ABC #402
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OPERATOR<br />
SLEEPBUS.ORG<br />
Top:<br />
CEO Simon<br />
Rowe with his<br />
son, Harrison,<br />
and dog, Tilly.<br />
Right:<br />
The Sleepbus<br />
vehicles give<br />
homeless people<br />
a safe, warm<br />
and clean place<br />
to sleep for the<br />
night.<br />
Below:<br />
Sleepbus<br />
handles its own<br />
rebuilding of<br />
the buses to<br />
turn them into<br />
mobile shelters.<br />
Opposite, Top:<br />
The sleepbus.org<br />
system.<br />
we have, with family and friends around<br />
the dining table. That’s us – and family<br />
don’t complain about working for free,”<br />
Rowe chuckled innocently.<br />
“We run very lean, by design, so it’s just<br />
three of us and a graphic designer.<br />
“I do all the work,” he responded<br />
when asked about whom does the<br />
modifications and fabrication work on<br />
the buses.<br />
“I’m 100 per cent hands on. I designed<br />
and built the prototype sleepbus and<br />
the rest we have now [by] myself, with<br />
help from two sons.<br />
“The only fabrication work we farm out<br />
now is when the side of the bus is cut<br />
out and the sleep pod access doors are<br />
welded in,” he said.<br />
“It is just far more cost effective doing<br />
it ourselves; to have a third party build<br />
this for us [we were] quoted at $200k<br />
plus and we can do it for less than<br />
$100k,” he explained.<br />
“I was a business person and<br />
corporate consultant before doing this.<br />
I have an architectural background also,<br />
so the design part was easy enough for<br />
me,” he added.<br />
“I’m not bad on the tools and just<br />
worked the rest out as I went.<br />
44<br />
<strong>ABC</strong> February 2021 busnews.com.au
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