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Hill & Associates September 4, 2001 Regarding: Sabre Engineering To Whom It May Concern: Sabre Engineering was hired by Transportation Techniques, LLC (TransTeq) in the spring of 1998 to design and build the electronic controls for the two prototype vehicles for what was to become the largest and most successful hybrid electric bus project in the world. This project was for the design and manufacture of 36, 45 foot long, 116 passenger hybrid electric buses for operation on the Denver 16th Street Mall by the Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD). I as President and founder of TransTeq, contracted with Sabre Engineering to provide the control system design and package, including all related hardware and software. The design was to be such that it would endure the extreme industrial environment of a 116-passenger transit vehicle operating up to 21 hours per day, seven days per week, fifty–two weeks per year. The system had to be designed for ease of manufacture, installation and maintenance. In that regard, Sabre had to provide management support for the electrical and mechanical components, such as engine and traction motors because they all became an integral part of the operating system. As the project progressed, it became necessary for Sabre to become involved in the design and coordination of the pneumatic and hydraulic/electric power systems as well as the VFD controls for said systems. When it became necessary to modify certain components to operate in this unique and difficult environment, Sabre also successfully interfaced with the related vendors such as Allen Bradley, Omron and Ford Motor Company. Once the system was designed, Sabre manufactured and delivered, on time the first eight to ten control panels until TransTeq was able to implement their own in-house manufacture of said components. Even in this, Sabre was available for consultation in that manufacturing effort. Many projects dealing with hybrid electric technology have been launched throughout the world over the last ten years. Many of these have spent tens of millions of dollars with no positive commercial results. Some have been complete failures. With the TransTeq project, the vehicles were taken from a blank sheet of paper through development and testing to commercial production in 22 months at a cost of only a few million dollars, an unheard of achievement in the transportation sector. Sabre Engineering was a vital contributor to this success. Today, the Denver Project is the only successful operating hybrid electric bus fleet in the world with a performance record approaching that of the customer’s conventional diesel bus fleet. It has been my experience in working with many engineering and consulting companies over the last thirty-five years that they many times have technical competence but are sadly lacking in personal and interrogational skills in relating to not only vendors but more importantly, the customer. The exact opposite was our experience with Sabre. I remember specifically one instance where the project was at a critical “go-no-go” point with the customer considering cancellation of the project because of the extreme complexity of the project and the limited delivery schedule. Sabre made a technical presentation followed by a question and answer session that restored the customer’s willingness to continue and fulfill the production phase of the project. In that, this project was the basis for the creation of Transportation Techniques, and one could say that Sabre saved the company at this critical phase of its development. Because of the value of the technology to be developed and the limited financial resources of TransTeq, being a start-up company at the time, Sabre Engineering was allowed to retain ownership of the Intellectual Property related to the development work, thus freeing Sabre to enter into other similar development projects. As you can see by this document, I have nothing but good things to say about the technology, dependability and integrity of Sabre Engineering and would find it a great honor to work with them again on other challenging and industry changing projects.
Sincerely,
Dale Hill
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