GV Florida Transport

The name of the bus company is derived from the incorporators of the company, the Florida brothers – George Florida and Virgilio Florida, Jr. – of which the initials of their first names were used as the name of the said company.

A GV Florida bus, while parked on its motorpool in Sampaloc, Manila.

G.V. Florida Transport, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 by Virgilio Florida and his son, George Florida, from the barangay of Matucay, in the municipality of Allacapan, Cagayan. At the time, EMC Transportation, Inc. was the largest bus company operating in Cagayan and Quirino provinces. GV Florida has attracted the riding public with its ultra-luxury buses, with the distinctive flowery livery on a pink body color adorning all sides of their buses. It ferries goods and passengers from Metro Manila to the Cagayan Valley Region and the Ilocos Region, as well as inter-provincial routes between neighboring provinces in Cagayan Valley.

G.V. Florida Transport acquired F. Franco Transit and B. Trans, expanded its Ilocos Route with Autobus Transportation's Ilocos line, and expanded its Cagayan Valley and Isabela route with Viva Alladin, Ballesteros Bus Line, and Dagupan Bus Company's franchises. With the acquisition of Autobus' remaining routes, GV Florida will commence its Baguio's route soon.

G.V. Florida Transport is the first Philippine bus company to introduce the "Sleeper Class" with Golden Dragon, Higer, and Hino RM sleeper buses currently servicing Manila-Tuguegarao and Manila-Laoag-Tuguegarao routes. GMW Florida Trans Inc. is operated by the other siblings of George and serves Santiago-Cauayan-Tuguegarao-Laoag, Tuguegarao-Baguio via San Jose, Nueva Ecija, Bayombong, and Tuguegarao-Abra via Bantay/Vigan routes.

During the latter part of 2011, GV Florida Transport expanded its fleet by purchasing an initial fleet of 6 MAN R39 18.350 as part of its Super Deluxe fleet and 20 Exclusively modified PHI Grandeza RM as part of its deluxe fleet. They continued to purchase PHI Grandeza and they used this model to re-body some of their Korean buses. As of year 2013, they started purchasing DM14 Series (body assembled by Del Monte Motor Works, Inc.) with Hino RM chassis as their Deluxe and Super Deluxe fleet.

On the early morning of February 7, 2014, a GV Florida bus (plate number TXT-872) fell into a ravine in Sitio Pagang, Barangay Talubin in Bontoc. It was carrying 45 people. Fourteen were killed, including one Dutch and one Canadian national, and Filipino comedian & actor Tado Jimenez.[1]

The Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) imposed a 30-day preventive suspension on all of the company's 186 bus units on February 10, 2014, three days after the incident.[2]

Recently, GV Florida Transport continues to expand its bus units such as Higer U-Tour Series, Hino RM with Grandecho II Series (body assemble by Pilipinas Hino Inc) & DM16 S1 Series (body assembled by Del Monte Motor Works, Inc.) as part of Deluxe fleet . As of today, they have acquired Hino RM with Kinglong XMQ6129Y Front & Rear fascia with Golden Dragon XML6127 "Marcopolo" side & combination of Hino Grandeza Series Foglamps (custom body made by GV Florida Bus Body) as part of irs Deluxe and new Sleeper Class fleets.

A GV Florida Super Deluxe unit.

G.V. Florida has employed various types of fare classes. These are:

• Regular Air Conditioned Fare: Seats between 45–50 passengers.
• Deluxe Class: Seat between 41 or 45 passengers, Restroom onboard
• Super Deluxe Class: 2x1 Spacious seats, 29 seaters, 2 LCD, Restroom onboard.
• Sleeper Class: 35 Bunk bed's, 4 T.V.,Restroom for Manila-Tuguegarao travelers.

Audio and video systems are standard on all units. All units are in Air suspension.

Note: Regular and Deluxe Classes uses pink bus while Super Deluxe and Sleeper Classes uses purple bus.

GV Florida Transport buses parked on their motorpool.

G.V. Florida Transport has grown to about 300 buses.

• Del Monte Motor Works, Inc.
  • DM09 (Regular Fare and Deluxe)
    • Mercedes-Benz OH-1625
  • DM11 Extensively modified (Regular Fare and Deluxe) (in process of phasing out)
    • Hyundai Aero Express HSX
    • Hyundai Aero Space LS
    • Daewoo BH116

Note : All of DM09 & DM11 Series Body is out of service

• • DM14 Series I (Regular, Executive Deluxe, Super Deluxe & Sleeper Class)
    • Hino RM2PSS
  • GD XML6127 Marcopolo replica (Regular Fare, Executive Deluxe and Super Deluxe)
    • Hino RF821 (out of service)
    • Hino RM2PSS
    • Hino RU2PSS (in KTP Chassis)
    • Hyundai Aero Express HSX
    • MAN R39 18.350 HOCL
    • Mercedes-Benz OH1625
    • Nissan Diesel RB46S (out of service)
    • Hyundai Aero Space LS
    • Daewoo BH116
    • Kia Granbird (SD-I Greenfield, SD-II Parkway, & HD Sunshine)
  • DM16 Series I (Executive Deluxe)
    • Hino RM2PSS
    • Hino RN8JSUJ
    • Zhongtong LCK6123RA
• Hino Motors Philippines
  • Hino MR Series (Deluxe) (re-bodied to DM14 Series 1 Body)
    • Hino RM2PSS
  • Hino Grandeza – It is exclusively and extensively modified so it will resemble like GD XML6127 Marcopolo. (Regular Fare and Executive Deluxe)
    • Hino RM2PSS
    • Hyundai Aero Space LS
    • Daewoo BH115
    • Daewoo BH116
    • SsangYong Transtar
    • Kia Granbird (SD-I Greenfield, SD-II Parkway, & HD Sunshine)
  • Hino Grandecho II – It is exclusively and extensively modified so it will resemble like GD XML6127 Marcopolo. (Executive Deluxe)
    • Hino RM2PSS
  • Hino Grandeza 2
    • Hino RN8JSUJ
• King Long
  • XMQ6127 J3 "Euro Star" (Deluxe) Face Lifted as GD XML6127 (Out of service)
• Higer
  • V92W KLQ6129QWE3 (Sleeper bus) (Face lifted as Kinglong XMQ6129Y)
  • KLQ6123KQ U-Tour (Deluxe)
  • KLQ6118H U-Tour (Regular Fare for GMW Trans)
  • KLQ6128LQ U-Tour (Russian Variant)
• Golden Dragon (company)
• XML6127 "Marco Polo" (Deluxe & Sleeper)
• Zhongtong Bus
• LCK6118H Elegance (Regular Fare unit for GMW Trans)
• LCK6123RA (Deluxe Fare in DM16 Series 1 Body GVF Made)

Note: Some of their Korean-made units (F-Series) have been either rebodied, in processing to demoted into GMW Trans or sold to other bus companies.

• Bontoc, Mountain Province (via Bagabag)
• Banaue, Ifugao (via Bagabag)
• Tabuk, Kalinga
• San Fernando, Pampanga
• San Simon, Pampanga

G.V. Florida Transport has its own special numberings on every kind of unit.

• F-Series – Regular Fare & 2 unit Deluxe. Korean-made units. (with restrooms).
• GD-Series – Golden Dragon XML6127 Marcopolo, DM14 & DM16 Series and GD Marcopolo Replica from Del Monte Motor Works, Inc and Grandeza from Pilipinas Hino (Regular Fare, Deluxe and Super Deluxe).
• S and H Series – Composed of Higer, Hino, and Golden Dragon Sleeper Buses.
• KL Series (KL1 and KL2 only) – Composed of their 2 Kinglong Units (Demoted to Deluxe)
• J Series – Kia Granbird exclusive fleet numbering (Regular Fare)
• 001-999 – Regular and Deluxe Fare original series (with restroom)

• Dagupan Bus Company
• Five Star Bus Company
• List of bus companies of the Philippines

Wikimedia Commons has media related to GV Florida Transport.

• GV Florida Transport, Incorporated at Flickr