Renting bus for weddings etc advice please

[wilber71]

Hi, Does anybody on here actually rent their bus out for weddings, Proms etc ? ( with me to drive it etc )

I am looking into taking advantage of this market, as when I was last home I had a few people asking me regarding doing weddings etc. I am thinking that I would have to open a Ltd Company with chartered house etc, and build a web-site and flyers etc.

Just wondered if anybody on here is doing this for a bit more advice please.

Thanks for any advice folks :mrgreen:

 

[neilswheels]

Pretty sure you dont need to ltd, but you will have to have PLI, and i think you may need to be a registered cab service or similar. Couple of links below look usefull, particularly the last one. Good Luck

http://www.theopenroad.co.uk/Course-Starting-A-Classic-Car-Hire-Company" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.findmyclassiccar.co.uk/classic-car-hire/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[wilber71]

Pretty sure you dont need to ltd, but you will have to have PLI, and i think you may need to be a registered cab service or similar. Couple of links below look usefull, particularly the last one. Good Luck

http://www.theopenroad.co.uk/Course-Starting-A-Classic-Car-Hire-Company" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.findmyclassiccar.co.uk/classic-car-hire/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for that...can't open the second one on this ship, as it has some kind of bizarre block on it.

I would be driving this, with max 2 passengers. I'm guessing the PLI = public liability insurance ? I think I need to talk to somebody who already has a similar business in place ( not near to my part of the country of course ) and get some first hand advice

 

[Graham L]

Quite a few people on this site do it including Johnny the site owner, I think Irish Pete does it as well and Drew Kerr, all earlybay owners.

You need to notify your insurance company as you may need to take additional insurance out and as previously mentioned have PLI for injuries etc to your occupants,

 

[wilber71]

Quite a few people on this site do it including Johnny the site owner, I think Irish Pete does it as well and Drew Kerr, all earlybay owners.

You need to notify your insurance company as you may need to take additional insurance out and as previously mentioned have PLI for injuries etc to your occupants,

Yehhh thanks for that, I will have a good nosey once on dry land again in 2 days

 

[Irishpete]

Yup, we do it.

You don't need to become a ltd company and you don't need any special licences to do weddings. Public liability insurance is a must but can be easily provided through a wedding insurance specialist who can also offer an agreed value for your bus just in case the worst happens. It's not that expensive either.

Proms are a tricky one - we don't do them because you need a specific licence for them although I know of quite a few companies who offer it as a service without having the correct licences, I wouldn't feel happy if an accident happened.

The other thing to consider is how it changes your weekends and how you use your bus. You'll inevitably say I'll still use her but you'll be surprised at how you look at her differently once she's a source of income.

Feel free to PM me with any questions you've got and I'll be happy to help.

Pete

 

[Dickie524]

The impression I always had was that a limited number of weddings ect were OK on standard classic car insurance (up to say 6 per year?) but other events needed licenced hire (i.e. taxi-type cover).

 

[Graham L]

The impression I always had was that a limited number of weddings ect were OK on standard classic car insurance (up to say 6 per year?) but other events needed licenced hire (i.e. taxi-type cover).

Dont think thats correct I would certainly double check with your insurer before going down this route, most insurance policy especially classic car ones excludes hire and reward and thats exactly what weddings are. I think if you did it for a friend for their wedding then thats different.

If you were planning to do a few a year I would almost certainly form a limited company only from the perspective that it takes some of the risk away from you personally if ever anything goes wrong, with Webfiling and everything these days its cheap and can be done without an accountant.

 

[preston]

I used our bay for our wedding 2 years ago and done a wedding for a friend yesterday. I actually enjoyed doing it and am now also considering doing a few weekends next year. Not looking to get rich off it just help pay for the upkeep of the bus.