Filipino bus and truck manufacturer
Del Monte Motor Works, Inc. (DMMW), also known as Del Monte Motors, is a bus and truck manufacturer headquartered in Quezon City, Philippines. It was established in 1950. The company offers a range of truck and bus bodies for its all major brands. It is also one of the leading bus body manufacturers in the Philippines, other including Santarosa Motor Works; Almazora Motors Corporation; and Hino Motors Philippines.
History
In 1950, it started manufacturing bus and truck bodies mounted on leading US brands, being International Harvester, Ford, Chevrolet, and the Dodge Chassis. Also, in the 1950s, its sister company, the Emcos Development & Supply Co., Inc. was the leading distributor of International Harvester Macleod, Inc. in Northern Luzon marketing bus chassis, trucks, tractors, agricultural and farm implements.
At present, it is solely responsible for the introduction of Volvo articulated and bi-articulated buses in the Philippines. Philtrak, Volvo, and Del Monte have signed a supply and transfer of technology agreement wherein Volvo will supply its products, mainly the articulated and the bi-articulated bus chassis, and Del Monte will manufacture and assemble the bus body and deliver the finished bus product to Philtrak. Volvo agreed to transfer its technology in the assembly of its articulated and bi-articulated bus chassis to Philtrak and Del Monte jointly constituting a tri-partite agreement among the aforestated parties. Together, they intend to introduce the system not only in Metro Manila but all over the Philippines where the need arises especially on traffic clogged areas.
It is also responsible in re-activating the sale of Isuzu buses in the Philippines when the combined resources of General Motors Corporation, the Yutivo group and its local subsidiary folded up in the middle 1980s by importing directly from the factory of Japan's Isuzu and supplying different bus operators. It is still authorized to import bus and truck chassis on CBU basis and packaging it with the bus or truck body manufactured from its plant.
In 2009, after Batangas Laguna Tayabas Bus Company Incorporated (BLTBCo.)'s suspended operations and renovation for six years, DMMW took over the management of BLTBCo. They rename the company as Del Monte Land Transport Bus Company (DLTBCo), and continues routes to Metro Manila via Laguna, Quezon Province, Batangas Province, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, and Albay. Their buses are also made from the company with High Class Greyhound facilities.
In 2018, DMWW began working together with Hyundai to assemble a modern jeepney.[1] Their first units, the Hyundai HD50S Class 2 Modern Jeepney, rolled off the assembly line in 2019.[2] That same year, they began working together with Scania to build a body for their Scania Touring buses.[3]
Facilities
It has four existing plants and facilities in the Philippines. Two of them are located in Quezon City the third one at Sto. Tomas, Pampanga and the fourth one at Caloocan. It has a tested capacity of a minimum of sixty units of bus and truck bodies a month. It has supplied the majority of bus bodies for the government-owned corporations like the Metro Manila Transit Corporation and the PNR (Phil. National Railways) Motor Service. Before the introduction of these articulated buses, Del Monte has pioneered in the manufactured of bus trailers with a capacity of 200 passengers which were operated by MMTC in EDSA and by a private bus operator in the long stretch Marcos Highway. It was also involved in the assembly and rehabilitation of the British Leyland double deckers used to be operated by the same MMTC.
