Dr. Richard

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Dr. Richard group
Logo Dr. Richard
Basic information
Company headquarters Vienna
Web presence Dr. Richard
owner Fam. Richard
Board Ludwig Richard
Employee 1,510
sales 158.1 million eurosdep1
Lines
bus > 200
number of vehicles
Omnibuses 950
statistics
Mileage 51.5 million km
Operating facilities
Depots 8th
Other operating facilities 21 bus garages
A bus from Dr. Richard in Vienna on the former bus route 33B
Setra S 417 UL bus for regional transport in the Weinviertel at Wolkersdorf station

The Dr. After the ÖBB subsidiary Postbus GmbH, Richard Gruppe is the second largest bus company in Austria and the largest owner-managed bus company in the German-speaking region.

history

The company was founded in 1942 by Ludwig Richard - hence the company name - in Vienna through the acquisition of two Viennese freight transport companies. After resuming operations after the end of the war, Ludwig Richard decided to focus primarily on passenger transport and simply converted his fleet of seven trucks into buses.

In 1951 the company was already operating ten converted trucks as buses. In that year, however, the first real bus could be purchased, a Gräf & Stift  ON 120. In 1958, thanks to several takeovers of small businesses, the company already owned 35 buses with regular connections in the greater Vienna area and to Burgenland and succeeded by purchasing one Belgian taxi company to acquire a depot, which is still the headquarters of the company's headquarters in Vienna's 20th district.

In the 1960s, the company continued to grow rapidly, driven by the settlement of the outskirts of Vienna . In 1966, Dr. Richard was the first private transport company to receive the first order line from the Wiener Verkehrsbetriebe , which authorized the operation of the former Vienna tram line 73 with buses, whereby the tickets of Wiener Linien were valid. This tariff community was de facto a forerunner of the transport association and enabled public transport passengers in Vienna to use all bus lines in the city of Vienna with one ticket for the first time. Since this partnership has proven itself, Dr. Richard Gruppe, along with other private bus companies, still has numerous lines in Vienna on behalf of Wiener Linien. Other locations in the Vienna / Lower Austria / Burgenland region are also included in the tariff association of the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region .

In the mid-1970s, the Dr. Richard logo, which is still used today in the lettering of all Dr. Richard Group is used. The logo was created in the course of a competition by students from the Higher Graphical Federal Teaching and Research Institute. In 1979 the company received the state award and has been allowed to use the federal coat of arms in business transactions ever since .

Expansion and acquisitions

Since the late 1960s, Dr. Richard Group has grown continuously. In 1969 the bus operation and travel agencies of Austrobus in Vienna and Kolda in Lower Austria were taken over. The son of the company's founder, Karl Ludwig Richard, formed the Columbus travel agency group from Austrobus, which is now independent of Dr. Richard Gruppe acts.

The largest acquisition was made in the early 1970s with Südburg Kraftwagen Betriebs GesmbH with 65 buses and 115 employees and the equivalent of around 5 million euros in sales, as a result of which the very successful G1 line on the Vienna - Oberwart - Güssing - Jennersdorf route was set up.

This was followed by takeovers of the companies Bajer Bus , Vienna (1981), Watzke , Graz (1983), Albus , Salzburg (1986) and Salzkraft , Salzburg (1992) and Kowatsch (2003), Villach. The company is also involved in the Sagmeister bus company in Stegersbach and Eschenbacher in Salzburg.

In 2007, today's Dr. Richard Schweiz GmbH and in 2012 Dr. Richard Group as a partner in the newly founded Meinfernbus GmbH (later Flixbus) based in Berlin and shortly thereafter founded the Dr. Richard subsidiary Albus München GmbH. Which, from 2013, has been operating the long-distance bus routes Berlin - Munich - Zurich, Munich - Innsbruck on behalf of Flixbus , and is also entering the southern German coach service.

Numbers and facts today

With over 200 lines in Lower Austria, Vienna, Burgenland, Styria, Carinthia, Salzburg and Upper Austria, 1,510 employees at 8 locations, 21 bus garages, 950 buses and an annual turnover of 158.1 million euros in 2018, the company is, according to its own statements, the second largest bus company in Austria after the ÖBB-Postbus and the largest private bus company in German-speaking countries.

Three quarters of the services were provided by Dr. Richard Gruppe in 2018 in public transport in both city and regional transport. With around 210 coaches, Dr. In addition to classic bus tours, transfers and company transport with special “premium” vehicles, Richard Gruppe also offers bus tours in the luxury segment. In 2018, around 31.1 million euros in annual sales were achieved with coaches, which are mainly stationed in the cities of Vienna (72 buses) and Salzburg (55 buses). The more than 50 double-decker buses operated in long-distance bus traffic complete the portfolio of Dr. Richard group of public transport in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

In early 2005, the company received the first series of the revised version of the Lion's City low-floor city bus from MAN .

Web links

literature

  • Peter Lösch: Dr. Richard - story of a success. - Bonn: Omnibusspiegel, 2001, ISBN 3-925301-21-6 : a detailed company history
  • Peter Lösch, Werner Rader: Dr. Richard - a success story spanning generations. - Bonn: Omnibusspiegel, 2012, ISBN 978-3-925301-22-3
  • Dr. Richard , Stadtverkehr-Austria-Wiki, TU Wien

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wanted for bus drivers without a driver's license , on kurier.at, accessed on August 6, 2019
  2. ↑ The beginning. (No longer available online.) Dr. Richard Verkehrsbetrieb, archived from the original ; Retrieved August 1, 2011 .
  3. ↑ Test & Technology: The new MAN Lion's City , on stadtbus2.de