Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.’s H & L Charter took delivery of its new MCI J4500, which it won during the GoMotorcoach auction at UMA Expo in St. Louis in February.

The auction benefited the Motorcoach Marketing Council, with proceeds supporting the image and future of motorcoach travel in North America via Council’s GoMotorcoach campaign available to operators. H & L Charter also won the 2017 ABA Green Spirit Award from the American Bus Association’s Annual Meeting & Marketplace in Cleveland in the small operator category.

“We’re a third-generation company with a bright future, and proud of recent achievements,” said H & L President Jodi Merritt, part of a women-owned and family-owned business that includes her mother, Elaine Fickett. “Our customers demand clean, environmentally sound transportation and we’re very excited and proud to add MCI’s greenest ‘J’ to our fleet.”

This year the 2017 MCI J4500 unveils the latest generation of EPA 2017 clean-diesel Cummins ISX12 engine technology.

H & L Charter took delivery of its new MCI J4500 on March 15, which brings the company’s 45- and 40-foot coach fleet to 14. The coach’s features include a Tarabus wood-like floor along with the new standard enhanced Amaya GT seats that have a thinner back for more per-passenger cabin space.

The new coach will mainly be used for the operation’s 15-day tours — mostly through California, Arizona, and Utah, and up and down the western U.S.