1. What you quote
If the customer books fewer hours than your minimum, the minimum is what the driver and vehicle are tied up for.
2. Driver, deadhead and miles
3. What the charter costs to run
4. The vehicle and your year
Fill in the numbers, then click Check this charter.
Result
| Line | Per charter |
|---|
5. Compare with a second charter
Charter A is everything above. Charter B shares your wages, vehicle, fees and yearly overhead, and has its own price, hours, minimum, deadhead and miles.
How it is built
Charter costs: driver pay (billed hours, at least your minimum, plus deadhead hours, × pay × (1 + payroll burden)), fuel (miles ÷ mpg × price), maintenance per mile, cleaning, the gratuity share and card fees on the whole price, the vehicle's price ÷ expected charters, and a fixed share: yearly insurance, storage and permits ÷ charters per year. True profit is the price minus those costs, before tax.
Lowest quote: the costs that do not depend on price, divided by (1 − gratuity share − card fees − target margin). The test suite checks that quoting exactly that amount earns the target margin for hundreds of random charters. Payback: vehicle price ÷ what one charter earns above its direct costs, which excludes the vehicle's own depreciation so it is not counted twice.
Common questions
How do I price a party bus charter so it makes money?
Start from the hours the vehicle is really tied up, not the hours the customer books: the billed hours (at least your minimum) plus the deadhead and positioning time to and from the garage. Pay the driver for all of them, add fuel and maintenance for every mile including empty ones, cleaning, the gratuity share you pay out, card fees, the vehicle's wear per charter and a share of your yearly insurance, storage and permits. Divide the costs that do not scale with price by one minus gratuity share, card fees and your target margin to get the lowest quote.
Why does a charter that looks busy lose money?
Because the hours that cost the most are the ones nobody is billed for. A five-hour minimum with ninety miles and an hour and a half of positioning keeps the driver and the vehicle busy for six and a half hours, and a share of insurance and the vehicle payment lands on every charter whether or not the calendar is full.
How many charters does a party bus have to run to pay for itself?
Take what one charter earns above its direct costs, which is everything except the vehicle's own depreciation, and divide the purchase price by that. The calculator shows the charters, and the years at the rate you expect to run the vehicle, and warns if the answer is more than the charters you expect in its life.
What is a minimum-hours rule worth?
A minimum bills a short booking as a longer one, so the price covers the positioning and the idle driver time that a two-hour trip would otherwise leave unpaid. Set the minimum, then check the margin on your shortest bookings first.
Which charter should I take when I have one vehicle free?
Compare profit per charter and profit per vehicle hour. When the vehicle is the limit, the charter with the higher profit per vehicle hour fills the calendar better, even if another one makes more by itself.
Is my data uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser, there are no accounts, and nothing is sent to a server. Use Save to download a scenario file.
Is this tax, insurance or business advice?
No. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. Your insurance, permits, driver rules, payroll and sales tax depend on where you operate. Check with an accountant or your insurer.