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Elkhart, Ind. — Forest River, one of America’s leading manufacturers of recreational vehicles, pontoon boats, cargo trailers, and buses, recently announced the acquisition of certain assets of Turtle Top, a premier luxury bus manufacturer located in New Paris, Indiana.
Turtle Top, family owned since 1962, is widely recognized today as a leader in the luxury transportation industry. Turtle Top designs and manufactures buses and specialty vehicles for some of the most prestigious names in the motorcoach industry, as well as numerous state and government agencies. With dealer locations throughout the United States and Canada, Turtle Top is able to provide its customers with outstanding service and support.
“It is with much excitement that the Cripe and Tom families announce the acquisition of Turtle Top Bus by Forest River,” says Phil Tom, vice president of Turtle Top. This transaction will allow our fifth generation family-owned and operated company the opportunity to further expand in today’s fast evolving bus conversion industry. This very difficult decision was made easier knowing that the ownership, leadership, and innovation of Forest River parallels Turtle Top’s core values and what has blessed us with success for over 55 years. Turtle Top’s family of employees and our loyal and vast distribution network will benefit from Forest River’s financial strength and resources to help drive our collective future growth.
David Wright, president of Forest River’s bus division, says, “We are excited to welcome Turtle Top to the Forest River family. Turtle Top and their dedicated employees have built a history of integrity, quality, and innovation and enjoy one of the best reputations in our industry today. We are honored that they have chosen Forest River to continue the tradition that they have dedicated themselves to building for more than 50 years.”
Turtle Top’s current bus models include the Van Terra, VT3, Terra Transit, Odyssey, Odyssey XL, Odyssey XLT, and MPV. Turtle Top’s specialty division builds everything from limousines to bloodmobiles and prisoner transport units to mobile offices. Turtle Top has supplied the transportation industry with innovative conversions for more than 50 years.
“With the momentum of the past, and the support of Forest River team moving forward, Turtle Top’s legacy will continue to flourish with the same focus, commitment, and passion towards serving our clients, teams, and communities,” says Tom.
For more information about Turtle Top and Forest River, visit their websites at turtletop.com or forestriverinc.com.
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Reno, Nev. — TomTom, a manufacturer in navigation and mapping products, and GPSi, a provider of cloud-based telematics solutions, have combined their technology to create a more comprehensive offering for school bus and motorcoach operators. The two companies will introduce the TomTom BRIDGE with GPSi software at the North American School Bus Expo today. The product will allow drivers to easily track hours of service, assign drivers, change routes, create geofences, view and manage driver history, and schedule vehicle maintenance.
The TomTom BRIDGE is a rugged navigation device built for professional drivers that seamlessly links business applications with TomTom maps, traffic, and navigation software. It provides a friendly, out-of-the-box solution to help meet the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate in the U.S. and Canada.
“Our collaboration with GPSi offers school bus and motorcoach operators a better journey,” said Sebastien Ruffino, business unit manager, TomTom BRIDGE. “Together we will help increase safety and provide drivers with more efficiency and convenience.”
Due to a modernizing industry and a pending ELD mandate, it is increasingly difficult for fleet owners to find reliable solutions that simultaneously address ELD, driver-vehicle inspection reports, and International Fuel Tax Agreement. TomTom and GPSi are filling that need for motorcoach and school bus operators by offering driver behavior reviews, route replay, and other comprehensive features.
“We listened to our customers and including the TomTom BRIDGE device allows us to present more comprehensive solutions for operators and owners alike,” said GPSi CEO Ben Porter. “Integrating the power of TomTom’s BRIDGE device with voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation and its flexible platform will help increase efficiency for every customer.”
Visit tomtom.com/bridge for more information.
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Driving Results’ members enjoying dinnerSan Francisco, Calif. — Following the third annual Chauffeur Driven Executive Retreat, Driving Results Consulting Groups facilitated a social event dinner for all members of their five peer groups who attended the event.
“We saw the opportunity to gather all of our members who were attending, together in one place, to help our members get to know the great companies in our groups and to make new business relationships,” explained Arthur Messina, managing director of Driving Results. “More than 40 companies were represented with 30 able attend the dinner. We were fortunate to have the event at Sotto Mare Restaurant, which is owned by a former industry member, Rich Azzolino from Gateway Global.”
Driving Results organizes and facilitates peer groups in the for-hire transportation industry. The groups are limited to twenty members all from different markets. Members share key learnings and have educational and networking opportunities. They each meet three times a year.
“I was glad to have this additional opportunity to see and meet with my group members,” explained Wasif Bhatti, president of Limo Corp Worldwide. “I was also glad to get to know the members of other groups in a more social atmosphere. It was a great compliment to the Retreat, which I plan to attend again next year. “
“We look for opportunities to assist our members develop new business relationships, in additional ways, to compliment what they receive during their individual group meetings,” said Messina. “The Chauffeur Driven Executive Retreat was an incredible event at a beautiful venue, in a city that people love to visit. We plan to host these dinners before or after every Chauffeur Driven event. The response from our members was great. We shared laughs and stories while making long-lasting business relationships.”
Visit drivingresults.org for more information.
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