Chartering a bus... why so expensive?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My kids’ robotics team won the regional and made it to the championships! Yeah!

But… the championships are in St. Louis and we are in Tucson. So the cost of flying everyone out in pricey, so I had the brilliant (I thought) idea of chartering a bus. We could sleep on it so the 21 hour road trip wouldn’t be so bad. (We just got back from a 10 hour tip to the Central Valley of California, so we are a traveling group.)

I found a web site where you put in your particulars and get quotes from difference charter bus companies. I did so, and how much do you think it cost for a bus to take 34 people from Tucson to St. Louis and back? They are wanting $16,800! That is about $500 each to ride on a bus for 21 hours (plus stops).

That is more than it would cost to fly ($350ish each) and it takes 5 times as long. How can charter bus companies make a living if this is the math? Why would anyone rent a bus if it is more expensive and takes longer? What gives?

2

It’s possible that the website you used is mostly set up for local charters, and the pricing model breaks down on long journeys. I’d recommend calling a few local charter bus companies to ask them for a quote. At the very least, if the quotes are in the same range, you can get an explanation as to why.

3

That seems really high. I’ve got experience chartering buses from Central Texas to Orlando and it was more like $5000. However, there are some variables that could be driving the cost up. First of all, you start paying from when the bus leaves their yard, not when you leave. So, if the operator is far away, you’re paying for a lot of dead miles to and from your departure point. Also, how long will you be away? You will have to pay the driver the whole time. Plus, no single driver can drive for 21 hours. You’ll have to pay for a hotel room and transportation for the second driver.

4

Thanks guys, I’ve only received one quote so far and I contacted 4 companies. One of the issues is that drivers are only allowed to go 9 hours before sleeping for 8 hours, so my 21 hour drive would take 3 drivers. But still, $16,800?

5

I would think it closer to $5,000.

3 drivers at $250/day for 2 days is $1500. $1500 per day for the bus X 2 is $3000. Add hotel rooms for 3 drivers at $200/day. Don’t know what the fuel surcharge would be or positioning fee. Each day you keep the bus you pay for it.

You could look into renting vans and letting parents drive. Take out an insurance waiver for the event. You could also look into renting school buses which I’ve done before. Not very comfortable.

I can remember renting nice tour buses for $400 a day+ gas surcharge. That would have been in the mid 90’s.

6

Out of curiosity what is the cost to rent three full size passenger vans from a car rental place? I’d assume much cheaper.

No idea about the bus cost, but when I have bought tickets on chartered buses they were always under $100.

7

There can be these odd little niche businesses and industries where there is little competition, or customers are not price sensitive.

I was flabbergasted at the price to rent office plants for a year, it would be cheaper to buy a new plant every month.

8

What arrangements does the local high school make when the football team needs to go to an away game? Do they have a pre-negotiated discount rate with a local charter company for this and other occasions? Can you use the same contract rates for your charter?

9

But it’s not a matter of just paying for 21 hours of travel . It’s two days of 21 hours of travel , plus stops ( lets say 3 hours worth) and however long you spend there.(You aren’t going to drive for two days to spend only a few hours/one day at the destination). And the drivers will have to be paid for every day of it. In fact, even if each driver only drives for 8 hours at a time, they will most likely have to be paid for whatever time is not free for them to use as they wish- so if all three drivers are on the bus for the entire 24 hour trip, they may have to be paid for the whole 24 hours even if they are sleeping for part of it. *

It’s really three drivers being paid for a 24 hour trip there, three days there, and a 24 hour trip back (and just there and back amounts to 48 hours, so there’s likely to be some time and a half involved for the other days) hotel rooms and possibly meals for the drivers, and whatever is charged for use of the bus.

It’s been a while since I’ve chartered a bus- but typically it cost about $50 per person for a bus trip that lasted 12 hours total from pick-up to drop-off and only required a single driver.

As for how the bus companies stay in business- their business model is probably not based on trips as long as yours. Paying for those extra drivers and the days you are at your destination add up- it’s not an issue with a company like Greyhound which has bus stations all over the place and can use different drivers for different legs ( Driver 1 drives from point A to point B , and driver 2 goes from point B to point C while driver 1 takes a different bus from B back to A)

*If they aren’t on the bus for the whole 24 hours, your local company is going to have to fly them out to meet the bus where their driving shift starts.

10

I wonder if you could charter a Greyhound bus for the trip, so that they could switch out the drivers during the journey. 34 passengers is enough to almost fill some motor coaches.

11

I was thinking maybe they could just buy seats on a regularly scheduled Greyhound bus, but it’s not that much cheaper than flying ($178-$255 depending on which fare, departure time etc) and it takes longer than a chartered bus- anywhere from 36-39 hours plus transportation to and from the bus terminals.

Turns out Greyhound does charters - might be less expensive than a local company and a shorter ride than a scheduled Greyhound bus.