Sizing the booking
How Many Bunks Does Your Crew Need?
The first question a dispatcher asks is how many people are travelling, because it decides whether one coach covers the tour or two are cheaper than one overloaded. This page covers how crew size maps to a twelve-bunk coach, who to count, and when a second coach is the better answer.
Who to count
Count everybody who sleeps on the bus, not everybody on the tour. Band, tour manager, front of house, monitor engineer, backline, merch and anyone travelling with you belong in the number. Local crew who go home after the show do not.
Count the driver separately. A driver needs their own rest space, and a plan that quietly assumes the driver will use a crew bunk is a plan that has not been checked against hours-of-service rules.
What twelve bunks means in practice
Every coach in the fleet carries twelve curtained bunks. That is a hard number rather than a comfortable maximum, and the honest planning figure is a little below it: a party of twelve fills a coach completely, with nowhere to put a late addition.
Bunks are also not the only constraint. A full lounge and a full galley at breakfast on the twelfth day is a different experience from the same coach carrying eight, and touring parties who have done both will tell you the difference is not small.
When two coaches beat one
Past twelve there is no argument: it is two coaches. Below twelve it is worth asking anyway if the party is close to the limit, running a long tour, or splitting naturally into a band bus and a crew bus with different call times.
Different call times is the one people forget. A crew that loads in at eight and a band that arrives at five are on different clocks, and two coaches sometimes solve a scheduling problem rather than a space problem.
What to send with your crew number
Everyone who sleeps aboard
Band, tour manager, front of house, monitors, backline, merch. Local crew who go home after the show are not on the bus.
The driver, counted separately
A driver needs their own rest space. A plan that uses a crew bunk for the driver has not been checked against the hours rules.
How long the run is
Twelve aboard for two nights and twelve aboard for six weeks are different propositions, even in the same coach.
Whether call times differ
A crew loading in at eight and a band arriving at five are on different clocks. Two coaches sometimes solve that rather than a space problem.
Frequently asked questions
Every coach in the fleet carries twelve curtained bunks. That is a hard ceiling rather than a comfortable target, so a party of twelve fills a coach completely with nowhere to put a late addition.
No. A driver needs their own rest space, and any plan that quietly assumes a driver will take a crew bunk has not been checked against federal hours-of-service rules. Count the driver separately from your travelling party.
Everyone who sleeps on the bus: band, tour manager, front of house, monitor engineer, backline, merch and anyone travelling with you. Local crew who go home after the show do not travel and do not need a bunk.
Always past twelve. Below that it is worth asking if the party is close to the limit, the tour is long, or the band and crew keep different call times, because two coaches sometimes solve a scheduling problem rather than a space problem.
Bunks are not the only constraint. A full lounge and a full galley at breakfast on the twelfth day is a different experience from the same coach carrying eight, and touring parties who have done both report the difference is not small.
Tell dispatch as soon as you know. A change within the twelve is usually straightforward, while going past it is a second coach and therefore a scheduling question best raised early rather than in the week of the first date.
In short
Count everyone who sleeps aboard, count the driver separately, and read twelve bunks as a ceiling rather than a target. Send that number with the routing and the answer of one coach or two comes back with the quote.
Send your routing and get it priced
A dispatcher comes back with the coaches that fit, each priced against your schedule.