Buddy H.
Good Enough 🤷♂️
We hired King’s Charter in the busy season as they were the only company available at the time. The price was great, and even with a dead head drive from the opposite coast, it still fit the budget. No alarms were raised, until we were asked to pay the entire rental fee up front weeks before the tour started. The sales rep was fairly aggressive about this, but at the end conceded to working with a deal consisting of 50% deposit up front, and balance paid upon band entering bus. Once this alarm was raised, I began to research the company and discovered a terrible reputation, and zero positive feedback. Upon this discovery, I then questioned the legitimacy of King’s Charter. I asked for photos of the bus for weeks prior, and received nothing until the bus was actually en route to pick us up. The driver details were changed twice prior to our bus pickup. Finally, I was put in touch with the driver days before our tour started. The driver, Hashir, was assuring, responsive and sent videos of bus. We received a 2010 Prevost that was in fair condition. The bus was dated, but functional. Wires were coming out of the walls, gum was found in a bunk. Some lights and bunk vents were non functional, but the bus moved, and got us to the shows on time. The water pump was intermittently functional, so we couldn’t access the sink to wash our hands for most of the tour. Bathroom and bunk area doors had overly pressurized hydraulics and would cause a disturbing slam and knock every time you would close the doors. Hashir. The driver was excellent, and highly skilled. Easy to communicate with, knowledgeable with routes; and handled the bus with extreme care and safety. On a 14 day tour the bus ran great but eventually broke down en route to our last show. Kings Charter covered the cost of sourcing a tow truck for trailer and replacement bus to transfer band/crew to venue. Sadly, the bus was unable to return band to airport, as no timely or comfortable solution was feasible. We were forced to rebook international flights from a different airport which cost us close to ten thousand dollars. All in all, King’s Charter got the job done at the expense of the band’s comfort. The money we saved on bus rental, was spent on extra flights. They supplied us with an excellent driver and a workable - but dated bus. I would consider employing their services again only as a last resort or with more knowledge of the provided bus months before the tour started.