Alcoa Wheels Increase Tyre Life on Turkish Buses

Turkish bus company, HAS Turizm is claiming increased tyre life after switching to Alcoa forged wheels. The groundwork for the changeover was laid a couple of years ago after a visit from Alcoa’s Turkish distributor Otomotiv Lastikleri Tevzi AS (Oltas), who reportedly explained the benefits of Alcoa forged aluminium wheels. As a result, HAS decided to test the products themselves. “After several months, we realized that the buses, equipped with Alcoa wheels, use around 1 per cent less fuel compared to buses on steel wheels. Another advantage we discovered is the longer life time of the tyres. Today almost all of our vehicles operating in Turkey are equipped with Alcoa wheels. All new vehicles are specified on Alcoa wheels as well.”

HAS Turizm was founded in the early 1950’s when Mehmet Selim Kara and his brother Ismail Kaya started to carry passengers from Hatay to Istanbul with a bus, constructed on a truck chassis. The size of their fleet grew gradually and in the 1970’s they crossed the Turkish borders, arranging bus services to Lebanon. They took the first Turkish pilgrims to Saudi Arabia and organized the pilgrims’ transport for 17 years.

Today HAS have more than 300 buses, 150 of which in Turkey. The others run in Russia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Bulgaria. They also have 40 fully-owned service points.