WALLACE Arnold has placed an £8m order for 51 new coaches to join the fleet in time for the summer 2000 season.
The vehicles will have air-conditioning and washrooms and are the first of three orders that will be placed in the next two years to upgrade the entire fleet of 170 coaches by 2002.
Group managing director Ken Meddes claimed Wallace Arnold already operates the most modern coach fleet among the UK’s national coach holiday companies. “Now we are pushing standards even further on all new coaches,” he added.
The order coincides with the publication of research showing client concern about the age of coaches used by operators.
In a poll carried out among Wallace Arnold customers for CoachMarque, the coach industry quality standard, 95% of clients said they regarded it as important or very important that coaches were less than 10 years old.
Their top three priorities were the quality of staff and driver training, that coaches were modern and that there was a commitment to high standards of safety.