Do not use US Coachways

[Dunngeon]

Originally Posted by Gary Dillard

In Alabama it's against state law to transport school students in 12 passenger vans, rental companies ask if you are transporting students and will not rent to you. I think this is state law in several states, I didn't realize it until I started checking into it this year.

Any idea why? Seems like a random law to have.

[KMeyers]

Originally Posted by Dunngeon

Any idea why? Seems like a random law to have.

According to the government, 12 passenger vans qualify as a "school bus" since they seat more than 10 people, and they don't meet school bus roll-over regulations.

[TachyonicTalker]

We (FTC 5070) had the same issue with US Coachways going to the South Superregional this year. They canceled on us on Friday (after hassling them a bit for confirmation) when we had to leave the next Monday. Luckily we got a bus from Pegasus in time, but that put us in quite a panic.

So when we were reserving a bus for Championships for our FRC team 4013, we made sure to avoid US Coachways.

Completely agree with OP to avoid booking with them.

[Qbot2640]

Originally Posted by KMeyers

According to the government, 12 passenger vans qualify as a "school bus" since they seat more than 10 people, and they don't meet school bus roll-over regulations.

It is actually another one of those mis-targeted rules. Current models are quite safe, but in most states the rules are written based on capacity. A new 15 passenger van is much less likely to roll over than, say, a 1983 8 passenger.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Gary Dillard

In Alabama it's against state law to transport school students in 12 passenger vans, rental companies ask if you are transporting students and will not rent to you. I think this is state law in several states, I didn't realize it until I started checking into it this year.

This is what our school had been telling us for years that it was a law (which it is in several states) until the incident with our bus came up last year when we were then told that 15 passenger vans were definitely illegal and 12 passenger vehicles were the max capacity vehicle as long as there were no more than 10 people. They just preferred all school groups utilize buses so it was easier to stand behind a blanket rule but at the end of the day it was the preference of our school keeping us from using them.

Your results will vary but we were told for four years it was illegal and when the rubber met the road it wasn't.

[Gary Dillard]

I had checked our state law and unfortunately found this one to be true; I don't just take someone's word for it. Our rookie year when I started the team and got ready to place a big AndyMark order on my credit card, I got nailed with the you-can't-order-stuff-without-an-approved-PO speech and was told that was state law. At week 3 of build season and still no PO's approved, I checked and it wasn't the case - the school board was very sympathetic to understanding our needs during build season and waived their "local policy" for us.

Here is a copy of the current policy on vans in Alabama

[FrankJ]

Originally Posted by KMeyers

According to the government, 12 passenger vans qualify as a "school bus" since they seat more than 10 people, and they don't meet school bus roll-over regulations.

That might be a local school system rule, it is not a state law in GA. The government is big place. Rules vary and are often contradictory. Especially when it comes to full size passenger vans.

[Conor Ryan]

Originally Posted by Gary Dillard

I had checked our state law and unfortunately found this one to be true; I don't just take someone's word for it. Our rookie year when I started the team and got ready to place a big AndyMark order on my credit card, I got nailed with the you-can't-order-stuff-without-an-approved-PO speech and was told that was state law. At week 3 of build season and still no PO's approved, I checked and it wasn't the case - the school board was very sympathetic to understanding our needs during build season and waived their "local policy" for us.

Here is a copy of the current policy on vans in Alabama

Actually its quite a common policy.

Here is a research survey from 2008 (its likely still relevant) on 12 and 15 passenger vans and students.
http://www.safercar.gov/staticfiles/...vap2008ap1.pdf

• 29 states have laws or regulations that prohibit the use of vans for transporting public school students to and from school and school-related activities.
• 12 states have laws and regulations that prohibit the use of vans for transporting public school students to and from school, but allow the use of vans for school activity trips. [Note: One state has passed legislation that prohibits the use of vans for activity trips.]
• 9 states allow the use of vans for transporting public school students to and from school and school-related activities. [Note: One of these nine states has passed legislation that will not allow the use of vans to transport students after June 1, 2008. Another state has a statewide, self-insurance pool that will not insure vans used to transport students.] In many states, the laws and regulations that apply to public schools may not apply to private and church-sponsored schools

In states where it is allowed, frequently the institutional insurance policy you are under will not cover instances where you have 11+ people in a 15 passenger van. When I was in Ohio, we were permitted to get a 15 passenger van for the additional space for the robot and bags, however we could only have 10 passengers in it, due to the university insurance policy. So do your homework and you'll have a little more space!

[Foster]

Originally Posted by Bluesky55J

To all fellow teams: Please do not use US Coachways for any busing needs. They are a broker company that tries to pull buses from other businesses. They'll take your order, tell you they have a bus, and then try to find you a bus at the quote that they gave you, but if they can not find a place that will take the quote they will wait until the day before your trip then cancel at the last minute because no one took the job. They simply schedule with another company and then take a cut. Team 56 is frantically working on finding a new bus for our trip today to St. Louis but chances are slim. We have heard from a multitude of other teams about bad experiences with this bus company. So please, don't book from them.

Thank you

I felt your pain and was happy to see that it worked out later. Can you do all of the next years teams a favor and requote your first post? It was a little sad to hear that teams got burned this year and last year by US Coachways. So a reminder in Jan, Feb and March will keep this in the eyes of the travel coordination mentors.

Thanks!

[MisterJ]

Just wanted to bump this thread so those who might not have seen it last year can use this information when booking coaches this year.

[catmanjake]

Glad someone bumped this post. I read all the way through it not knowing it was a year old. As commented earlier, I think this is a good thread to put out there every January or so for teams to read through. We use a local bus company for all of our trips of which we have 4 this year.