Buses built in Ozark to hit NYC streets

Ozark-based Craftsmen Limousine Inc., a 16-year-old company owned by father and son Bob and Marc Haswell, is under contract to build 20 sightseeing buses for New Jersey-based Roman Chariot LLC.

Five of the buses have been delivered to tour bus operator City Sights New York under a multimillion-dollar deal landed in December through Roman Chariot, a broker for tour bus operators. Upon arrival, City Sights extended the contract from 10 buses to 20. Company representatives declined to disclose the contract’s exact value.

Roman Chariot owner Ron Romano anticipates the sightseeing buses will hit the streets of New York City the first week of May.

“The concept that they’re using these vehicles for in New York is you’re buying a two-day pass – hop on, hop off,” he said, adding that another bus from the fleet will stop by in about 10 minutes.

The 40-foot buses, which retail for $220,000, aren’t a typical double-decker sightseeing bus, Bob Haswell said.

“No one wants to ride in the lower floor to sightsee because that’s like riding on a city bus. They all want to be on the upper, elevated area,” Haswell said.

The Haswells worked with Romano to design a bus that is more than 12 feet tall and seats 53 on the top level, with only the driver below. The businessmen met through an associate of Romano’s, when he approached Haswell at a bus trade show in October to see if he was interested in the project.

Romano, who said he had been considering the concept of the sightseeing buses for three or four years, sketched a basic idea but hadn’t created a detailed plan.

“It really took off when we met Bob,” he said. “Bob saw the idea and really loved it, and I really took a partner in the manufacturing end that was really into this.”

The open-air sightseeing buses have rubber floors and seats made with injection-molded plastic. Rubber steps are heated to melt ice, since the buses run year-round. A removable plexiglass dome top is available for inclement weather.

The buses should last seven years, the typical lifespan of a sightseeing bus, said Marc Haswell, who worked for Executive Coach Builders from 1984 to 1988.

The tour buses are built on a Freightliner frame. “What I get from Freightliner is four wheels, a frame, transmission, engine and steering wheel. Everything else on the bus, we build here,” Bob Haswell said.

Room to build is what the Haswells are now after.

The Haswells are feeling growing pains at the 24,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, where custom-order limousines and Limbusines -– 45-foot buses they convert to resemble limousines inside – also are produced. By August, the Haswells hope to add 25,000 square feet for production.

Craftsmen Limousine can build three buses a month, but the Haswells expect to build four a month once the new facility is ready.

Space is not the only way the company’s growing. More employees were needed to build the sightseeing buses, a six-week process for each bus. Last year, the company averaged 50 employees, and now there are 68 full-time workers.

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