Bus company?

Also, the drivers you recruit for bussing, will be different than those from trucks...

Motor coach drivers or more like airline pilots, and spend many of their nights at fine hotels, paid for by the client, rather than at a pilot truck stop, eating corn dogs, and having no social life...

In the motorcoach industry, you brush shoulders with a lot of high rollers, to include celebraties, politions, high power lobbiest groups, Major Universities and so on...

If you like the high roller stuff and politicing...than buses are for you...

And the drivers you attract tend to be a bit more positive and up beat...(that's just my opinion)...

As a driver, your job is more fun, when your final destination is Disney World, or the World Series, than a warehouse...

Again...just depends on where your passion is at, with people or 'stuff'...

 

Also, as a motocoach driver, your cargo may be pageants for 'miss USA'....

alot more exciting than 'cabbage' picked up at a socially regressive plantation...
Where half the people there don't speak english, and the other half grunts...

Sometimes I think it would be better to invest in one or two brand new, specialized coaches, and develope a 'niche' clientel...than 6 or 7 buses for general transport..

The niche markets are where the money is...the high paying clients...from musicians to actors to millionare clubs, sports teams, wrestling orginizations, nascar celebs ect ect...

As an owner of a bus, I'd rather have few runs, that pay extremly well, than a bunch of runs, that just wear down the bus...



Follow your dreams man, make it happen...

(and if you need an enthusiastic manager to help run your business...just let me know...we'll change the face of busing forever)

 

The only bus I would ever want to drive is the Girls gone wild bus, perod. I might just do that for free.

 

High Rollers? All I ever see is old people going to Casino's, kids going on ski trips and bus loads of Asian's with cameras.

 

Lumpers or babes...which do you prefer??

I took this photo last night...Lamborghini, babe, and phone number...

(ok, well the borghini is not mine, small technicality)

But I'm simply trying to contrast enviornments of related industries...

In trucking, your last site of the night will be another hairy driver or lumper...

In the charter bus industry...you just never know...cause you go where client goes, and brush shoulders with all types...

Your often around high rollers...and their the ones that create opportunity...

No one at a pilot or T/A truck stop has ever created opportunity for me...
(speaking to other drivers, not owners)

It's a totally different mentality...it's not better, just different...to each their own...

I'm still learning myself...and am lucky enough where I can do both, thus draw contrasts, to better help plot my future career path...

(Oh, and I forgot to mention...I also got tipped $100.00...when and where's the last time a trucker has ever been tipped??)

 

This post is to drivers considering which driving path to go down...a few more things to consider...

With Coach or Limousine or party bus driving...



You never know who you will brush shoulders with...when celebraties or athletes come to town...and want to rent a 20ft Hummer Limousine...guess who's driving them?

Guess who's opening the door for them? Guess who has all the inside information on them...and guess who gets tipped by them...

As a driver...it's up to you to make the most of these kind of encounters...to 'advertise' yourself...(who's to say you can't hand out a personal card)

'Hey you, rich celeb guy or gal...hire me as your own personal driver!'

Again...it all depends on 'you'...your personality, and what path you want to go down...

I've been driving trucks for many years, and never been tipped $100 dollors...
And or never rubbed shoulders with industry movers and players...

Successful people, can help you become successful...
But hanging around average folks, well....

Again...it all depends on what you want...

And your demenor...if your an older driver, hairy, and set in their ways...I doubt Charter buses or Limousine driving would ever appeal to you...

But if your a younger, groomed GQ type of driver...you might want to consider it...

Each type of driving has it's ups and downs...

Like tonight..I will be making a regular semi-truck trailer run...there will be no glamor to it...just hwy miles, and will end up going to a dark warehouse...and coming back...

It will be a lonely run...with no 'perks'....
And if that's what you like, than fine...

But if you want more...the potential for more...to meet rock stars, movie stars, politions, or just millionares...than you might want to consider Buses and limos...

It's not for everyone though...
I mean there are still some nights where I would rather be alone, left alone...to just think all by myself while rolling down the interstate in a truck...

 

You'll get tired of that in a week, it's not all it's cracked up to be.

As far as buying a current bus company, you'd better look at the equipment VERY closely before you buy it, if you think it's expensive to work on a truck, try a bus.

I drove entertainer coaches for 7 years, and no offense to those that do own seat coaches, but I'd never drive one of those. Too much responsiblity, I'd rather drive a coach with 12 people on it who know what happens on a bus and how to deal with it than 45 screaming college/high school kids who never rode on a bus like that before.

Good luck with whatever you do.

Ghostchild, I get tipped quite often, but it's not from a load of produce, it's because I took care of someone's hi-dollar car. Also, what you fail to mention, while being a limo/bus driver, you may be rubbing shoulders with celebrities, but one small mistake, your business is done. As far as giving them a card to become their personal driver, if they had one, do you think they'd be renting a vehicle now? It's also not as glamorous as you may believe, being a limo or bus driver also requires alot of waiting time, sitting with the vehicle in case they want to go someplace different, dealing with drunks, people getting sick in your vehicle, having to clean that vehicle yourself because you have another pickup in 1 hour and someone just barfed all over the inside of your stretch H-2.

I'm just trying to show people it's not as glamorous as they may believe.

This is the last coach I drove, I did all the cleaning,(inside and out), general maintanence, as well as driving it. This one was valued at close to $1,000,000 when completed, I treated it like it was my own.

 

SHO-TYME..

I can't argue against anything you wrote above...not a single thing...

Your experience is your experience...and I value it...

I'm a lot newer at this than you are...so I take what you say to heart...

I work with a guy, who claims to have driven a similuar vehicle to yours above...and drove around Alice Cooper and others...and he did say it wasn't always 'pretty'...not even...

But sometimes the pay was...

But ye, I guess it all depends on what you have tolerance for...I currently dabble in both worlds of driving...trucks I know...I'm just now getting the feel of the other...

Thanks for your input..

 

Yeah, the pay can be good on tours, I had a few overdrive days where I was making $1 a mile and drive 1000 miles a day, but that was maybe once a week or 10 days, not every day. But I was getting $200 a day from when I started the tour till I was done, plus I also got paid for washing the bus, servicing the generator, washing the bedding, etc.