The world of coach and bus manufacturing has changed significantly over the past decade, with the prominence of products built partially or fully in lower-cost economies perhaps the biggest long-term shift.
More recently, the focus has been on lead times in the large coach sector. Those are being brought back into kilter by some manufacturers after several difficult years for many of them, but across the board it is clearly neither a quick nor an easy fix.
More systemic change is also occurring in some places. The difficult position at Van Hool shows that even the grandest of names are not immune from wider impacts and increased globalisation of the manufacturing process.
Not all is gloomy, however. Newer entrants to the market can often supply vehicles relatively quickly, although the days of sheds full of stock coaches awaiting buyers has gone, at least for now.
Whether it returns in the long-term remains is doubtful. Greater focus on margins and the ever-rising cost of building vehicles in the first place means that neither manufacturers nor dealers may be comfortable with that approach. In any case, the rapid ramp-up in demand for new coaches means that they may not be able to service it, even if it was desirable.
Nevertheless, further hope that a more even keel is on its way comes from a European commercial vehicle manufacturer. It reports that an order placed by a UK customer in late March for multiple coach chassis will see those units at the bodybuilder in June.
While a bare chassis is only part of a completed vehicle, that timeframe at least gives rise to a feel of normality returning.
But such a new normal still needs to be defined. The Sales Director of the OEM in question is clear how the geopolitical unpredictability that is at the root of supply chain wobbles is going nowhere soon. That will impart upon manufacturers a need to be more agile, they add.
It could also mean that buyers will need to continue thinking longer-term when planning fleet investment – not an easy task when the likes of zero-emission, the unanswered PSVAR conundrum and other challenges are considered.
The Sales Director is not entirely in agreement with that suggestion and believes that lead times will return to where they were in 2019. But the likelihood of curveballs remains, they agree. That is something that the coach industry needs to keep a close eye on.
