Volvo ready for Bus Body Code

The code envisages safer bus travel experience by mandating several features

Volvo today informed that its buses are fully compliant and ready for Bus Body Code. The company in a press release today said that it was a significant milestone for the Indian bus industry as two regulations aimed at imparting greater safety and comfort came into effect from April 1, 2015.

These are the Bus Body Code and the mandate to make ABS standard for commercial vehicles. Volvo Buses is fully compliant and has started delivering vehicles as per the new regulations. The company has been offering ABS as standard in its entire product range since 2005.

The Bus Body Code envisages safer bus travel experience by mandating several features. These include active safety, passive safety and personal security solutions in the form of driver and passenger awareness, information items as well as tools specially designed for use in the event of an emergency. The mandate to make ABS a standard feature in commercial vehicles has far reaching implications for road safety.

VRV Sriprasad, Managing Director, Volvo Buses India said that Volvo believes that the regulations will help in raising the benchmarks for safety and comfort, which will benefit scores of drivers and millions of passengers. Volvo was the first company to introduce ABS as a standard and the implementation of this rule is a welcome step. The cumulative impact of the Bus Body Code and ABS will help enhance overall safety standards, he added.

India ranks among the top 10 countries in terms of fatalities in road accidents. With about half million accidents, which involve high percentage of commercial vehicles, the changes ushered in through these new regulations will help in curbing and reducing road accidents.

"At Volvo Buses, we will continue to bring in new technologies and features, while continuing to emphasise on making good drivers even better at out Driver Training Centre. It is our strong belief that safety begins with driver behaviour and best practices. Volvo has trained close to 60,000 drivers till date, which includes about 26,000 bus drivers alone. This gives us confidence to focus on preventing accidents itself," Sriprasad added.