The Buy America-compliant bus manufacturer recently landed a contract with Dallas Area Rapid Transit for 476 buses.
California-based transit bus builder Gillig went through numerous changes since its inception in 1890 as a manufacturer of carriages.
It has been a long, adventurous road getting to where it is today, a company transformed into the largest transit bus manufacturer in the United States.
Adding to the company’s steady growth is a recent contract with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) to build 476 buses for the Big D. The purchase price is approximately $373.5 million, with $103 million supplemented with federal funds.
Delivery of the compressed natural gas (CNG), low floor buses will begin in the spring of 2026.
“This might be our biggest order,” said Gillig president and CEO Derek Maunus. “In sales we are neck and neck with New Flyer, which is headquartered in Canada, but they also sell to Canada. We are entirely made in America, and we sell within the United States.
“We have 27,000 buses in operation across all 50 states and are proud of the American jobs we provide. They’re well-paying American jobs with excellent benefits.”
Gillig has more than 650 people working in its manufacturing facility and overall, the company has about 1,100 employees, all working in the U.S.
After 80 years of production in Hayward, Calif., Gillig built a 640,000 square foot structure in nearby Livermore in 2017 that houses its manufacturing plant, engineers, and various offices. The newer facility was built with the idea that staying close to home would help its workforce.
“We moved 20 miles from our previous location and stayed in California when most manufacturing businesses are leaving California because this is essential to our employees,” said Maunus. “These are the people that have helped make Gillig successful over the years. We are not going to reward that success by moving jobs away.”
The company has also enjoyed a good relationship with the Teamsters Local 853, which dates back to 1976. A smaller group of employees is represented by the Auto, Marine & Specialty Painters Local 1176, a partnership which began in 1968.
““Gillig sells to 70 percent of the transit authorities across the United States with a 40 percent market share. We are making it happen in the U.S., and I think we can be the poster child of how federal dollars should be spent for American jobs and well-paying American jobs.”
Gillig President and CEO Derek Maunus
While it started as a carriage repair shop, at the advent of the automobile Gillig pivoted to making trucks and military vehicles. Gillig also made school buses for many years, but went in a new direction in the late 1970s by tackling the transit bus industry.
“We are a very focused organization proudly working on transit buses only,” said Maunus. “We’re proudly American-owned, we’re a family business, and we’re only focused on the U.S. transit market.
“Our industry, because of the federal funding tied to our customers, it needs to meet the Buy America requirements, and we always have. From Gillig’s perspective, we’ve invested a lot in the zero-emission product, and it’s definitely been a focus of ours, but we are agnostic when it comes to the propulsion.
“We sell CNG, hybrid, battery electric and we are going to support what the customer wants and what the customer needs. We’ve never driven one technology over the other, but we’ve invested in our organization and our R&D is based where we believe the market is going. For a while it was zero emission.”
All Gillig’s customers that use federal funds must purchase from a company that meets the Buy America requirements. If you are going to leverage federal dollars to invest in infrastructure, those funds need to be supporting American jobs.
“To kind of put it in perspective, you look at our supply chain and our industry, Gillig alone is reinvesting over a billion dollars a year back to 875 different U.S. suppliers,” said Maunus. “The buses that are being purchased in Dallas, the manufacturing comes to us and all of our supply chain, and those tax dollars get recycled through over 40 different states that benefit from our supply chain.
“We are lucky to have such an experienced workforce. Our turnover rate when you don’t include retirement is under 2% in manufacturing. That is unheard of in the manufacturing business.
“We have something that is very special here and that is our workforce. They are very well compensated and for the skill set they are the highest in the area, which tells me that they are probably close to the highest in the country. We take care of our employees, and our employees take care of us.”
Gillig has yet to break into the largest cities, like New York and Los Angeles, but services many of America’s larger municipalities, having delivered buses to Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Austin, Minneapolis and more.
“Gillig sells to 70 percent of the transit authorities across the United States with a 40 percent market share,” added Maunus. “We are making it happen in the U.S., and I think we can be the poster child of how federal dollars should be spent for American jobs and well-paying American jobs. When you think about the Gillig story and learn about a 135-year-old manufacturing business, it is a success story that hopefully we can model other things from.”