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The Plaxton Pointer (originally known as the Reeve Burgess Pointer, and later as the TransBus Pointer and Alexander Dennis Pointer) is a single-deck bus midibus body that was manufactured between 1991 and 2006, predominantly on the Dennis Dart chassis, by Reeve Burgess, Plaxton and latterly Alexander Dennis.
Plaxton, through its Reeve Burgess subsidiary, launched its Pointer bodywork in 1991 for the Dennis Dart chassis, designed by Capoco Design. Reusing aluminium extrusions from previous Reeve Burgess minibuses, the Pointer was assembled with a combination of an aluminium frame, as opposed to steel, and glass fibre mouldings, projected by Plaxton to give the body a 12 to 15-year design life. The front of the Pointer featured a two-piece split windscreen with a full-size destination display above, and the interior, fitted out to the recommendations of the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DiPTAC), featured an optional split step entrance and a gradual series of steps towards the back of the bus, capable of holding a capacity of 39 seated and 15 standing passengers. Pointer bodies on longer and Dart chassis were later introduced by the end of 1990.
At metres wide, the Pointer-bodied Dart immediately proved popular with bus operators large and small across the United Kingdom, with Southampton Citybus taking delivery of the first example and London Regional Transport ordering 52 Pointer-bodied Darts for its subsidiaries upon the body's launch. Although a handful of Pointer Darts were built by Reeve Burgess in their Derbyshire factory, production of the Pointer mainly took place at Plaxton's Scarborough factory due to demand outstripping Reeve Burgess' manufacturing capacity. Eventually, the Reeve Burgess nameplate was dropped, with the bus being sold as the Plaxton Pointer.
The Plaxton Pointer was also sold on the Volvo B6 chassis, launched in the United Kingdom market in 1992. This body and chassis combination did not prove as popular as the Pointer on Dart chassis, however the Pointer-bodied B6 was received well by some UK bus operators, including Mainline Buses.
Macau municipal bus operator Transmac, meanwhile, took delivery of 10 dual-doored Pointers on step-entrance Dart chassis in 1995, while two Pointer-bodied Dart SLFs with Eaton six-speed manual transmissions were delivered to Paramount Garage of Malta in 1997.
Made available for general purchase on the Dart SLF chassis from 1 January 1998, the first production examples of the Pointer 2 were delivered to FirstBus operators Bristol City Line, First Greater Manchester and Badgerline, with further orders upon being received by Merseybus, Tellings-Golden Miller, Durham Travel Services, Metrobus and Metroline. The Pointer 2 also became the Stagecoach Group's standard low-floor single-deck midibus, with numerous examples delivered to Stagecoach subsidiaries across the United Kingdom, including a £5.6 million () order for 75 in August 2005 as part of a major fleet replacement programme shortly after the group's purchase of Liverpool independent Glenvale Transport.
Shortly after launching the standard Pointer 2, Plaxton launched the longer "Super Pointer Dart" (SPD) body variant for the Dart SLF chassis at the Coach & Bus '97 expo, seating 41 passengers and marketed by Plaxton to compete with other rigid bus . The SPD Pointer was followed in 2000 by the "Mini Pointer Dart" (MPD) variant on the chassis. A single Pointer 2 delivered to Arriva North East in 2003 was also built on an experimental Blue Bird LFCC9 chassis.
With the collapse of TransBus in 2004 and subsequent restructuring by the administrators, Plaxton and Alexander Dennis were sold to different parties. As Pointer production had been transferred to the former Alexander plant at Falkirk, it became an Alexander Dennis product. Plaxton, once again an independent company, signalled its return to the bus market by developing the Plaxton Centro on VDL and MAN chassis in 2005 to join its Plaxton Primo Low-floor bus minibus in competition with the Pointer. The Pointer Dart was eventually discontinued following the launch of its successor, the Alexander Dennis Enviro200.
Hong Kong's first Super Pointer Darts were delivered to Park Island Transport, all of which were painted yellow and equipped with luggage racks. Eight were first delivered in 2003, these being the only Pointer Darts for Hong Kong produced by TransBus, followed by three produced by Alexander Dennis in 2007. The final two Plaxton Pointers produced were delivered to Park Island Transport in 2008.
A small number of Pointer 2s were also exported to left-hand drive markets. The largest of these was Canadian provincial bus operator BC Transit, who took delivery of 90 air-conditioned Pointer 2s on Dart SLF chassis between 1999 and 2001 for lower-density routes in and around Whistler, British Columbia, Cowichan Valley, and the greater Victoria region. Two Pointer 2 bodied Dart SLFs were also supplied to Icelandic operator Hagvagnar in 1999 for use on Strætó bs services.
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