Mr. Turney: The company is 25 years old. We went public in 1994 on the NASDAQ as TBUS. We've got about 11.4 million shares in the public float and about 190 people worldwide. A little less than half of our business is in the US. In other words, 55% is outside the US. So we have a very significant international presence, over 50 countries and over 500 customers. Our products are related to information for use on-board and off-board public transportation vehicles such as buses.
TWST: Would you elaborate on these products?
Mr. Turney: The products generally fall into two categories. One is information
signage, which would, for example, display the destination of the vehicle. This
is the sign that's typically above the driver's windscreen and is displaying the
destination of the vehicle. That, of course, is for the convenience of the
public waiting to get on the bus as it comes down the street. Our product in
that regard provides a very bright image that's readable from a great distance
away, which means that people, if there is more than one bus coming to the bus
stop, can quickly recognize which is theirs and can queue up to get on
accordingly and do so more quickly.
The second category of products is involved with GPS tracking and locating of
the bus vehicle for several purposes. One purpose is making the announcements
inside and outside the bus of the next stop. That's for the visually challenged
person, but it also helps everyone because if I can alert you when your bus stop
is about to come up, you will be able to gather up your stuff and get ready to
get off the bus more quickly. This same product for tracking the vehicle is used
for fleet dispatch and schedule adherence purposes. It's used for the display of
information at the bus stop as to when the bus will be there, enabling
information on Websites as to where the bus is located and even being able to
follow the icon of the bus as it travels over the streets. Our products provide
a large array of information.
Finally, on the operator side of the vehicle, the same equipment monitors the
health of the vehicle, monitoring, for example, the engine's temperature, oil
pressure and that sort of thing to help with the maintenance of the vehicle. So
generally, we are involved in two categories of product. The first one is
electronic information sign systems and the second category is engineered
systems. I might also point out that the engineering systems product line
includes video security systems having the ability to convert images collected
on-board the bus into transmittable "snap-shot" images for transit operating
authorities to review, in the event there is a security incident underway.
Tickers included in this excerpt: TBUS
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