renting a bus

phreako1

I'm organising a fieldtrip to India for the development department of my university and i was wondering if anybody has an idea what it would cost to rent a ac bus with a driver for a group of about 30 people per day? Is there a difference in price if we would have to cross state borders? we will land in madras. any reliable companies?
thanx

steven_ber

This reply is mainly to bump this thread back to the top, I would also be interested in finding out this info.

I can just see loads of Indiamiker's meeting up, joining our bus, and all singing "We're all going on a summer holiday"


You can hire a railway carriage (AC or non AC), this can then be hooked up to most trains for all or part of the journey, it's expensive (mainly because of storage costs whilst the carriage is not being used) and I would imagine that it would be a nightmare to organise, I'm sure a bus would be easier.

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edwardseco

My info sure won't help. While doing village work we got stuck in an area and couldn't get transportation to the desired village. While having chai we chatted up the bus driver and conductor of an idle bus. We bought every ticket and provided a bit of incentive and changed the route of the bus. Surreal on that empty bus but we got there. I would suggest checking first at a car rental place. I know we get a fleet (2) of those big jeep/SUV's when we come in from the airport. They may well know how to make an arrangement. I know large vans are available as a tour group had a nasty accident with one of theirs a few years back..

beach

Bus renting is a common thing here. People do hire buses for marriages, excursions, picnics etc.

So it’s not a unusual task. My only advice is to go with very reputed agencies. As the types of buses can vary from any thing to any thing.

In which city are you planning to hire. Usually tourist buses have something called state permit. Commercial vehicle needs to have special permits to travel from one state to another. Some agencies have this permit taken on an yearly basis to the most frequently traveled states. (Eg. Delhi-Rajastan, Maharastra-Goa, Kerala-Karnataka etc). Your choice get limited if you are requesting for a unusual bus ride (like Delhi-Kerala or something like that)

There is another way of managing it by paying for the spot permit per trip at the state borders (most of the tour operators do this)

You need not have to worry about the paper work etc as this is the headache of the operator.


First thing you should have a clear itinerary before approaching the tour company. So that they can offer the right options of buses with them. Them in negotiating the rates, keep everything clear. That is if your payment to them includes all the permit fees, parking fees, staff Bata, expressway toll etc etc. Usually the travel company will ask you to pay what ever fees to be paid on the route.

Also insist to you knowing prior hand the type of bus (like model, facilities etc). At the office usually they have an album of photographs of the bus (like how it looks, seat style, interior furnishing etc).



They can give you an approximate estimate you would require to pay on the way, as they have prior info on this.

AVOID A THIRD PARTY. Usually they promise you something. And ask the bus operator to offer you something else. This can be avoided easily if you can find out a reputed agency or a good operator.

My guestimate is that a bus rent would cost you something like 10000rs a day minimum.

Also your choice will increase dramatically if you plan to hire small vehicles (like 2 mini buses or even better 3 or 4 Qualis vans).

There are many reputed companies. ‘Panickers Travel’ comes to mind as they are a big operators with offices at many states.

May be some one can suggest the local reputed companies, if you can tell a rough itinerary….


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beach

Panickers Travel

22,IInd Floor,"Prince Plaza" 46,Pantheon Rd,Egmore,Chennai-8 Chennai, Tamil Nadu, INDIA PIN-600 008

Phone no. 044-8553010/044-8554921

Fax 044-8551123

www.seekandsource.com/panickerstravel

steven_ber

Fantastic info Beach.

Now we know who'll be driving the 'indiamike bus' for our India tour.

phreako1

thanx beach, really helpful information this is. our group would probably be travelling up and down between tamil nadu (madras and coastal area), andhra pradesh (guntur, penukonda) and karnataka (bangalore).

As we won't need the bus all the time i think we better do the big distances by train and hire some minibusses for inter-state travel from local agencies.

But i'll check out first what panickers and other agencies charge, so steven, you can start making up the budget for an all-india IM grand tour with a bus