoach operations.     

Moderator: Pam Martinez, Chairman of the Bus Industry Safety Council of ABA

Speakers:

Allen Jay, Senior Regional Sales Manager Fleet/OEM, Mobileye, an INTEL company: 'Advanced driver assistance systems and Autonomous driving solutions'

Mobileye, an Intel Company, is a global leader in the development of computer vision and machine learning, data analysis, localization, and mapping for advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving solutions. Mobileye technology uses a single camera to scan the road ahead and detect potential dangers – it identifies lane markings, for example, powering both passive functions such as Lane Departure Warning and active functions such as lane keep assist. Over 80 million vehicles around the world have Mobileye inside. The robust performance of this technology has been stress-tested over millions of driving miles as part of the stringent validation processes of safety - related automotive products. Leveraging the same technology, Mobileye has reinvented road surveying for asset management and road maintenance. Mobileye’s EyeQ® chip and algorithms have been trained to identify, tag, and classify road assets, to assess pavement condition and to capture mobility data, as equipped vehicles travel on their regular routes.

Darryl E. Spencer, P.E., Sr. Assistant Vice President of the Engineering Department, DART

Darryl’s career spans more than 39 years with primary strengths in Project Management, Project Engineering, Fleet Engineering, Facilities and Systems Engineering, Configuration Management, Operations Support Services, Warranty & Maintenance Services, and Asset Management. He also leads the engineering teams which prepare technical specifications, scope of work development and product testing procedures. His professional work engagement includes: ▪ TXU Energy [10.5 yrs.] ▪ Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory (SSCL) Project [1 yr.] ▪ DART [28 yrs.]

Moderator: Brandan Buchanan, Director for BICS and BusMARC, ABA

Speakers:

1. Brent Maitland, MCI: 'Zero emission luxury long distance motorcoaches' 

This presentation will explore current topics and considerations for the implementation of zero emission motorcoaches, which focus on current offerings and trade-offs vs. ICE, Infrastructure, costs and planning to operate coaches, future roadmap and changes as we move forward and how to talk to customers regarding the path to electric.

2. Roman Cornell, President & CCO, ABC Companies: 

Unique learnings regarding onboarding zero emission vehicles into mixed fleets, optimizing operations for electrification and energy usage etc. As the market is still hesitant, and we believe largely under-informed, we feel an obligation to provide learning that simply cannot be found anywhere else in the industry.  

3. Tim Sasseen, Ballards: 'Report about the market and technology for hydrogen and fuel cell buses and motorcoaches'

Motorcoaches present unique challenges for alternative drivetrains, including highly constrained packaging arrangements, long range or high frequency operation and higher vehicle loads than the low-floor urban transit buses which are seeing increasing popularity in fuel cell electric variants. At the same time, many of the lessons learned from zero emissions transit buses and trucks can be directly applied to these platforms. The ability of fuel cell electric drivetrains to provide longer range, higher carrying capacity and rapid refueling make them a natural choice to provide zero emissions operations without sacrificing operational capability.  This talk will review the experiences and learnings of fuel cell electric bus deployments that are enabling fuel cell electric motorcoach development, early indications of zero emissions motorcoach market size, comparable efforts in fuel cell electric double-deckers, and designs for hydrogen powered zero emissions motorcoaches.

4. Robert Smith, RATPdevUS: 'Best practise testimonial: implementation of zero emission buses in transit and school transportation' 

This presentation will overview the drivers, challenges, and desired outcomes with transitioning agency fleets to new energy while describing the important partnerships between contractors and agencies before, during, and after a transition to new energy. From a community’s expectations to choosing the right energy technology, this presentation will explore several factors that need consideration, and the ways private contractors can support agencies in making these important fleet decisions.

5. Alexandre Lalonde, EV Charging Solution Manager, HITACHI ENERGY: 'Scaling up an electric bus fleet, smart charging and beyond'

This session will explore the technical challenges of deploying charging infrastructure for electric buses and how a combination of technologies can enable a smoother and more efficient transition. 

6. John Warner, American Battery Solutions: 'An electric revolution for commercial bus fleets'

This presentation will share a case study for the electrification of a motorcoach. Challenges and opportunities of both retrofitted electric coaches or new electric vehicles, now and in the coming years, will be discussed.  The growing demand for american based battery manufacturing is direct incentive for the growing demand for electric motorcoaches.

7. Jan Deman, Managing Director, Busworld Foundation: International sitiuation on the implementation of electric buses and motorcoaches

An overview on the conditions in which electric buses and motorcoaches have been implemented in other parts of the world.

Joint session with Bus Industry Safety Council + Bus Maintenance and Repair Council