Away Travel

[Ramism]

I’m looking at the feasibility of organising coach travel,from Pride Park, for away games. 
 It would initially be for the larger away capacity grounds. 
 Do you guys think it’s not unreasonable to expect one could get between 50 & 100 people who would use it. Costs would be roughly what road rider charged.

[Keepyuppy]

Yes I’d use it - since the Roadrider ended, it’s just too expensive to drive to away games as a single car driver. 

[i-Ram]

You’re not a coach driver are you by chance @Psycho Billy?

[Ram-Alf]

1 hour ago, i-Ram said:

You’re not a coach driver are you by chance @Psycho Billy?

Psycho Billys Coach Tours?

[Ramism]

No I’m not a driver but have been looking how much to hire a coach and have some prices just need to work out how to go about getting punters. Maybe run a free membership scheme si I can email folk. 
Issue for me would be the small window between ticket availability and the games

[Ramism]

19 minutes ago, Unlucky Alf said:

Psycho Billys Coach Tours?

Got a definite ring to it ?

[Mucker1884]

Why not just start off with a minibus, and see how it goes?

I've done a couple in the past (Self-Drive, so I stayed 100% sober), with the aim being non-profit*, but of course, if the final prices allow, and there's enough interest, a small profit for your pocket wouldn't be unreasonable.

 

 

*Add up all costs, inc taxi to and from home to minibus pick up, and (estimated) fuel etc, then divide by the total passengers. 
From memory, I think we played it informal, so basically advised a maximum fare (say total cost divided by 10) and a minimum fare (for a full 15).  I took the risk of there being less than 10 passengers (which there never was), but that was due to knowing some, and trusting others, as it was arranged through another DCFC football forum (Not advertised elsewhere).

Final price (per passenger) was calculated en-route, once we knew how many turned up.

Worked well enough to be fair.  I was never out of pocket, usually got my soft drinks bought for me in thee pub(s), and was happy to stop off en-route for a bevy (for an acceptable couple of pints or so, not an all night pizzup!)

 

I even perfected one trip to coincide with the day after being April Fools day.  Something about damage deposit not being returned (to me) due to tears on the second seat on the left, and me being left heavily out of pocket.
Cue the guilt, and the over-enthusiastic "It wasn't me... I never sat there" defensive pleas!  ?
Hey, not my fault if the readers cannot differentiate between "tears" and "tears" in the written form!  ?

We'd probably still be laughing about it now... if any of them had ever talked to me again!    ?

 

?

[Ram@Lincoln]

If it's organised you'll have to be in dialogue with the football police to coordinate the time of stops, where you're stopping, the route you're taking and the estimated arrival time to each ground. Lots of things to organise etc that you wouldn't exactly think about from the off. Probably best to email the supporters liaison officer to enquire about this and ways of going about it. Parking at the stadium could be discussed too, people on the various branch coaches park there for away games.

A friend of mine recently organised a coach for his daughter's dance school to go to a competition in London, with petrol prices and labour costs going up they were looking at over £2000 for the full day out. Just covering costs on a 50 odd seater you're at £40 each. That was for a multi stop pickup in the early morning, drive to the Excel in London then pickup again in the early evening to arrive back around 9/10pm. I'd imagine an away day, pick up in the morning from PPS, travel and stop off, arriving at the away ground, game, then return travel would be a similar full day out so cost similar money.

I'm sure the supporters branches like Alfreton and the like how long standing relationships with the coach companies to get preferential rates but still I'm sure their costs have rocketed this season with the fuel crisis. 

[Bald Eagle's Barmy Army]

Not sure I’d want to be on psycho Billy’s bus on the way home from a loss. 

[Ramism]

20 minutes ago, Ram@Lincoln said:

If it's organised you'll have to be in dialogue with the football police to coordinate the time of stops, where you're stopping, the route you're taking and the estimated arrival time to each ground. Lots of things to organise etc that you wouldn't exactly think about from the off. Probably best to email the supporters liaison officer to enquire about this and ways of going about it. Parking at the stadium could be discussed too, people on the various branch coaches park there for away games.

A friend of mine recently organised a coach for his daughter's dance school to go to a competition in London, with petrol prices and labour costs going up they were looking at over £2000 for the full day out. Just covering costs on a 50 odd seater you're at £40 each. That was for a multi stop pickup in the early morning, drive to the Excel in London then pickup again in the early evening to arrive back around 9/10pm. I'd imagine an away day, pick up in the morning from PPS, travel and stop off, arriving at the away ground, game, then return travel would be a similar full day out so cost similar money.

I'm sure the supporters branches like Alfreton and the like how long standing relationships with the coach companies to get preferential rates but still I'm sure their costs have rocketed this season with the fuel crisis. 

Had a few quotes and grounds around a hundred miles away are coming in at £1000. That’s for a 50 seat bus. 
 I’ve been organising/sourcing trips/holidays etc for small groups of people for the last 12years or so, so have a bit of an understanding of what’s involved. The danger with larger groups is everything costs more to pay for, before you get any money in
 

[Ramism]

25 minutes ago, Bald Eagle's Barmy Army said:

Not sure I’d want to be on psycho Billy’s bus on the way home from a loss. 

At least everyone would be on best behaviour ?☠️

[Ram@Lincoln]

6 minutes ago, Psycho Billy said:

Had a few quotes and grounds around a hundred miles away are coming in at £1000. That’s for a 50 seat bus. 
 I’ve been organising/sourcing trips/holidays etc for small groups of people for the last 12years or so, so have a bit of an understanding of what’s involved. The danger with larger groups is everything costs more to pay for, before you get any money in
 

Sounds like you've got it under control with your experience. As you'll know it isn't as straight forward as booking a coach as otherwise everyone would be at it! Getting the confirmed numbers will be the pain, perhaps a upfront payment to confirm a seat booking priced assuming a low turnout but still worthwhile operating? If you sell less than a minimum turnout, refund, if you sell out, either put the profit towards the next bus or refund the difference. Maybe put the profit towards running a "free" end of season bus that's fully paid by the profit throughout the season.

[EtoileSportiveDeDerby]

Good idea but unless you are thinking about this as a business venture i am wondering if anybody has approached the club about resurrecting the Roadrider in some form or another. Now that we are on a more stable footing the club might be thinking about this a bit more favourably. Good luck anyway.

[ImARam2]

I've ran a 16-seat minibus to Derby away games, and you have to take in consideration the following costs, which, let's say are for an away match to Ipswich Town, would be approximately:

• Minibus hire (one day) = £150
• Parking = £10
• Fuel = 312 miles (Rtn) = 9 galls x 4.55/Lts/gall = 41 litres x £1.85 / litre = £75
• Total Cost = £235
• 16 passengers = £14.68 each.
• You can charge £17 per pax = £272, which gives you £37 "expenses" for organising the trip.
• This can towards paying for a match ticket & a bag of chips, but no  drink as you will be driving!!

[Ramism]

52 minutes ago, EtoileSportiveDeDerby said:

Good idea but unless you are thinking about this as a business venture i am wondering if anybody has approached the club about resurrecting the Roadrider in some form or another. Now that we are on a more stable footing the club might be thinking about this a bit more favourably. Good luck anyway.

I could actually run it through my current business. I only considered this yesterday so I’ve still got a lot of work to do on it. The initial outlay for the first couple maybe my biggest worries. Was thinking of maybe approaching Derby for an initial chat

[Tyler Durden]

6 hours ago, ImARam2 said:

I've ran a 16-seat minibus to Derby away games, and you have to take in consideration the following costs, which, let's say are for an away match to Ipswich Town, would be approximately:

• Minibus hire (one day) = £150
• Parking = £10
• Fuel = 312 miles (Rtn) = 9 galls x 4.55/Lts/gall = 41 litres x £1.85 / litre = £75
• Total Cost = £235
• 16 passengers = £14.68 each.
• You can charge £17 per pax = £272, which gives you £37 "expenses" for organising the trip.
• This can towards paying for a match ticket & a bag of chips, but no  drink as you will be driving!!

Does a minibus do 35 miles to the gallon? Thought it would be lot less than this even if it was a diesel?

And where are you buying your diesel from, I can get it for more than 10p a litre less.