Bus Hire

Bus hire, also called bus rental, means chartering a bus with a professional driver for your group rather than buying individual tickets. Tell us the route, the date and how many passengers, and we come back with one fixed price covering the vehicle, the driver, fuel and insurance. Quotes are free and carry no obligation.

We arrange bus hire in 195 countries through local operators, from an 8-seat minibus for an airport run to a 90-seat double-deck coach for a full event contingent. Because the operator is local, the driver knows the roads, the parking rules and the venue access points.

Why Choose Global Bus Hire for Bus Hire?

How It Works

What size bus does your group need?

Getting the size right is the single biggest cost decision. As a rough guide: minibuses carry 8 to 24 passengers, midi-coaches 25 to 35, full-size coaches 49 to 53, and double-deck coaches up to about 90. Seat count is not the only limit though. A full-size coach hold takes roughly one suitcase per seated passenger; a minibus carries far less, often only cabin bags once every seat is filled.

If your group sits near a boundary, ask for both options. Two minibuses sometimes beat one coach for city-centre work where narrow streets and tight parking matter, and one coach almost always beats two minibuses on a long motorway run.

What a bus hire quote covers

A quote from us is the price you pay. It includes the vehicle, a professional driver, fuel, the operator's insurance and their licensing overheads. What sits outside the base price is anything the route imposes: road tolls, congestion or low-emission zone charges, ferry crossings, venue parking fees, and driver accommodation on multi-day tours where the driver stays overnight.

We list those extras on the quote rather than letting them surface later. If an itinerary is likely to trigger one, for example a city with a low-emission zone or a venue that charges coaches to park, we say so when quoting.

What moves the price

Five things drive the number: distance and driving hours, how long the vehicle is held for, the date, whether the journey is one-way or return, and how far ahead you book. A one-way hire often costs more than a return of the same distance, because the operator has to reposition an empty vehicle afterwards.

Dates matter more than most people expect. Saturdays in wedding season, festival weekends, school-trip weeks in early summer and the run-up to Christmas all tighten regional fleets. As an indicative UK guide, minibus hire runs from around 350 to 600 pounds a day and a full-size coach from around 750 to 1,400 pounds a day; elsewhere we quote in the local currency at local market rates.

Licensing and safety

Any vehicle carrying nine or more passengers for hire is a public service vehicle, so the operator needs a PSV operator licence, the driver a category D or D1 entitlement plus a valid Driver CPC, and the vehicle a tachograph for journeys within scope. We only place work with operators who hold the right licensing for the country they run in, and the paperwork is the operator's to produce on request.

Official sources

The licensing and drivers' hours rules described above are published by the UK authorities and, for drivers' hours, apply across the EU under Regulation (EC) 561/2006. Check the current detail at source:

• GOV.UK: vehicle operator licensing (PSV)
• GOV.UK: driving licence categories
• GOV.UK: drivers' hours rules

Common Questions