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.

 Bus & Coach Directory 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.