This is a fantastic video. Thanks for all your great work in putting this together. I can honestly say as well VanHool is safe. That place is amazing

After 1000's of miles driving Van Hool, interiors and driver's space don't age well. Give me a J4500.

From my European training on a coach, the deactivation of a auxiliary brake system like telmar, retarter or intarter should be used in winterous conditions as anti lock braking system does not work with those auxiliary brakes. So to avoid your brakes from locking, you sometimes need to turn off the auxiliary brakes. However, I believe nowadays most anti lock braking systems does also include auxiliary brakes. 😊

Nicely put together. Remembers me the days I did factory visits.

All you guys do is talk about food I have four friends who are bus drivers died at 40 years old heart attacks you got to stop eating fast food man😢😢

You don't want to know where the bus driver goes in New York City waiting for the passengers I did it for 25 years God bless😢

We used to switch drivers while the motor coach was moving just hold the wheels in the middle people wake up a different driver I didn't even know we changed straight down to Florida from Boston❤❤

And you never mentioned the PD 4104.

Delighted to see you drive an Irish bus, greetings from cork Ireland

Just realizing how fast your progress into your career it is letting us now appreciate bus manufacturing process of one of the most good-looking buses in the world.

This incredible

Great video! Really interesting to get to see the entire process of making these great buses. But mostly I’m happy to see that Vanhool lives on! The design of that white right hand drive is beautiful, that front is so clean and classy!

How do you charge for a trip

All the Asian casino bus companies have VanHool buses cheap , 10.00 bus ride any casino 🎰 lol

I sorry been motor coach for 15 year’s VanHool is cheap made bus nothing is like mci , you will never see , any tour music performance person with Vanhool. Bus is junk .

U should get higer tourist ....

I've only just watched this, over a month later, but, from what I've seen of James on these videos, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. I guess it shows what you can do when you put your mind to it . . . But . . . where did he get all the money from for the purchase?! Lol

Late to the party with this comment. The small company I drive for has a 60/40 mix of 9700s to Setra 407s. Our Volvos have the upper mirrors which are small and not very stable at highway speeds. I (quite literally) nearly clipped a 9700’s lower mirror with my Setra in Chicago last spring. The low mirror is the same as the 407 set up, which has a larger glass area. The downside is that we tend to hit things with the lower mirrors. Also, HVAC in the winter with our newer models (9700 2016 - 18) is terrible! Fog/ice build up in winter… really!

Will vanhool be coming to Australia cane you as please and wen will your bus company came to australia

congratuations james , hard work has paid off for you, i don't know why but ive always loved busses, i always wanted to drive one, but not for a living! i did buy a diesel pusher motorhome till i got tired of pouring money in it! love your videos great content!

You are doing a fantastic job, best wishes as we approach 2025!

Nice video. Nice to see how loyal the employees are at the Macedonia plant, nice to see that Van Hool is in good hands at VDL, and nice to see your Dutch pronunciation is getting on point, James 😆👍

A little history...Philips, while currently HQ'd in Amsterdam, was founded in Eindhoven. A lot of Philips' history is greatly associated with Eindhoven, and the main football team is PSV Eindhoven, the P in PSV coming after...PHILIPS. 😆

Congratulations. I wish you great success.

Happy Thanksgiving from Skids!

Loved the comment about being Chinese and having a lot of dragons. Kudos on your sense of humour 👏🏻

James, I have just come across this. Congratulations on your Big Step Forward.

Far better than bus factories in my country! Yes my country can produce a bus, but only good on design. Safety? It's negotiable! Every year always had an accident.

This was a really enjoyable video to watch especially as you took the time to meet with so many of the people there and identified with them so it became a personal experience. Best wishes for VDL and Vanhool their people especially. Thank you.

Wonderful Channel I just fell in love with your channel. Wheels have been one of my addictions in life and not to mention let's make the world a better place to live in.❤❤❤

Just Awesome 👌

Thanks for all your expertise! I was a former school bus driver I just got turned on to coach bus driving and absolutely love it!

Driving through the night is dangerous, as a truck driver of 36 years I did tried to avoid it as mush as possible

I don't seem to have seen many videos by James recently. I guess if you become the boss of a coach company you have less time for such things. However, it was very special to see James driving a right hand drive coach, and a Van Hool destined for our neighbour Ireland at that! Great video. I hope James had as good a time as he seems to have done.

Would like to know about the plates

Cool video! This really makes me enthousiastic again to drive in the VDL 18 meter electric and Van Hool double decker after my brake. Watching this while on break in a Heuliez 18m

REALLY excited for you! I know it's scary, but you'll rock it! Best of luck.

Nice 🤣💯👌🤙Team work 👍🫶💋

Real Tasty👌❤Magnificent 🚌🏆💖

I am amazed to see this, Thank you so much James.

So interesting thank you James

As a Belgian i am still very sad about the bankruptcy and how the family ran the business. I hope that VDL takes care of the brand and keeps the van hool badge rolling on the road but as this video shows the Macedonia plant looks to have a bright future.

"You're obviously Elton John fans...I'm Still Standing after all this time..." I said this to tourists still looking for their allocated seat when we were already late leaving Townsville heading to Cairns in Australia. I added that any seat with a seatbelt will be suffice. I don't use interior lights or the microphone overnight - let the passengers sleep. I didn't realise I had a soft voice (verbal announcements whilst walking down the aisle) 👍

20 different countries, including Australia (the EX16H is the model we get here)

Any updates on that Motor Coach OS system yet??

I was a part time driver 15 years ago in San Diego. Had a trip that canceled on me after 15 minutes of pretrip. That was an automatic 5 hours of paid. My safety manager asked if i would like to learn to put snow chains on a bus. Sure, more trips for me if i knew how The next morning, i was paired with a much more experienced driver taking a group up the mountains for a day of skiing. My bus had a stiffer shifter and i didn't want to grab 4th and miss driving down the mountain( i was privileged enough to drive one of the 4 remaining manuals with crash boxes, not every new driver was trained on them; for some reason they liked to assign manuals to the snow) so i just maxed it out in 3rd. I got back to the yard 15 minutes later than he did when it was all said and done. Just as i was ready to turn in my paper work, the dispatch called the wash crew to ask me to bring a bus out to another driver whose bus died in the middle of the street. I stayed with the broken down bus, strong arm steered it onto a flatbed, and maxed out my on duty hour that day. Gotta take the good with the bad sometimes

The interior of vanhool is much more beautiful than before. The first bus I came into contact with was vanhool. I think its appearance is inferior to Prevost, but other aspects are good…

Very good video. Have been on VanHool twice but i still prefer Scania and Volvo as i am from Malaysia

I’ve only been driving Van Hool buses since 2017, when I moved to Florida from Toronto. Prior to that, I drove MCI D4500s at GO Transit. My experience with Van Hools has been very good. I’ve had few mechanical issues with them, particularly compared to the MCIs back in Canada. The only Van Hools I saw being operated by Canadian operators were the Megabus double deckers and bendy buses belonging to a suburban Toronto transit agency. So it really was a treat to finally be able to drive one here in the US.

The Vanhool T Series you drove is owned by callinan coaches a good few of the coaches already operate on cie tours i had a look in them vanhools in ireland when they started off on tours and honestly they are nice looking and a better upgrade than a vanhool EX