One of the most important figures in our Castrosua Team has been Agustín Gómez Pereira. Dedicated to the company for more than three decades, he carried out tasks within the commercial team until becoming the head of the Homologation Department at Grupo Castrosua.
Nowadays, we can see him sharing his knowledge about a topic as complex for ordinary people as the regulations and legislation that bus bodyworks must comply with in order to circulate in each territory, while holding his position as Secretary General at Ascabús, the National Association of Bus Body Manufacturers.
How Agustín’s beginnings at Grupo Castrosua took shape
Agustín’s beginnings with Grupo Castrosua date back to December of, no less than, the year 1986. He was returning from Venezuela, where he had been working for six years.
While registering at the Technical Engineers Association in Vigo, he noticed a job offer on a notice board. A metalworking company from Santiago, whose name was not mentioned, was looking for staff.
Agustín wrote down the details of the offer and attended the recruitment process. After passing the first phase, he had a personal interview with Mr. José Manuel Castro, son of Mr. José Castro and father of Beatriz. Mr. José Manuel, vice president and CEO of Castrosua, informed him that he had been accepted into the great Castrosua family and continued by showing him the facilities in Santiago de Compostela.
Thus, it was in February 1987 when he started working in the Commercial Department, although as a commercial technician. The beginning of Agustín’s 32 years within the business group.
Transfer to the Technical Department and beginnings in the homologation area
One of the anecdotes from Agustín Gómez Pereira’s career was his transfer from the Commercial Department to the Technical Department. He tells it this way:
Six months after starting to work in Castrosua’s commercial department, I was offered the opportunity to become part of the technical department. The main reason was that at that time, the homologation process for vehicles was being regulated in Spain; the previous year Royal Decree 2140/1985 had been published, regulating everything related to the national vehicle homologation system (until that moment vehicles were legalized through an ITV inspection prior to registration), and Castrosua needed a person responsible for this new task.
From the very beginning I was excited about the job, since it involved working side by side from the design phase that began in the technical office, continuing with monitoring throughout the entire manufacturing process, and finishing with quality controls, in order to certify that the buses manufactured at Castrosua complied with all legal requirements.
Delving into the homologation work for bus bodyworks
One of the aspects that entails the greatest difficulties when manufacturing a bodywork in terms of safety homologations is the moment when differentiated treatment is required. Agustín explains that the different homologations requiring destructive testing need the preparation of structural test modules in order to send the test data to laboratories accredited by the Ministry of Industry. These laboratories are the ones that certify compliance with the legal requirements of the entire test carried out.
We recall with Agustín the year 1994, when Regulation R-66 regarding the strength of bus structures in the event of a rollover began to be applied, a resistance requirement that demanded guaranteeing a survival space inside the passenger compartment. It was at that moment when we had to manufacture complete 1:1 scale bus sections and send them by truck to Madrid in order to carry out rollover tests on specially prepared platforms, he recalls. We hoped that the tests carried out in Madrid would be positive because, if they were not passed, the appropriate modifications had to be made, the modules had to be manufactured again with the necessary changes incorporated, and the tests had to be repeated.
Nowadays it is possible to carry out these tests through simulation and calculation, using different finite element software programs that simplify the work.
On the other hand, Agustín also remembers when Castrosua began manufacturing bodyworks for export markets with which we had never worked before, such as Israel, the Czech Republic, Italy or England. To do so, we needed a prior study of their legislation and, afterwards, to apply the specific requirements to the bodyworks we built. But I have to say that thanks to the human team that made up the Technical Department and the collaboration of the other departments, problems were always overcome, he proudly states.
The evolution of bus homologations throughout Agustín Gómez Pereira’s career
Over the last 40 years there has been a great evolution in everything related to buses and coaches, but due to their great importance and impact, Agustín highlights some milestones and particularities of homologations.
- In 1986, Regulation 36 began to be applied, regulating the construction characteristics of buses and coaches.
- In 1994, Regulation 66 on superstructure strength became mandatory in order to guarantee a survival space inside the passenger compartment in the event of a rollover.
- In 2001, the current Royal Decree 443/2001 regulating school and minors’ transport began to be applied.
- In 2007, the installation of seat belts in Class III and B buses became mandatory (these are buses that cannot carry standing passengers).
- In 2009, the general safety regulation R (EU) 661/2009 came into force, which already began requiring advanced safety systems for some classes of buses:
- Lane Departure Warning System (LDW)
- Automatic Emergency Braking System (AEBS)
- Electronic Stability Control (ESP).
- In 2010, the application of the European framework directive for type approval 2007/46 for completed buses came into force.
Regulations and standards that all buses should take into account
To better understand what must be taken into account when building a bodywork, we asked Agustín how current regulations work and whether some prevail over others.
Currently, Spain, as a full member of the European Union, adheres to European legislation regarding vehicle homologation, regulated by framework directive 2007/46, which applies equally to all EU members and implies mutual recognition among those countries. A vehicle homologated in Spain must comply with the same legal requirements as one homologated in any other EU member state and can be registered in any member state through a certificate of conformity without problems. Regulations are immediately applicable, which means that once published they become mandatory, while directives must be transposed by each member state into national legislation.
However, Agustín emphasizes that in 2020, the framework directive would be replaced through repeal by a new European regulation, R (EU) 2018/858, which would enter into force on September 1 of that year, meaning that all newly manufactured buses would need to be homologated under that standard.
Regarding precedence, both European regulations and directives are higher-ranking laws and prevail over national regulations. In those standards where there is no harmonization among EU member states, each country establishes its own legal rules. An example of this would be school transport, which is not harmonized at the European level, and each EU country applies its own regulations.
Getting to know Ascabús through its Secretary General
To conclude the interview, we spoke with Agustín about his work as Secretary General of Ascabús, the National Association of Manufacturers of Bus and Coach Bodyworks.
Agustín tells us that among the main functions of Ascabús are the representation, defense, management, and promotion of common interests, whether business-related, economic, trade union-related, or professional, of the associated companies, maintaining an information, documentation, consultancy, and management service which, besides encouraging technical development, contributes to the economic improvement of the associated companies through the dissemination of new procedures, market studies, organization of courses, seminars, conferences, and publications.
Another function that Ascabús considers highly important is participation in Public Administration bodies and entities, where they take part in an advisory or consultative capacity in all areas affecting the activity of the associated companies.
Currently, the associated companies that make up Ascabús are the 11 most important companies in the Spanish coachbuilding sector, representing 95% of the market, although there is still a remaining 5% of small coachbuilders that do not belong to this association.
In the daily work of Ascabús there is a roadmap with very specific objectives, which are periodically reviewed at each of the general assemblies held. Agustín comments that these main objectives are to highlight the value of the coachbuilding sector, both within public administration bodies and transport business associations, making known the importance of this association as a generator of employment and wealth within the export trade balance, contributing to the national GDP with significant overall benefits for the Spanish economy.
Finally, we discussed the association’s upcoming challenges for the coming years. Currently, environmental issues occupy a central place in the concerns of the transport sector. The government, regulatory authorities, and long-distance passenger bus companies all agree on one common observation: “finding proactive and pragmatic solutions to the challenge of the energy and ecological transition in order to address environmental and public health challenges.” It is within this scenario that the companies forming Ascabús must be prepared to supply “those new buses demanded by society,” while maintaining the hallmarks of the coachbuilding sector: personalization, quality, design, and closeness to the customer.
