[Chris_Elston]

Many, many, many thanks for responding to this thread. I am glad I started it. Seems to be tons of information here for those that are just getting started into Charter Buses.

Our team is not part of the high school so we can't use any "yellow buses". We are strictly a 4-H group. Because of 4-H insurance rules, they limit us to no more than 8 passengers per vehicle if we get the parents to drive our team for us. This means we can not rent 15 passenger vans. we have to step up to a "contract" service which only includes charter bus services. I only mention this because Mike Martus was talking about his relationship with the school, where we don't really have one.

I found a place in Indiana, actually Fort Wayne called Excellent Adventures. The Fort Wayne Wizards and Comet Hockey team uses them and I already got a quote from them. They worked out the same contract which most of you have stated, we supply a room for the driver and the driver stays with us the whole time. They are responsible for their food. They contracted 10 hours of bus use, I think we will need to extend that or I need to ask what they really mean by "10 hours".

For example, it only takes 2 hours of drive time to get from point A to point B, but they contract 10 hours of bus use. If the driver is sitting in the stands with us for 12 hours, which would be 14 hours total, does that mean I need to negotiate a longer contract, even though we aren't on the bus? I assume the driver is paid for 10 hours. Just trying to read the mobo jumbo legal stuff.

PS: Mike, thanks for beating me up on the silent auction at IRI.... ;-)