Re: Bus Charters
Calvin H. Gray (405geezer@IGG-TX.NET)
Wed, 30 Jun 1999 21:59:31 -0500
A chartered bus (motorcoach) is a great way to travel. However, it
is usually much more expensive than travel by private vehicles. Tour
permits are easy to obtain as all commercial carriers are required to
have insurance, etc. What we do is submit a copy of the contract along
with the local or national tour permit application.
During the past four years, we've chartered several motorcoaches as this
mode of travel is cheaper than flying and more convenient than using
private vehicles for high adventure trips. But we have a large troop
and we only use this mode for special summer trips.
In 1996, we chartered two motorcoaches for a summer camp & high
adventure trip to Colorado. In 1997, we chartered one coach for a trip
to Philmont and one for a trip to Virginia. In 1998, we traveled to the
Laguna Station (South Padre Island) by coach. This year, we used a
coach to take 45 people to Philmont.
The cheapest charter was the trip to South Padre. The cost was $2,650.
The charter for this year's Philmont trip cost $5,544. Remember that
the more people you have on a coach, the lower the "per person" cost as
charter prices are the same whether you have a group of 30 or a group of
45. By the way, the larger coaches can carry up to 52 people.
One advantage of using a coach is that you don't have to stay within the
BSA's 500 mile per day travel guideline. For example, the BSA will
approve a National Tour Permit for a trip to Philmont (725 miles from
Georgetown) during which the coach travels straight through. If a
similar trip was in private vehicles, we would have to stop one night
going to Philmont and one night coming home.
What I would do is ask the pack leader who mentioned this method of
transportation to investigate the cost of chartering a coach for pack
activities and report back to your pack committee. My guess is that
you'll find it too expensive for pack travel.
One alternative you might want to consider is contacting your local
school district to see if they will rent a school bus for your pack
trips. Some Texas districts will do this at a very low cost. But
you'll have to have a driver with a commercial license, and of course,
you'll have to secure proper insurance.
YiS,
--
Calvin H. Gray
Scoutmaster, Troop 405
Georgetown, Texas
I used to be an Owl (WM-62-2-98 @ Philmont)
mailto:405geezer@igg-tx.net
http://www.troop405.org
