Charter Bus teams, how do you handle them?

[RoboMadi]

Originally Posted by Mike Martus

Over the years one special driver - Lois - have taken a huge interest to our team. She requests that she be our driver. As a result she knows the students and staff and plans stops and events that are of interest on long trips.

One must agree that a Bus full of FIRSTers is always Fun'n Frolic.

I handled this issue for our team last year (2006 season). First thing you want to make sure is that you think ahead of time and Book it at least a month before the departure date. I had to call 79 companies in our area, only because i started a week before...(I was too busy building a robot )
As members have mentioned before it depends from town to town, county to county. I think you should contact your School or County Education Department and ask them for the List. Most of the time, they have a updated list with all the Companies; mentioning whether they are insured or approved by the County's/Town's Education Department or not.

Most of the Bus Companies try to converge their schedule with yours and make it as easier as possible. For example, if a team is attending a regional and only need transportation from and to regional, thats possible too. If one wants to keep the bus with them all the time and use it, thats possible too; one only have to pay for the parking and bus drivers room.
Its pretty much what you ask them for. You are paying them for the service and its part of the customer satisfaction rule to accommodate anything possible.
(Another Customer Satisfaction Rule is to satisfy the FIRST teams as much as possible )