Grande West Transportation Group Inc., a Canadian manufacturer of mid-sized multi-purpose transit vehicles for sale in Canada and the U.S., successfully completed an independent third-party audit of its Buy America assembly and financial bill of materials on its Vicinity bus to meet current Federal Transit Administration (FTA) requirements.

Buy America provisions ensure that transportation infrastructure projects are built with American-made products. This means that local, state, and federal government investments in public transit are able to support an entire supply chain of American companies and their employees. The Vicinity finished bus is required to contain a minimum of 65% U.S. content to be included as a vendor for federally-funded projects.

Grand West utilized third-party Buy America accredited auditors to review the company’s U.S. assembly process and procedures, as well as the bill of materials and supplier Buy America certificates for component parts in the Vicinity product. The assembly process was verified and validated. Additionally, the Vicinity has scored best-in-class at the FTA’s Altoona Test in Altoona, Pa.

“This Buy America third party audit is a key milestone in proving out our ability to bid on and deliver to U.S. Federally funded transit opportunities. Grande West has a large pipeline of potential opportunities, many of them in the public transit sector,” said Grande West CEO Jean-Marc Landry. “We expect the U.S. to be our largest opportunity for future growth in Vicinity sales and expect sales to ramp significantly in 2019 as we continue to focus our efforts on U.S. sales.”