AmTran and IC

Body numbers

The predecessor of AmTran and IC was the Ward Body Works, founded in Arkansas in 1933. For many years, Ward buses featured a four- or five-digit body number on a metal plate fastened to the door. Ward's assets were restructured as American Transportation (AmTran) in 1980, and the numbering reset at 1 or 1001 shortly thereafter. By 1992, these numbers had reached the 50000 series.

Until the 1990s, all Ward and AmTran buses were "second-stage" vehicles built on the chassis of an outside supplier. In 1990, Navistar International purchased a stake in the company. The two companies started collaborating almost immediately, and in 1992 the Genesis Type D became the first bus fully "manufactured" by AmTran and carrying an AmTran VIN.

The AmTran name began to be deemphasized in favour of "International" or "IC" branding by 2000, and in 2003 the division was formally renamed "IC Bus."

1992-present

As might be expected from a company affiliated with International, AmTran's VINs closely followed International's format:

4DRGSCNN7NA050910

Positions 1-3 and 11: Manufacturer and assembly plant

After International increased its stake in AmTran in 1995, their products started bearing International's manufacturer prefix. The combined company then waffled back and forth, eventually reverting to AmTran's prefix by 2002:

Positions 4-5: Model

Positions 6-7: Engine

Some engines were denoted by multiple code designations, likely owing to minor year-to-year or model-to-model specification differences. (Of course, there are also a few mysteries...)

Position 8: Gross vehicle weight rating and brake system

Position 9: Checksum

0-9 or X, calculated from the other digits.

Position 10: Model year

AmTran's model year schedule jibed with International's until 2000, when the IC CE entered production as an early 2001 model. At that point, the cat was out of the bag: Model year "inflation" took hold, with 2002 production starting in June 2001, 2004 production starting in March 2003, 2006 production starting in December 2004, and 2008 production starting in September 2006(!). And that's where things have stood ever since, with buses jumping the gun on their implied years by up to sixteen months.

Positions 12-17: Production sequence

When AmTran began production of the Genesis in 1992, the company's pre-existing body number system was used as the basis for the numeric serial on each vehicle. At the time, these numbers were in the 050000 series. Numbers inched upwards until MY1999, when they backtracked from approximately 089999 to 021000. The sequencing then took several more twists and turns in the years that followed:

• During MY2000, the production sequence was switched from the 000000 series to the 900000 series with the last 5 digits remaining in sequence.
• During MY2001, serials reset from 939999 to 910000.
• During MY2002, serials leapfrogged from appoximately 921999 to 940000 in order to avoid conflict with 2000-01 numbers.
• Serials reset yet again from 989999 to 150000 near the start of MY2006. They then started climbing rapidly, suggesting that a certain proportion of numbers were now being skipped.
• Serials reset a third time from 699999 to 000000 (or 030000?) during MY2009, eventually running through blocks of numbers that had seemingly been used before.
• Late in MY2012, the serial numbering lost all sense of order. Newer serials are basically random, with the factory running through multiple numbering series concurrently. Perhaps not coincidentally, this happened after IC shuttered its Conway plant and consolidated production in Tulsa.

Because of discrepancies between planned and actual production order, there is always a slight amount of numeric overlap from one model year to the next.

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©2021-22 Andrew Turnbull.