Tour bus rental/leasing is a massive scam

[ParaDime77]

I was watching some tour bus reviews on YouTube where the bands or groups show what their touring accommodation looks like. It got me to thinking, why are these bands renting and leasing these buses or vans when they could simply buy their own. If you are in a band, and it’s a long term vision to continually tour the US/Canada, I cannot believe that someone in the band or management would not use their actual CREDIT and purchase a suitable vehicle to tour in. Yes, there are plenty of additional expenses associated with upkeep. In the long run, the band owning their own touring vessel makes WAAAAAAY more sense than using these bullshit leasing companies.

Tank The Tech offered up a detailed report of bus leasing in 2022: here are some details


Coach Daily rate : $700/day.

Trailer Rental: :$100/ day

Driver daily rate: $400

Tour fuel $7200

Numerous other numbers he included as well

Total for 1 month $60,793.00 - over 1.2 million per calendar year. A fucking rip off!

[ijwthstd]

Some do in fact own their own tour bus. Some dude from Hanson bought one to tour his whole family in, some of the country artists do and so does Les Claypool. But a million plus is a lot of money to lay out at once.

[aznsquirt]

I was watching some tour bus reviews on YouTube where the bands or groups show what their touring accommodation looks like. It got me to thinking, why are these bands renting and leasing these buses or vans when they could simply buy their own. If you are in a band, and it’s a long term vision to continually tour the US/Canada, I cannot believe that someone in the band or management would not use their actual CREDIT and purchase a suitable vehicle to tour in. Yes, there are plenty of additional expenses associated with upkeep. In the long run, the band owning their own touring vessel makes WAAAAAAY more sense than using these bullshit leasing companies.

Tank The Tech offered up a detailed report of bus leasing in 2022: here are some details


Coach Daily rate : $700/day.

Trailer Rental: :$100/ day

Driver daily rate: $400

Tour fuel $7200

Numerous other numbers he included as well

Total for 1 month $60,793.00 - over 1.2 million per calendar year. A fucking rip off!

Am I missing something or are you somehow thinking that buying a bus means you no longer have fuel or driver costs?

[ParaDime77]

I was watching some tour bus reviews on YouTube where the bands or groups show what their touring accommodation looks like. It got me to thinking, why are these bands renting and leasing these buses or vans when they could simply buy their own. If you are in a band, and it’s a long term vision to continually tour the US/Canada, I cannot believe that someone in the band or management would not use their actual CREDIT and purchase a suitable vehicle to tour in. Yes, there are plenty of additional expenses associated with upkeep. In the long run, the band owning their own touring vessel makes WAAAAAAY more sense than using these bullshit leasing companies.

Tank The Tech offered up a detailed report of bus leasing in 2022: here are some details


Coach Daily rate : $700/day.

Trailer Rental: :$100/ day

Driver daily rate: $400

Tour fuel $7200

Numerous other numbers he included as well

Total for 1 month $60,793.00 - over 1.2 million per calendar year. A fucking rip off!

Am I missing something or are you somehow thinking that buying a bus means you no longer have fuel or driver costs?

Not stating that whatsoever.

[Bono Nettencourt]

Some do in fact own their own tour bus. Some dude from Hanson bought one to tour his whole family in, some of the country artists do and so does Les Claypool. But a million plus is a lot of money to lay out at once.

Right. People in the private sector do it when they retire instead of motor homes, but like you said it's people who have a million dollars lying around.

[aznsquirt]

Not stating that whatsoever.

I have to apologize; I didn't notice that they were day costs vs monthly. The way I read it it looked like 92% of the cost was fuel/driver so I was like wtf?

[Velvis]

I was watching some tour bus reviews on YouTube where the bands or groups show what their touring accommodation looks like. It got me to thinking, why are these bands renting and leasing these buses or vans when they could simply buy their own. If you are in a band, and it’s a long term vision to continually tour the US/Canada, I cannot believe that someone in the band or management would not use their actual CREDIT and purchase a suitable vehicle to tour in. Yes, there are plenty of additional expenses associated with upkeep. In the long run, the band owning their own touring vessel makes WAAAAAAY more sense than using these bullshit leasing companies.

Tank The Tech offered up a detailed report of bus leasing in 2022: here are some details


Coach Daily rate : $700/day.

Trailer Rental: :$100/ day

Driver daily rate: $400

Tour fuel $7200

Numerous other numbers he included as well

Total for 1 month $60,793.00 - over 1.2 million per calendar year. A fucking rip off!

Am I missing something or are you somehow thinking that buying a bus means you no longer have fuel or driver costs?

Not stating that whatsoever.

Then why did you list things that have nothing to do with owning vs renting?

$700x30 = $21K/month = $252K/year which assumes you tour 365 days a year. No one does that. And I am sure if you wanted to rent it for an entire year you would get a better deal.

A quick google search says a new tour bus is 1.5M to 2.5M (2022,23,24,25 models), a few years older than that range $800k-1.5M, and the cheapest I saw was $180k for a 2001. Who knows what kind of money it takes to repair and maintain a vehicle that travels that kind of mileage daily. If it made sense to buy most of the time, there wouldn't a touring bus rental industry.

Reliability is of outmost importance as a touring schedule doesn't allow much margin of error for a breakdown. With a rental company, I would think they have some financial responsibility should you miss a gig because their vehicle shit the bed as well as bring you a backup vehicle ASAP.

I'd also guess your average band (nevermind an individual member) couldn't afford nor qualify for a loan for a million-dollar vehicle that depreciates the second you drive it off the lot. The interest alone would be crazy.

So those would be my guesses as to why.

And logically if it made sense (assuming they could afford it) to buy vs rent they would. I am sure someone thought of it and ran the numbers before you did.

[LAglamrocker]

PJ needs to quit those Jericho bands and just be in Trixter year round..living in the million dollar bus. Be wise investment for Trixter ..that’s only 500000$ per Trixter guy
One In A Million Tour Bus

[Michael Hotts Ghost]

I am sure insurance isn’t cheap either on a vehicle like that involved in commercial touring.

[kwf]

You are better off being the bus driver than being the drummer

[Wednesday 13 Fan]

I assume Bandwagons are a lot cheaper. Pretty sure I heard Wednesday talking about that in some video, and how he had to "buy one" years ago because the driver took it under a too short overpass or something.

[keyofgee]

We have an older eagle and a toater (the kind nascar ppl use)

[ParaDime77]

Am I missing something or are you somehow thinking that buying a bus means you no longer have fuel or driver costs?

Not stating that whatsoever.

Then why did you list things that have nothing to do with owning vs renting?

$700x30 = $21K/month = $252K/year which assumes you tour 365 days a year. No one does that. And I am sure if you wanted to rent it for an entire year you would get a better deal.

A quick google search says a new tour bus is 1.5M to 2.5M (2022,23,24,25 models), a few years older than that range $800k-1.5M, and the cheapest I saw was $180k for a 2001. Who knows what kind of money it takes to repair and maintain a vehicle that travels that kind of mileage daily. If it made sense to buy most of the time, there wouldn't a touring bus rental industry.

Reliability is of outmost importance as a touring schedule doesn't allow much margin of error for a breakdown. With a rental company, I would think they have some financial responsibility should you miss a gig because their vehicle shit the bed as well as bring you a backup vehicle ASAP.

I'd also guess your average band (nevermind an individual member) couldn't afford nor qualify for a loan for a million-dollar vehicle that depreciates the second you drive it off the lot. The interest alone would be crazy.

So those would be my guesses as to why.

And logically if it made sense (assuming they could afford it) to buy vs rent they would. I am sure someone thought of it and ran the numbers before you did.

Before you flame sir, here is where l took the #’s from

https://youtu.be/cRqszYMuvOQ?si=WBm6so8h2fy-10Kr

[Velvis]

Not stating that whatsoever.

Then why did you list things that have nothing to do with owning vs renting?

$700x30 = $21K/month = $252K/year which assumes you tour 365 days a year. No one does that. And I am sure if you wanted to rent it for an entire year you would get a better deal.

A quick google search says a new tour bus is 1.5M to 2.5M (2022,23,24,25 models), a few years older than that range $800k-1.5M, and the cheapest I saw was $180k for a 2001. Who knows what kind of money it takes to repair and maintain a vehicle that travels that kind of mileage daily. If it made sense to buy most of the time, there wouldn't a touring bus rental industry.

Reliability is of outmost importance as a touring schedule doesn't allow much margin of error for a breakdown. With a rental company, I would think they have some financial responsibility should you miss a gig because their vehicle shit the bed as well as bring you a backup vehicle ASAP.

I'd also guess your average band (nevermind an individual member) couldn't afford nor qualify for a loan for a million-dollar vehicle that depreciates the second you drive it off the lot. The interest alone would be crazy.

So those would be my guesses as to why.

And logically if it made sense (assuming they could afford it) to buy vs rent they would. I am sure someone thought of it and ran the numbers before you did.

Before you flame sir, here is where l took the #’s from

https://youtu.be/cRqszYMuvOQ?si=WBm6so8h2fy-10Kr

Yes, I watched that a couple of years ago. I wasn't try to flame, rather offer my opinions on why bands would rent over buying.