Sydney by rock tour bus

Part 1

Damian Cowell

Sydney has been accepted as one of the world's greatest cities for events and festivals at a formal procedure in the United States this year.
Australia's harbour city was named most excellent city in the 'over 1 million population' grouping at the opening International Festivals and Events Association (IFEA) awards in Saint Louis in September this year.
Australia's New South Wales Major Events Minister Kevin Greene said, the judging panel had noted the city's triumph in hosting major events such as the Sydney Olympics, New Year's Eve, the Festival of Sydney and cultural Vivid Festival..
“The international panel of judges recognised Sydney's chief events and cultural resources as integral to the city's attractiveness as a place to reside and work and go to see,” Greene said.
“It is one of the world's best-known city brands, boasting countless renowned locations and internationals icons.”
While visitors arrive in the state’s capital for such events and festivals, they are also keen in sightseeing and day tours as much as possible and to experience all the wonders this picturesque city has to offer. A Sydney day tour with a renowned tour and charter bus company will satisfy the sightseeing bug and let you leave the shores of Australia with a mind full of information, visual attractions and a few large thumb drives full of excellent photos not to mention a few days’ worth of reading and viewing about your experience on Facebook, YouTube, MySpace or Twitter.
When a potential visitor to Sydney is online looking for bus and coach businesses that offer Sydney tours and sightseeing tours, there are a few things to consider before selecting on which business will get your business.

One of the first things you should look into is:

• Is the coach company offering private tours or do you join a group and get told what to see and do?
• Can the driver act a s a guide and give a personal experience and not some tape recording played over speakers in the bus?
• Is the company experienced Sydney tours and not a broker that will find ‘Backyard Bob’s Sydney Tours’ on your behalf?
• Is the company an accredited operator?
• Is the itinerary and times flexible?
  

There are a few lessons to learn about chartering a mini bus or luxury coach in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Cairns & basically all cities in Australia. The first thing we need to know is that the bus company is actually legitimate and an accredited operator. Under Australian law a tour, charter or private transport operator must be accredited. This involves a course in Transport Management that teaches the operator about safety and management with in-depth studies on safety and responsibility of their business within the law on their state or territory. Once they pass this course they have to apply for accreditation through the Ministry of Transport in their home state or territory. This is a very important thing to know about any operator.

Once accredited, the company is required to have in place safety management policies, vehicle maintenance policies, staff alcohol & drug testing polices, insurance registers and many other strict policies and registers to ensure they are running a legal, safe & appropriate business. They are then subject to yearly audits and independent audits on these policies, registers and safety handbooks and fleet checking where they can lose their accreditation if they are not in order.

All these strict policies and safety steps are to ensure you that the coach & bus business is running legally and the vehicles running accordingly.
There are some broker transport companies also known as wholesaler or network companies offering bus & coach services throughout Australia. While this may seem legitimate there are some serious insurance issues for using these companies because they hand over the booking to cheaper companies and perhaps non accredited companies for a large profit and if there were to be an accident then the broker or network company is not liable but the operator that may not be accredited or worse not insured. By using these companies you do not know what company or what type of vehicle will turn up.

These broker & network companies avoid using bus & coach companies that have company logos and or bus signage visible on the bus to mask the fact that they do not own it. They will deceive you from the moment you make a phone call as they will not tell you they do not own any vehicles. The price they charge is usually marked up by a large percentage which in turn leads them to find the cheapest company to give it to.

Let’s look at the situation like this:
If you wanted to buy a new computer and there were two shops both offering the same products, same services but the difference is one shop has stock of the computers, is licenced and is local while the other has a nice looking shop with only pictures of computers and has shops all over Australia. You walk into the local and licenced shop and receive a price and you can see the computers and what you will receive. Then you walk into the other store and the salesman says he can give you a new computer and a competitive price but he can’t show you the computer and you have to pay upfront and wait and see what you get. Would you trust that or more importantly would you risk that?

Some of these companies have now started to abbreviate their company name to hide the network, wholesaler or broker words from the name to deceive you so be careful.  I personally know of nine companies operating in Australia out of bedrooms in cities such as Cairns, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane & Gold Coast with their false testimonies on their websites with fake & stock photos of limousines, luxury coaches, deluxe minibuses and minivans in their fleet of zero.

What you should know before making a booking:
1.    Does the company also rent out vehicles without drivers? If so then avoid it as rented vehicles are usually trashed and abused by weekend’s away party animals.
2.    Ask for a copy of the operators Certificate of Insurance or Public Liability Insurance Documents. If they cannot provide immediately then they don’t have any.
3.    Does the company operate within the law or the state or territory they’re based in? Ensure that the company’s buses and coaches are legally licensed and registered with commercial license plates of their state or territory and not from another state as they maybe avoiding certain requirements and exploiting loopholes in accreditation in different states.
4.    How many buses or coaches do they have in the fleet? This can show you if the company can supply a vehicle at the last minute in-case of unforeseen circumstances or last minute bookings.
5.    Is the company an accredited operator? Ask them to show you their accreditation certificate, this will also show you have many vehicles in their fleet.
6.    Is the company a specialised charter bus company and not a broker, network or wholesaler?

Now you have at least six important questions that you must ask before committing to a booking.
In New South Wales, an accredited operator with commercial license plates with have the following letter TV followed by  a series of number of about four numbers e.g. TV 0000. This is a commercial license plate with the TV meaning Touring Vehicle.
These vehicles are bus lane& transit lane permitted compared to non-commercial plates which are not allowed in bus lanes.

There are many legal and legitimate companies operating out of the major cities of Australia to choose from when it comes to bus charter services for tours, airport transfers and pickups, corporate events, weddings, social outings, school excursions, and race days.
I found a website call Bus & Coach Directory that only accepts legal & accredited operators in all areas of Australia, so a simple click on the city you wish to find a company in will yield results of only legal transport operators so save that in your favourites and you’ll only ever have to visit one website to find results for bus charters, bus tours, coach charters, coach tours in all cities and towns in Australia. If you find a business that is not listed then you should ask them why not.

Visit Bus & Coach Directory for bus & coach companies in Australia:

By Lisa Sharpe

Have you ever been stuck wondering what key word to search as a broad match can display results from other states and perhaps other countries so adding the city or town to the end of the key word will guarantee you’ll receive results relevant to that city but maybe not exactly what you are looking for. Let’s take transport companies that offer different types of vehicles, different services and other miscellaneous or non-relevant information that you require. All transport companies have vehicles so to get the right company for your needs you need to know what type of vehicle you want. Transport companies with have a range of vehicles that suit your requirements so let’s have a look at the types of vehicles on offer.
1.    Coaches
2.    Buses
3.    Minibuses
4.    Minivans
5.    Midi-coaches
6.    Micro-coaches
Let’s break it down into more detail.

• Coach – A coach can carry passengers from 25 to 60+ with most coach companies in Sydney averaging a 34, 48, 50 & 53 seater coaches often with the tag of luxury coaches attached or five star coaches. A lot of older coaches, say 10 to 15 years old are five star but don’t look as slick and modern as the late model coaches but still have a lovely interior, comfortable, run well and have all mod cons including air-conditioner, DVD player, toilets, curtains and carpet. These older coaches would no longer be considered luxury coaches or 5 star coaches so you’d want to make sure you check with the supplier or ask for photos inside and out. All coaches will have under storage for luggage. Some luxury coaches have hot water urns.

• Midi-Coach – Generally the next size up from a minibus with seating capacity of up to 30 or so passengers. The midi-bus is not common is Australia or U.S but is used widely in the U.K as a single sized “decker” bus rather than the “Double Decker” bus that was used in Sydney before the introduction of the “bendy bus.” Some coach and bus companies in Sydney may refer to these vehicles as a midi-coach but most have started to use the term mini-coach or mini coach or even just by its seating capacity e.g. 30 seater or 34 seater.

• Bus – A general categorised keyword that can be used for coaches, minibuses, school buses and other people mover vehicles including the luxury and deluxe models of coaches and mini buses. So this is a good general word to use when searching for your vehicle online.

• Minibus – often spelled mini bus or mini-bus. These vehicles carry from 13 passengers to 24 passengers and there are two types of minibuses that are popular in Sydney and they are the 20 seater Toyota Coaster and the 24 seater Mitsubishi Rosa. The 20 seater Coaster is the most popular with its spacious interior, low-backed seats, large windows and some have an after-market installation of curtains. These are the social minibuses and are by far the most reliable minibus operating in Sydney with a lot of companies with models that are over 10 years old and they still run well and look great. There are 2 models of the Coaster and that is standard and the other is deluxe. The best thing about these mini-buses is that they are a super reliable, well-built and they run forever. The Rosa on the other hand is the people mover of the mini bus market. They literally sacrifice space for the extra seats. The Rosa has coach seats which are high-backed which are great for long distance charters or interstate transfers but for tours & social groups they are not recommended. The design of the Rosa is suited for the small & skinny so any larger folk will struggle to get comfortable and have to walk sideways down the aisle. If you are lucky enough to get a double seat then not so bad but these are designed to seat maximum passengers in minimal space. Another annoying factor with the Rosa is that due to their coach seats, the passengers cannot see 360 degrees and are limited to their own window and a piece of the opposite window. When on tour the driver or guide might say they are approaching a certain landmark and everyone has to lean out of their seats or stand and look over the seats just to see in front of them and taking in the fact that nearly everyone else does the same thing then safety is compromised with the standing and passengers in the aisle seats lean into the aisle and can bump heads. This is not a good touring but great for just a people mover.

• Minivan – often referred as mini vans or mini-vans, they are still considered minibuses. These are 14 seats which is 13 passengers plus one driver. These vehicles are mostly labelled as 12 seaters. On a standard C class licence is Sydney and Australia a driver is limited to carrying 11 passengers so most rental companies will have 2 seats removed out of the back to make it a 12 seater minivan or minibus. Once the driver has 12 passengers his or her licence class must be upgraded to an LR or Light Rigid class. Most companies will display the 14 seater as a 12 seater because if the customer has 13 passengers then one will have to sit in the front with the driver. Not that this is a bad thing but the one in the front doesn’t really socialise with the rest of the group and if it’s a long distance charter to the Blue Mountains or the Hunter Valley then the person in the front is secluded from the group. So the general rule is the 14 seaters are referred as 12 seaters to carry 12 passengers. The most common 12 seater minibus or minivan in Sydney is the Toyota Hiace Commuter. The new model is the best looking mini bus around compared the Mercedes Sprinter which is a nice vehicle but has long term issues and they are not that popular.

• Micro-Coach – A name given to the smallest legal passenger vehicle allowed operating as a public passenger vehicle or tourist vehicle. This are generally a Toyota Tarago which have to be engineer modified with an extra seat (between the driver and front passenger) to give it a seating capacity of 9 which is 8 passengers plus the driver. Most companies will never fill to capacity as the extra seat is not large enough to use for an adult. It is only there for the legal requirement. Most Sydney companies will put 5 or maybe 6 in the micro-coach and display the vehicle as a 7 seater on their website. Try a Google Image search of Micro-coach Sydney to get an idea of Sydney transport companies displaying such vehicles. This is not a commonly used vehicle description.

So now you have all the information on the type of vehicle you’ll need, now you need the service keyword you will be requiring. A lot of people use the search term “hire” for their general requirements. While this is a broad term used for both hire with a driver and hire without a driver it can often cause confusion for the customer looking for one or the other. Most transport companies in Sydney recognise the hire as “with driver” which is why they use the word as part of their keyword website structure and they usually put on their website that either they only supply hire with driver or they don’t offer services without drivers. It’s good to read the front page of any website to get all the information before submitting an enquiry or making a phone call. On the other side of the coin there is the “hire” without a driver, as if to hire a car and drive yourself. The word hire can be looked at in 2 different ways which is why it is a commonly used keyword to find services on the internet. The term “rent” is pretty straight forward as to rent a car or rent a bus and self-drive. Most rental car companies will have minivans and minibuses for rent that are kept in good condition.
Now we come to the most accurate term used for finding the bus & driver company and that is “charter.” To charter a bus, charter a coach, charter a minibus or charter a minivan should yield results without being taken to rental companies. If the company you find also does rentals then try to avoid this as rental vehicles are most of the time the rented buses have been abused by apathetic renters that trash the vehicle and the company rarely repairs the damage but instead pockets the insurance.
Try Googling your search terms according to your requirements or you could just visit Sydney Charter Bus for all your transport requirements from coach hire, coach charter, bus hire, bus charters, minibus hire and minibus charters but no rentals.
Take a look at their website and see how they display the vehicles as 20 seaters, 50 seaters and 7 seaters etc. Look at their Fleet page to see outer and interior photos of luxury coaches, deluxe minibuses and micro-coaches. Look at the difference between the 20 seater and 24 seater, you can clearly see the space difference and comfort factor.
At Sydney Charter Bus they have a small phrase they like to use to remove all the confusion or complications of travel in Sydney.

By Grant Roberts