Charter Bus - Help

[Tim Gray]

I was looking for anyone's input on where to rent Charter Buses from. NU is planning our first long road trip where we'll need to travel over 5 hours.( I know, I know, that's nothing for most conferences but we're a small geographic area) Anyways, do teams rent charter buses for these trips? Where to get them?? What is the general cost?? Any help would be greatly aprreciated.

Thanks in advance

[mholtz]

We have a local bus company that cuts breaks for all University groups. Before they did that, we use The Bus Bank (www.busbank.com). They worked out fairly well.

This is our first year of taking busses to all games. We find that with the break we get from the bus company, it's about 50% more then gas for people's cars. That combined with the safety issue makes it a no brainer.

Most of our trips this year are within 2 hours, and they all are about $600. The big expense is if you keep the bus overnight.

Expect weekend or overnight trips to be closer to $2500-$3000 (at least that's our experience)

[Zeuslax]

This is a great question. I was wondering about this too. You would think that prices would be coming down with the decreasing cost of gas. Is the overnight price increase mostly due to the drivers expenses (hotel and things of this sort).

From what I understand, the drivers are only allowed to operate the bus for a designated amount of time. Does anyone know what the time constraints are?

[mholtz]

I believe it's 8 hours, but it could be 10. I've seen drivers do more, and they get pretty tired, and it gets pretty scarry.

Usually the bus company asks that you pay for their hotel.

The extra cost is deffinately for the time of the driver.

[Dan Wishengrad]

We chartered our first bus last year for a trip to Chico. The cost was about $4200, not including driver tips (another 10%). The first driver took us only from Seattle to Portland (about three hours), but the second driver took us all the way to Chico from there, another eight hours. This second driver stayed with us for the weekend -- you have to pay for his hotel room, and it's considered appropriate to offer to pay for a meal or two for him also when the team goes out for a nice dinner. This second driver (Dave) drove us from Chico back to Portland for the final driver-switch. The last guy took us from Portland back to Seattle. I believe that eight hours (with an hour rest/food stop built in) was the limit any one driver could operate the vehicle without overnight rest. We worked it out with the bus company to give the tip to the final driver and have them divvy it up between the three drivers later, with instructions that Dave was to get about 80% of the tip.

The trip was long but fun -- they had tv sets over every third row of seats and we watched about a dozen movies (mostly bad ones!) during the trip which helped break up the monotony. The great irony was that the weather was sunny and beautiful when we left Washington, but as soon as we hit the California it started raining. It rained and rained the whole time we were in cal, but as soon as we hit the Oregon border on the way back home it was clear again.

I would definitely have the team do this again, and recommend chartering a bus to the rest of you. Cheaper than flying and having to renting vans at your destination, that's for sure!

[Jolly Roger]

For longer trips that require flights it's possible to have your host institution recommend local companies as well. Much, much less hassle than renting vans out of state.

[beckner11]

I know that when we have to stay overnight on trips, when I make hotel arrangements I ask them to give us a complimentary room for the bus drive and most places have had no problem with that since we are giving them at least 8 other rooms worth of business.

I strongly recommend asking for this....the worst they can say is no.

[Sonny]

I know that when we have to stay overnight on trips, when I make hotel arrangements I ask them to give us a complimentary room for the bus drive and most places have had no problem with that since we are giving them at least 8 other rooms worth of business.

I strongly recommend asking for this....the worst they can say is no.

That has to do with the hotel comp ratio (not anything to do with the bus driver). For every 8, 10, 12, 15 hotel room nights you purchase, they give you one freebie. The comp ratio goes up as you book more expensive/urban hotels. I've found that it typically is in the 8 - 12 range for cheaper hotels in more rural settings.

Regardless of whether you use a bus (and need a room for a bus driver), you should ask for a free room (or rooms) whenever dealing with hotels. If they aren't offering you some free comp rooms and you are bringing them a chunk of business for a night or a weekend, move on to the next hotel option.

[yeagy]

Edit:
We use a private bus. A pretty sweet private bus that would cost as much to build as it would to charter one for a single trip. Just a thought for other teams out there who travel as much as we do. It is very economical to buy a used school bus a couple thousand dollars and use it for trips. You can even go as far as this private owner did and customize the bus with little things to make it more comfortable. ie: couches,card tables, tv ect...

[Karl Lynch]

The University of North Texas has nothing to do with the bus. It is a privately owned bus by one of the team's main benefactors. He allows the lacrosse team to use it. Average cost of taking the team to Houston, A&M, Texas, Tech is about $180.00 roundtrip.

Shortly, the bus will become the property of the Alumni.

[LAXDawg14]

i would be sure to research the bus company too..... on our trip from s. carolina to ECU then back to athens.... our bus broke down twice and the bus driver tried to censor the movies we watched. i can understand the censoring cause its their bus, but it put a downer on the trip when they wouldnt let college kids all over the age of 18 watch a R rated movie.......

[mholtz]

i would be sure to research the bus company too..... on our trip from s. carolina to ECU then back to athens.... our bus broke down twice and the bus driver tried to censor the movies we watched. i can understand the censoring cause its their bus, but it put a downer on the trip when they wouldnt let college kids all over the age of 18 watch a R rated movie.......

That can have a lot to do with the driver. Our bus company's disclaimer bascially says "The driver's in charge".

One other thing we do is if we get a driver that we really like, we request that driver again, and tip well. If you do that, then the driver will most likely be a bit more flexible with you.