As happened in other Latin American markets, the business transportation segment during the pandemic was the one that lost the least ground, compared to other transportation modalities and, additionally, it has been the one with the fastest recovery and growth during these months. The activities of large-scale extractive industries, such as mining, have motivated the dynamism in bus orders by service operators for rental, chartering or mobilization of personnel.
Chile is a country where the mining sector has a very important participation in the country’s GDP. There, the Mercedes-Benz O 500 RS road buses have gained wide preference for transporting employees of companies engaged in mineral extraction. Several operators that provide this charter service acquired 328 chassis for fleet renewal, 253 of the O 500 RS 1941 model with a 410 HP engine and 75 units of the O 500 RS 1936 with a 360 HP engine.
Negotiations with Chilean operators were carried out in partnership with Grupo Kaufmann, representative of Mercedes-Benz in Chile. The first new buses began to be delivered in January this year, bound for the central region of the country. The buses are used to transport employees between their homes and the mining units where they work.
“Most of the vehicles involved in this sale have the most innovative bus chassis anti-corrosion treatment developed by Mercedes-Benz do Brasil, which was presented at LatBus 2021 in São Paulo, the largest mobility fair in Latin America, and that stands out as a strength and durability solution in tough mining operations,” says Jens Burger, general manager of the Daimler Regional Center for Latin America.
In response to customer needs, Mercedes-Benz has developed the most innovative process on the market for the anticorrosive treatment of the brand’s bus chassis, further expanding the quality and resistance standard of the products. This special protection applied to the chassis is indicated for charter vehicles that transport employees and travel in severe operating environments, with a high degree of salinity, high levels of humidity, low temperatures and intense heat, which occurs, for example, in mining.
In other words, these bus chassis leave the factory even more protected against corrosion and other impacts that result from the extreme conditions of vehicle application. This requires less maintenance of the chassis structure and a longer service life of the bus. This solution is available for the O 500 city and road chassis and for the LO minibus line. In addition to the application of anti-corrosion treatment of the chassis, these vehicles receive special tires for severe operations and an extended safety package, being able to circulate both in mining environments and in cities.
In addition to the rust protection features, the O500RS buses have extensive safety equipment including: ABS (anti-lock system), speed limiter, ACC (adaptive cruise control), ASR (traction control system), Hill Holder (hill start assist), ESP (Electronic Stability Control), LDWS (Lane Warning System), EBS (Electronic Brake System) and suspension with anti-roll system.
Since 1950, Kaufmann has been in charge of the entire portfolio of both light and commercial Mercedes-Benz vehicles, beginning with the sale of the revolutionary rear-engine O321H buses. Through its subsidiaries, it also has the distribution of the brand’s portfolio in Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.