As mobile schoolhouses concerning the lives of infants and children, school buses carry gorgeous hopes and heavy duties.

During the NPC and CPPCC this year, school bus safety was included in the government work report for the first time; in April, the Regulations on School Bus Safety Administration was promulgated and came into effect. In 2012, school buses have been elevated to an unprecedented level under the close attention of the society. As the engine manufacturer that enjoys the largest share in the Chinese school bus engine market, Yuchai has been contributing its power and wisdom to the technical progress of Chinese school bus engines.

In Yanliang District, Xian, a group of children are happily getting on a school bus carrying Yuchai engine.

Building the worlds most competitive professional engine supplier is the vision of Yuchai Machinery Co., Ltd. (YM), said Yan Ping, chairman of Yuchai Group and YM. Specialization and responsibility are YMs strong commitments to the society.

Yuchai engines access school bus market

This is a set of figures all bus makers have calculated, said Gao Hesheng, vice president of the China Automotive Technology and Research Center. Now 90 million schoolchildren in China need to take school buses, the market capacity of professional school buses will top 1 million units and 150,000 units will be added every year. If every school bus is priced medially at 300,000 yuan, the total price of 1 million buses will be 300 billion yuan, combined with maintenance cost and other costs, the total scale of the Chinese school bus market will be at least 400 billion yuan, which is a great cake for the upstream and downstream enterprises in the school bus industry.

With years of experience in the bus field, Yuchai appeared to be superior to its rivals at the time when the school bus market is warming up.

On May 16, Yuchai delivered a release conference for school bus engines under the theme of specialization, care and preference at the China National Convention Center in Beijing, releasing a combination of YC4FA, YC4D, YC4E, YC4G and YC6J school bus engines. The combination precisely meets power demands of various flat-headed and long-headed school buses ranging from 5.5 meters to 10 meters. Also, Yuchai introduced the preferential service policy for school bus engines tailored to the special demands of school buses as Chinas first service policy targeting the school bus engine market.

The move of Yuchai has established a high-caliber model for Chinas professional school bus engines, and earned high praise from industrial experts.

Zou Huxiang, council chairman of the Bus Branch of the China Highway & Transportation Society, spoke highly of the school bus engines released by Yuchai, saying, Safety is the core demand of school buses, how to create safe, reliable and comfortable school buses for children is not only what bus makers should consider but also what the whole bus industry chain should think over. As the industrys first engine manufacturer that has released school bus engines, Yuchai has make people see a loving and socially responsible enterprise as well as its school bus engines perfectly integrating technical strength with social responsibility.

Professional technologies build engine model

According to Zhou Chuanwu, assistant to general manager of Yuchai Sales Co., Ltd., school buses have special speed restrictions compared to common models and differ from traditional vehicles in quality requirement.

Safety is the core demand of school buses and the biggest concern of parents. During the R & D of school bus engines, Yuchai conducted special technical design in fire retardance and safe braking, to boost the safety of engines and bus operations.

Cui Huabiao, deputy chief engineer of YM, said, Yuchai has set about developing school bus engines early and has made massive efforts on school bus safety. For example, in brake protection, engines used by 5m-6m buses generally have no braking function, while all Yuchais school bus engines have the function to ensure school bus safety, which can extend the lives of brake buses more than twice. Besides, Yuchais school bus engines provide safety guarantee for school buses through technologies such as corrosion resistance, harness processing, high-temperature isolation, oil-electricity isolation and suspension damping.

Based on modern electric control engine technology and modern communication, satellite positioning and network technologies, through Yineng vehicle terminal and platform system, Yuchai has raised the intelligent level of school buses, and established an interactive communication platform of human, machine and manager. With its strong service and technical capacity and comprehensive sunk service network, Yuchai has been capable of providing school bus customers with instant and active bus operation and operation management services, to enable school bus operators and managers to find out the driving states of school buses in real time, thus accomplishing reassuring operations.

During designing and developing school bus engines and the matching development of buses, to make buses more comfortable, Yuchai conducted a modeling analysis with NVH technology, enhanced engine structures and sound quality, reduced noise, and optimized engine integration and suspension design in bus matching, thus reducing vibration transfer from engine to body, effectively reducing noise and enhancing comfort.

Responsibility assumption displays enterprise charm

At the release conference for school bus engines, Wang Limin, deputy general manager of YM, said, Yuchais taking the lead to release school bus engines in the country has shown its great concern about the younger generation.

Cui introduced, When a child gets on or off a school bus and swipes the card, he his identity information will immediately be identified through an ECU chip and a text message will be sent to the mobile phones of his or her parents. Besides, the maximum speed and route of a vehicle may be set, the school bus safety system will alarm automatically in case of overspeed and deviation from routes, and the vehicle-borne mobile video surveillance equipment can acquire and upload interior video information in real time.

Also, Yuchais reassuring design of GPS + remote expert services + high-efficiency fleet management can enormously reduce the probability of school bus accidents.

Compared to other buses, school bus operations are more critical of troubleshooting and after services. According to sources, Yuchai has a well-recognized service network consisting of 45 domestic and overseas offices, as well as over 2,900 service stations, which can reduce the service radius of Yuchais school bus engines, provide fast service guarantee for school buses and free school bus operators from worries.

Aiming at school bus engines, Yuchai has tailored the preferential 3-3-3 service policy to provide better and more intimate services. According to Zhou, Yuchai provides three-year warranty regardless of mileage, customers may enjoy three-time engine maintenance and three-time safety checks when schools open within warranty periods.

On June 29, 2012, the students of Songtao Hope School in Ziyang, Sichuan province happily posed for a photo before a school bus donated by Yuchai

Yuchai fulfills its responsibility in engine design and services, and its chairman takes the lead in performing his civic responsibility. On June 29, 2012, Yan Ping, chairman of Yuchai Group and YM, presented a long-nosed school bus carrying Yuchai engine to the students of Songtao Hope School in Ziyang, Sichuan Province, showing his concern about the flowers of the motherland. Many parents expressed gratitude to Yuchai, saying they were worried as their children often went to school on foot and accidents occurred frequently, but now they do not have to take their children to school with the school bus guaranteeing safety!

Outstanding engines create school bus legend

According to sources, the school bus market has been extraordinarily prosperous this year, with a total domestic sale volume of over 20,000 units in the first ten months, up over 260 percent year on year.

According to a head of Yuchai Sales Co., Ltd., Yuchai sold nearly 9,000 school bus engines in the first ten months of this year, accounting for 45 percent of the total number of school buses sold at home.

What is the reason for the great popularity of Yuchai engines? This is exactly due to Yuchais leading technologies and rigorous quality control.

Yuchai boasts tremendous research strength, with two research bases in Nanning and Yulin, as well as a dozen domestic and overseas product technology R & D centers established in cooperation with renowned universities including Brunel University, Tsinghua University and Tianjin University.

Since YM launched the lean manufacturing project last year, its product quality has been boosted.

At the Conference on Revitalizing Guangxi by Quality and Presenting the 1st Chairman Quality Award that took place in Nanning on October 29, Yuchai won Guangxis highest quality award--Chairman Quality Award, showing the high recognition of Yuchais quality work by the autonomous region government.

Yuchai school bus engines have been widely praised for their outstanding quality.

School bus application in Deqing, Zhejiang Province has been viewed as a school bus operation model in China, but few know the 79 school buses serving over 5,600 schoolchildren exactly carry Yuchai YC6J and YC4D engines. Over the two years since the buses went into operation, no traffic accidents have occurred, Yuchai engines have played a vital role as the bus power.

After Lhasa Education Bureau purchased 53 school buses carrying Yuchai YC4FA engines at a time, a head of the Tibet Education Department said, the Tibet education system chose Yuchai engines because they are satisfied with Yuchais perfect after service network on the Tibet Plateau and Yuchai products are up to emission standards.

As the bellwether in the engine industry, Yuchai has tremendous research strength, years experience in the bus field, outstanding product technologies and a strong sense of social responsibility. We believe it will reproduce its success in the bus market in the school bus market, Wang Limin said.

(Source: Pang Geping/Yang Mingze, Peoples Daily Overseas Edition)