The vision to upscale South Africa’s public transport infrastructure so that it offers truly world-class service will not be fully realised for some years hence and apart from the civil engineering duties still to be completed, there is also a need for all stakeholders to work in unison, guided by the statutes of an ‘integrated public transport strategy’ backed by the national Department of Transport. While parastatal bus operations currently service a portion of the daily commuter market, it is local privately-owned bus companies that are injecting the process with the necessary entrepreneurial momentum to bring safer, more efficient commuter and long-distance public transport to the nation.

Tans Africa Holdings is one such company, founded almost forty years’ ago by Mohamed Paruk in his home town of Dannhauser in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).

Mercedes-Benz wins over
Responding to the call from Tans Africa Holdings for sales offers on new buses, Jan Aichinger, Divisional Manager Bus & Coach, Mercedes-Benz South Africa, approached Paruk with a favourable deal.

“I was impressed by Jan’s tenacity and great sense of humour,” says Paruk. “I was also impressed with the technical specifications of the buses he wished to sell me.”

In the months following initial negotiations this year, Tans Africa Holdings took ownership of 50 Mercedes-Benz 1730 commuter buses and two Multego luxury coaches.

“The Multego coaches for Tans Africa are the first Mercedes-Benz branded coaches to be sold in South Africa with a further 20 units on order for several customers,” says Aichinger. “We are bringing the Multego to South Africa and we appreciate the fact that these first buses are going in to a prominent fleet such as Mr Paruk’s,” says Aichinger.

“The Multego was originally developed for the Mexican market and has proven over the last six years to be best suited for long-distance operations in tough conditions. Mexico has similar typography and climatic conditions to SA, such as road conditions, altitude and temperature. With these external factors playing a major role, we know that the MULTEGO will be a success,” adds Aichinger.

Both the Multego and the Mercedes-Benz 1730 commuter derivatives offer class-beating safety, performance and economy. The supporting Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle dealer, Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles East Rand, has undertaken to supply fully-equipped onsite vehicle maintenance for these models which have a service interval of 20 000km.

Paruk reports that the new Euro 3 compliant Mercedes-Benz 1730 commuter buses are inexpensive to maintain, handle rough road conditions well and, equipped with automatic transmission, are easy to drive.

“We operate on a strict ‘one driver, one bus’ policy and go to great lengths to ensure our drivers have the best equipment available. Our new Mercedes-Benz buses are extremely fuel-efficient, lowering our benchmark consumption from 38 litres per 100km to 32 litres per 100km,” Paruk states. “Our customers really appreciate the ride comfort in both the commuter and luxury coach models.”

With an impressive safety record (an accident insurance claims ratio at a remarkably low 2 percent) and an obvious dedication to running a best-practice operation, Tans Africa Holdings is now the largest privately-owned bus operation in the country, its total fleet numbering 1680 people-carriers, bringing reliable bus transport to customers nationally .

“With a full onsite maintenance contract in place and a commitment from Mercedes-Benz to deliver the sort of personalised service he is used to, I am confident we can make Mr Paruk a loyal ‘silver star’ customer,” says Aichinger.

Humble beginnings
“Back in the mid-sixties when I was still a schoolboy, I used to help my uncle with his four-bus fleet. I enjoyed the work so much I bought my first bus on a hire-purchase deal with no financial backing. I employed a driver to service a single commuter route in Dannhauser before I was eighteen,” says Paruk.

In 1970, while still in his teens, Paruk obtained a bus-driver’s licence and became a fully-fledged owner-operator, his first bus fully paid off.

“My first bus was a Leyland CD 23 but by 1971, I owned two new buses, both of them from Mercedes-Benz equipped with power steering, which was a luxury in those days, especially when navigating the rough roads in rural KZN,” says Paruk.

In 1976, Paruk bought a bus company in Dannhauser and secured a contract to shuttle mine workers from Umtata to King Williams Town in the Eastern Cape. To meet demand for more vehicles, he bought second-hand buses from parastatal transport organisations.

Through the 1980s up to the advent of democracy in the country in 1994, Paruk became a father and continued to expand his bus fleet and its operational footprint.

“We faced many challenges during those years and funding from government was non-existent. I followed a policy of regular fleet replacement, keeping my cash-flow reserves healthy by actively refurbishing and selling my older vehicles. In 1995, I heard that Putco was sub-contracting its Telkom contract and I got in my car and drove to Gauteng to bid for it,” he explains.

Establishing a footprint
Paruk won the bid and bought another seven buses to service his Highveld division. That same year, Paruk met Mike Jesseman, who was in charge of the bus contract servicing Richards Bay Minerals, an account held by Paruk’s fleet at the time, running 22 buses between Empangeni and the harbour town.

“It was a somewhat inauspicious meeting because Mike fired my fleet. I was impressed however by his in-depth knowledge of the industry, especially his ability to successfully navigate the tender bidding process and secure the necessary subsidies from government,” Paruk says.

Paruk bumped into Jesseman again in 1998 during the All Africa Games and promptly hired him to handle the tender bidding process. With Jesseman’s help, Tans Africa Holdings secured new contracts in KZN and Gauteng.

“1999 was a watershed year for us. We had reached a point where our combined skills and asset-base enabled us to bid confidently for subsidised contracts and win them,” adds Paruk.

By the mid-2000s, Paruk had his sons, Suliman and Riaz, working with him. Jesseman was now his chief executive officer. The Tans Africa Holdings combined fleet (incorporating eight divisions) now offered both commuter and long-distance passenger transport, using more than 1000 commuter buses and coaches.

“Our company is extremely brand-loyal and other bus suppliers have been rejected because they don’t offer us the same level of hands-on support as our preferred suppliers,” explains Paruk. “We do keep an open mind though, and in early 2009, decided to rejuvenate our fleet, looking closely at what was on offer from all leading OEMs.”

“This deal with Mercedes-Benz is another milestone in our company’s history. The new buses are technologically superior, meeting all our safety and performance requirements to help Tans Africa Holdings perform efficiently through 2010 and beyond,” Paruk concludes.