15 Setra Low-floor Buses For Regular-service Fleet In Germany’s Rhine-Main region

Transport operator Winzenhöler had already been active on the six bus routes, that are now being re-awarded, since 2005. The company will be supported in future by two sub-contractors, travel company Reisedienst Pfeifer in Lindenfels-Schlierbach and bus operator Schröder, based in the same town. These two companies will each take on two vehicles from the new allocation. According to European Union directives, it was necessary to put the contract out to tender again after eight years (2005-2013). Among the tendering criteria, the issue of economic efficiency was to prove key to the ultimate decision. “Thanks to our Setra buses, with their excellent value retention, we were clearly able to generate unbeatable advantages, as we were able to submit the economically most favourable offer compared with our competitors”, emphasised Christian Winzenhöler, managing partner of the company.

The award of the contract for a further eight years has enabled the company to make this investment and represents a significant move in every respect for the bus operator as it has to cover some 1.3 million kilometres each year with 15 Setra and eight Mercedes-Benz Citaro models, four of which feature Euro VI compliance.

Christian Winzenhöler has other reasons to be very proud of his Setra/Mercedes-Benz regular-service bus fleet. “We are a medium-size, family-run company, but with our buses we are operating one of Germany’s largest regular-service bus fleets with proven environmental credentials. On top of this, since 2008 we have only purchased environmentally friendly buses, all of which carry the “Blue Angel” seal of quality”, he reported. Heinz Friedrich, Head of Sales for Setra Germany, emphasised at the handover that this had also been an exceptional order for Setra, since the scope of the contract was not an everyday occurrence from a privately-run bus company.

Business links between Winzenhöler and Setra are as long-established as the Ulm/Neu-Ulm product itself. The founder of the bus company in Gross-Zimmern, Leonhard Winzenhöler, was a customer of Otto Kässbohrer and a regular guest of the pioneering bus manufacturer in Ulm well before the “Setra” name came into being in 1951. The company bought its first Setra in 1953, an S 10, and has been a loyal customer ever since.