5.5 Best Practices for New Youth Directors Hiring Ground Transportation

Here are 5.5 best practices for new youth directors when hiring ground transportation:

1. Reserve all passenger vans and motor coaches needed for trips six months to one year in advance. Suppliers will reward you for reserving early and assisting them with forecasting future demand and fleet size. This will relieve you of the stress associated with waiting until the last minute and you will avoid becoming a victim of the law of supply and demand. Everything you can reserve in this industry with or without a driver will cost you more when you fail to plan way ahead.

2. Know your limitations and hire a proven expert to help you overcome them. While in seminary, they will not teach you anything about the most dangerous activity you will be engaging in. That would be traveling down the road in vans and coaches with your kids on a trip. You should partner with a proven authority that will keep you extremely safe, remove all your hassles, and maximize your budget. Your chosen expert should be loaded with a guarantee, testimonials, & references!

3. Understand the concept that all vehicles can and will break down, regardless of age. Since human hands have been involved in their creation, vehicles will be subject to human errors. Brand new vans and motor coaches have broken down on their first trip in many situations. When this happens, you should maintain control of your emotions, set a positive example for your group, and never mistreat or blame your motor coach driver for the situation. Contact the company that owns the vans or motor coaches and cooperate with the repair processes until they are completed.

4. Get everything in writing and take nothing for granted. You must insist on receiving all quotes, reservations, confirmations, and agreements in writing for anything to be considered valid. If you reserve vans, and have no wriiten confirmations, you will have no vans on the date you need them. If you reserve a coach with a driver, and you have no agreement, there will be no motor coach to transport your group on the departure date. You should read, review, and completely understand all agreements prior to placing your autograph on them. If anything seems confusing, call the supplier and speak to the highest level manager on duty. Send all agreements back quickly!

5. Never sacrifice the safety of your group in order to maximize your budget. Do your homework and never take shortcuts in researching the carriers you are considering to transport your group. If you will be hiring a coach with a driver, and the carrier cannot produce an insurance certificate with five million dollars or more in liability insurance, they are operating illegally! Get as far away from that carrier as you can and don’t even think about it no matter what quote they offer you! You must make an educated and informed decision based on multiple factors such as age of fleet, crash history, past performance, physical premises inspections, years in business, etc. Safety first!

5.5 Return all vehicles in the same condition or better than you received them. Whether you are renting vans or motor coaches, have everyone in your group remove all trash from the interior and take all of their belongings with them. The supplier will not accept liability or responsibility for any personal belongings left in their vehicles. Return all vans with the same amount of fuel as given. Excessive cleaning fees will drastically drain your budget and can be avoided with a little common sense cleaning and time invested at the conclusion of your trip. Treat it like you own it baby!

This article was authored by Craig Speck with Speck Transportation. He can be reached at 817-405-0874, 817-477-3003, or 817-437-8702. Visit Our Website Here