Lance East Lancs EL2000 bodied Dennis Lance in
Dorking in July 2008
Northern Counties Paladin bodied Dennis Lance in
Colchester in October 2008 The Dennis Lance was unveiled at the 1991 Coach & Bus Show as both a larger version of the
Dennis Dart and the successor to the
Dennis Falcon chassis. The first Dennis product to be developed at the manufacturer's new
Guildford factory with
computer-aided design, the rear-engined Lance chassis was designed with an inline driveline and longitudinally-mounted
Cummins C6T engine, claimed to improve fuel economy by 15% when compared to conventional "angle drive" drivelines. It was also developed to fit the recommendations of the
Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DiPTAC) on improving accessibility, equipped with entrance and interior steps as standard. and the
Plaxton Verde.
Ipswich Buses was the first operator in the United Kingdom to order the Lance, taking delivery of a single example with East Lancs EL2000 bodywork in 1991; the operator subsequently took delivery of two more EL2000s and an Optare Sigma built on the Lance chassis during 1994.
London Buses subsidiary
Selkent later took delivery of 16 Alexander PS bodied Lances in April 1992 for use on
route 36B, replacing
AEC Routemasters used on the service. The Lance was most popular on the Plaxton Verde chassis, with the largest orders coming from
Badgerline Group companies
Midland Red West and
Yorkshire Rider, the latter of which were delivered to
Huddersfield for 'Flagship' services. Orders of Verde-bodied Lances continued under
FirstBus, with a further 30 delivered under
FirstBus for the rebranded
Leeds City Link operation. London Buses subsidiary
Selkent's
Catford garage also took delivery of twelve dual-door Verdes bodied Lances in 1994 for use on
London Buses route 208. Other operators of Verde-bodied Lances included
Busways Travel Services,
Clydeside 2000,
North Western,
Nottingham City Transport,
Potteries Motor Traction, and
South Wales Transport. Lances built on other bodies proved particularly popular during 1993. The Caldaire Group took delivery of 30 Lances with Alexander Strider bodywork in 1993, distributing 18 of the order to Yorkshire Woollen and the remaining 12 to
West Riding. with municipal bus companies
Grimsby-Cleethorpes Transport and
Yellow Buses of
Bournemouth taking fleets of nine and six Lances with East Lancs EL2000 bodies respectively in the same year. 31 Lances with Northern Counties Paladin bodywork were delivered to
Metroline's
Cricklewood bus garage for routes
113 and
302, and five with Northern Counties Paladin bodies were delivered to
Eastern Counties in 1993. Towards the end of the step-entrance Lance's production,
Go-Ahead Northern's Gateshead & District operation took delivery of fifteen Lances with Optare Delta bodywork in 1994,
British Bus subsidiary
London & Country took delivery of fifteen East Lancs EL2000 bodied Lances in April 1996, while the last step-entrance Lances produced for the United Kingdom were thirteen with Northern Counties Paladin bodies for
First Eastern National, followed by three for
First PMT, in 1997.
Lance SLF Wright Pathfinder bodied Dennis Lance SLF on
route 186 bodied Dennis Lance SLF in May 2009 In March 1993, the
"Super Low Floor" Dennis Lance SLF was unveiled, becoming the first low-floor bus chassis manufactured in the United Kingdom. the Lance SLF came with an independent kneeling front suspension as standard, capable of lowering the step-free entrance from to . A wheelchair ramp was also provided as standard. The Lance SLF was also the first new bus chassis in the United Kingdom to be fitted with
disc brakes as standard, which were manufactured by
Girling. Of around 105 Lance SLFs built, the majority were built with
Wright Pathfinder bodywork. The most notable of these were 38 dual-doored examples for
London Buses for use on the first London bus routes to be converted to low-floor operation. The recipients of this order were
London United for use on
route 120,
Metroline for use on
route 186, and
CentreWest for use on
route 222. A single-door Pathfinder was later launched in 1994, marketed towards bus operators based outside London. The first of these, part of a trial project funded by the
Department of Transport, was delivered to
Go-Ahead Northern's Coastline Buses operation for use on services linking
Whitley Bay,
Tynemouth and
North Shields, making Coastline one of the first bus operators in the United Kingdom outside of London to place low-floor buses into service. Further Pathfinder-bodied Lance SLFs included five delivered to London & Country, with six also delivered to
Badgerline for service in
Bath, and a sole example delivered to
Western National during 1995. Ten Pathfinder bodied Lance SLFs were supplied with 40% funding from
Essex County Council to
West Midlands Travel's
County Bus & Coach subsidiary,
Southend Transport and
Hedingham Omnibus in 1994, part of the UK's first low-floor project to be funded by a county council without funding from the government or the European Union. Some Pathfinder-bodied Lance SLFs were prematurely withdrawn from service due to suspension strut failures, a result of water ingress caused by outside storage of the chassis at Wright's
Ballymena factory before the bodies were built. Five each were also delivered to
Stagecoach East Kent and
Stagecoach Ribble, the latter of which were the last Lance SLFs produced before the type was discontinued in 1996. The Arrow was sold to just five operators in the United Kingdom, with
Capital Citybus taking a total 54 of the 73 Arrows built with both Palatine II and Pyoneer bodywork,
London & Country taking ten with EL2000 bodywork, Smaller operators included Aintree Coachline, who took a single Arrow with Palatine II bodywork, London Coachlines, who took a single Arrow with Pyoneer bodywork, and two purpose-built playbuses built with both bodies. The Dennis Arrow was superseded by the
low-floor Dennis Trident 2 in 1998. ==Exports==