Motorcoach (Tour Bus) Driver

Just joined the forum after having read messages here the last few days.

I've been driving motorcoaches for a tour bus company the last ten years, based out of Montgomery County, PA (just north of Philadelphia, PA). On the road every day sharing the road with truckers, looking to know and understand each others' jobs a little better. I drive all over the eastern USA and Canada. In the last month I've been from New Orleans to Chicago to Washington, DC. I also do lots of work in NYC. This weekend I'll be in Niagara Falls, ON. So I get around the country.

Once in a while I think about getting my class A license (just have a class B now) and my own truck, but the older I get, I think I have it pretty good where I am, so I doubt I'll ever leave the tour bus world.

 

Logging is very similar to truckers, even the same log book. But the rules are slightly different -- maximum of 10 hours driving time (instead of 11), and only 8 hours off (instead of 10) overnight. We have a limit of 15 hours/day of combined driving/on duty not driving time. But the other big difference is that our on-duty hours aren't necessarily contiguous -- in other words, we can (and often do, depending on the job) go off duty for 4 or 5 hours in the middle of the day (nap time!), and that doesn't count against our total on-duty hours for that day. That's one of the reasons we are only required to have 8 hours off overnight.

There are no federal rules other than that as to how often we stop. But because we're carrying people, they want off the bus once in a while, and we usually stop every 2 or 2-1/2 hours for bathroom breaks at rest stops or service plazas if we haven't reached our destination.

 

If you're with a good company (I'm with one of the best, I think), it's a good job. I love it. Long hours sometimes, though, and your schedule is not your own, plus you don't know what your schedule will be very far in advance. I like it that way, but not everyone does. Of course, trucking can be that way sometimes, too.

In the busy seasons (spring and fall for me) you can be working 6 or 7 days a week, in the slow seasons (summer and winter) only 3 or 4 days a week, sometimes less.

Most drivers get paid by the hour (myself included), some get paid by the day, others get paid either by the day or by the mile, whichever is greater. Some days you don't drive many miles, so that's not a great way to be paid. Benefits depend on the company. Some have vacation time and health insurance and paid holidays, some don't. Not unlike trucking companies, I don't think. You can make a comfortable living, but you will probably work at least 60 hours a week to do so. The other big difference is that some of our compensation is in gratuities (tips). If you're not a "people person," you may struggle to make a decent living.

On the upside, you'll get to see a lot of neat things, do a lot of neat things, eat in some good restaurants at someone else's expense, go places you didn't even know existed. And not a single loading dock. But on the road, it's not a lot different than driving a truck, I don't think, as far as the driving is concerned.

 

Well, SOMETIMES we make out good. You have to balance that with the 10-day trip for a church group that budgeted nothing at all for the driver. For the most part, things equal out, but there are plenty of trips I come home with an ache in my stomach because I have to tell my wife I got no gratuity at all, or one so small I was tempted to give it back.