On the day
Venue Access and Load-In With a Tour Coach
Venue is the word this site uses more than any other, and where the coach can actually go once it arrives is the part of a tour day that most often goes wrong. This page covers what a venue needs to accommodate a Prevost coach, why where it waits matters as much as where it parks, and what to tell dispatch in advance.
What a coach needs at a venue
A Prevost conversion is a full-size motorcoach. It needs a route in that a vehicle of that length can turn into, somewhere to sit that is not blocking a dock, and headroom clear of low structures. Most purpose-built venues handle this without thinking about it; older rooms, city venues and festival sites frequently do not.
If the coach carries a slide-out, it also needs room at the side to extend once parked. A space that fits the vehicle but not the slide gives a crew a corridor instead of a lounge for the whole day.
Where the coach waits is the real question
Parking at the dock during load-in is rarely the problem. The gap between load-in and departure is, because a coach cannot always stay where it unloaded and a crew asleep on board has to be somewhere.
In dense cities this is the single most useful thing to settle in advance. Ask the venue where a coach of that size waits, and pass the answer to dispatch with the date rather than leaving the driver to solve it on arrival.
What to send in advance
Send the load-in and load-out times with the date, not just the show time. Driver hours are counted from when work starts, so a morning load-in and a late departure is a different day from the show time alone, and it is the kind of thing that decides whether a routing needs a second driver.
Flag any venue you already know is difficult: a tight yard, a low structure, a shared dock, a festival site with a long walk. None of those are problems when they are known in advance, and all of them are problems discovered at the gate.
What to settle before the day
The route in
A full-size coach needs a turn it can make and headroom clear of low structures. Older and city venues are where this bites.
Room for the slide
A space that fits the vehicle but not the extended slide leaves a crew with a corridor rather than a lounge all day.
Load-in and load-out times
Driver hours run from when work starts, not from the show. Both times together are what dispatch plans the day against.
Where it waits between
A coach usually cannot stay where it unloaded. Ask the venue, and pass the answer on with the date.
Frequently asked questions
A route in that a full-size motorcoach can turn into, somewhere to sit that is not blocking a dock, and headroom clear of low structures. Purpose-built venues handle this routinely; older rooms, city venues and festival sites are where it needs checking first.
That is the question worth asking the venue in advance, because a coach usually cannot stay where it unloaded and a crew asleep on board has to be somewhere. In dense cities it is the single most useful thing to settle before the day.
Yes. A space that fits the vehicle but not the extended slide leaves the crew with a corridor instead of a lounge for the whole day. If you know a venue yard is tight, say so and dispatch can plan around it.
Because driver hours are counted from when work starts rather than from the show. A morning load-in with a late departure is a very different day from the show time alone, and it can be what decides whether a routing needs a second driver.
It is far rarer when the venue has been asked in advance, which is the point of raising it early. Dispatch is reachable around the clock, so a problem at the gate reaches a person who can act on it rather than a queue that opens in the morning.
Usually yes: longer walks, shared access roads and marshalled parking that may be some distance from the stage. Flag a festival date specifically rather than treating it as another venue, because the day is planned differently.
In short
A route in the coach can make, room to open the slide, load-in and load-out times rather than a show time, and a known place to wait in between: settle those four in advance and a venue day stops being the part of a tour that improvises.
Send your routing and get it priced
A dispatcher comes back with the coaches that fit, each priced against your schedule.