We are Ben and Caleb

In real life, we are Ben and Caleb. Here we are in our truest form, mirrored in a Buster vehicle:

We’re the vendor operations team at Buster. That means we are the people who meet with every charter company Buster works with, and step on board all the vehicles you might ride on with Buster. We are the ones making sure your luxury limo seats are the finest Italian leather and your school bus 100% satisfies your nostalgic expectations.

Most importantly though, we are people. We respond to every customer inquiry personally, because booking buses, limos, and vans is not that simple, and we are here to help. We think about buses all day, so you don’t have to.

More about us

Some day, Caleb aspires to be Punderdome Champion of the World (official title), and Ben just wants to run the world. We spent our first couple years at Buster on the road, meeting and signing up charter companies, kicking tires, and making sure you only get the finest vehicles when you book. We’ve been inside, photographed, and okayed all Buster vehicles, so if you have any questions about vehicles, or how Buster works, just ask.

Bonus points: If you can find more outlines of us in any other Buster photos, we’ll give you 10% off your next Buster trip! Just tell us in the chat box.

“It cut our time in half. We used to call around to several limo or bus companies for quotes, and now we just put the info in, the prices come right to us, and it’s done that day. I don’t even need to worry about following up.” 

– Tracey Goldstein, owner of Polka Dot Events

1. The Basics

Whether everyone will be coming from the same office or various locations, be sure to set clear pickup spots and times and communicate that to all passengers. In addition to keeping passengers in the loop, having one point person within each group who will help to bridge any communication gaps between driver and passengers. The buses are big, but they still need to find you and let you know they’re there!

2. Deciding on Vehicle Size and Shuttle Options

What is the style of the event, and what will the guests be expecting? Do you want everyone traveling together in one large coach bus? Is part of the evening the ride itself? Is a nostalgic vibe part of the theme…yellow school bus, anyone? Knowing what style of vehicle you need and how many passengers you’d like to move in each vehicle at a time are key factors to have in mind before looking for options and pricing. If you want some suggestions, we’re here to help.

3. Getting Quotes

The part of the event that feels like an afterthought can easily become an event all in itself. Calling operator after operator only to get wildly different quotes is an outdated system. And good luck actually getting a response back. Don’t start twiddling your thumbs yet – they’ll get sore. With Buster, we already did that legwork for you. Just answer a few questions about your trip, and we’ll show you prices and vehicle options instantly. All of the operators have already been vetted by our team, so you can rest assured that you are in good hands. And gratuity is already included, so no need to carry a wad of cash that won’t fit in your purse/suit.

4. Communication

Do you want the driver to meet at a certain corner? Do you need ample time to set up gift bags on the seats prior to passengers boarding? Do you want the vehicle shuttles to stagger their departure times? The more clear the requests are before the day of the trip, the more likely it will be a smooth ride. We’ll also let you know your driver’s name and phone number for any last minute details.

A little prep work goes a long way, and these steps are sure to cut your transportation booking time in half. Time better spent actually enjoying your event!

What’s your favorite vehicle?

Everyone loves the big (or little) yellow bus! Whether it’s the nostalgia factor or (more likely) the economical price tag, almost 30% of your trips are taken on the cheese wagon. Middle school flashbacks and nightmares? Mini buses and coach buses were not far behind.

When’s your favorite time to ride?

September! Labor Day is a hit. Getting married in September or big family reunion coming up? Let’s get that trip booked. September is popular not only for being prime wedding season, but also weekend getaways, company retreats, and fundraisers galore.

Other popular days coming up? May 27th and June 10th. People getting hitched.

So how soon should you book?

Today! We always recommend booking as soon as possible, and we make it as easy as we can to make that happen. We won’t charge your credit card until 7 days before your trip, and you can cancel or edit before then with no penalty. The only thing you can’t change? Your passenger count – we need to know what size vehicle to roll up in.

So seriously, what does it all actually mean? You’re split between booking outside of 30 days and within 7 days. Not so hot on the days in between.

This is only the simplified part of a bigger story. It all varies by vehicle – booking a coach bus or a fancy limousine? You should probably book that early. Nearly half of all those bookings occur outside of 30 days. Booking a sprinter van or a big yellow bus? Those are booked closer to your event. But seriously, just book it now anyway.

What’s the point?

The point is we’ve got what you need. Not sure what you need? We can help you figure that out too. Planning for a group (or a wedding, or a conference, or a retreat) doesn’t have to be stressful – or at least the transportation part doesn’t. We have the tools (and nerdy factoids and charts) to help.

See you on the other side of the chat box.

We’re more than “Reservations”

People in the transportation industry always talk about “Customer Service,” and by that, it’s really just everyone claiming to have the best customer service. If you’ve ever been in charge of renting the birthday limo, bachelorette party sprinter, or wedding shuttle, that may have been LOL-inducing.

“Bus people” speak like bus people. Even when talking to you (I meant “to,” not “with”). We spent years demystifying the bus chatter so that we can translate on your behalf and provide an actual “Customer Experience.” We’re not just taking reservations, we’re helping with the whole journey.

Enter the Proactive Customer Experience

We think we’ve reached the perfect balance of communication – we’re not going to annoy you (we hope), but we’ll make sure you’re reassured that your bus, van, or limo is going to be there and your event will go off without a hitch. We triple confirm details with your operator (seriously, 3 times), including the day-of to make sure everything is still running on-time and there are no surprises. From your perspective, you’ll get all of your details again 5 days before your trip so you have a second to review and rethink anything you may have missed the first time around. The day of your trip, you’ll get a text to confirm everything is running as planned and (again) make sure you have all the contact info you need. Honestly, we started doing this because it made our lives easier. You get the added benefit of more reliable bus service at no extra cost.

We call it the “Buster 5 Point Proactive Customer Experience.” The process is there, our naming originality is falling a bit behind.

Winter in New York City is brutal – soot-encrusted snow, skyscraper wind tunnels in Midtown, shoes soaked through with slush. Get back in touch with how beautiful winter can be on a trip to upstate New York. A few hours north of the city, snow is gentle, silent, and white, and strong wind is something you watch from inside, next to a wood-burning fireplace.

Find an AirBnB or HomeAway rental (like this grand farmhouse or this chalet), take a crisp, short winter hike, and then seriously consider spending the evening with your friends relaxing over some hot cider or mulled wine. Book a sprinter van there and back, and forget logistics for a few days.

2.  Take a nice hot mudbath – on a spa weekend

The NYC area is littered with spa resorts tucked into bucolic settings, designed to serve harried city slickers. Perhaps the most well-known and luxurious among them, Mohonk Mountain House offers sprawling grounds with elegant rooms, plentiful spa services, daily meals and snacks included for all guests, and, if you’re feeling inspired, activities like ice skating, snow tubing, and snowshoeing.

If you’re looking for something a bit more laid-back, try the Buttermilk Falls Inn, where you can bond over group spa treatments. Try hydrotherapy at the Roosevelt Baths and Spa, or focus on alternative wellness at the Cooperhood Retreat and & Spa. Book a limo to get out there – you deserve this.

3.  Go historic-house-hopping in the Hudson Valley

The Hudson Valley is full of history, including dozens of grand old estates now open to the public. Curate a weekend of historic sightseeing, and offer your friends a chance to be transported to another time. Pick your favorite styles and stories from a long list of homes, and spend a few days house-hopping. When you’re done admiring and touring, retire in the evenings to your own grand residence at the Castle Hotel & Spa in Tarrytown. You’ll feel like a titan of industry in another era – just make sure you book your chauffeur as well. An executive coach seems appropriately grand.

4.  Enjoy peaceful Montauk in the off-season

Craving sun and sea in the middle of dark and windy winter days? Visit the super-luxurious Gurney’s Montauk Resort & Seawater Spa in the off-season. You might even find you prefer their huge, heated saltwater indoor pool to the open ocean. Enjoy the peace of their seawater baths, their saunas and steam rooms, and spa services, and the drama of the winter water views – without the summer crowds around. Forget high-season travel woes on the way there and back – on a Sprinter van with comfy seats and big windows.

5.  Atlantic City… the opposite of natural beauty

All this too mellow for you? Sometimes you just have to throw relaxing in the trash and go to a casino resort. Visit the Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City and treat yourself to more luxury than you can actually absorb in a weekend. They have five pools, five restaurants, and 85 poker tables, so you can dive in, wear sequins and say things like, “luck be a lady!” – if you’re into that. And if you’re not interested in table stakes, move on to the Borgata’s nightclub mur.mur, or post up at one of their twelve bars. Obviously take a party bus out there to set the tone.

With the ever-changing landscape of the COVID-19 epidemic, we continue to adapt our operations and business to address all aspects of the health and safety of our customers, vendor partners, and employees. We are in constant contact with our vendor partners and continue to maintain the most effective cleaning procedures according to guidelines presented by the CDC and other organizations.

As we all work to stabilize emergency operations and protocols, many have already begun to turn to us and ask questions. What happens when events are cancelled? How can we source clean and safe group transportation if necessary? What happens if flights are not available and we must get essential teams to locations?

The good news is, we have answers and solutions. We’re here to help and we’re absolutely committed to keeping our customers, drivers, and cleaning crews safe during this crisis. Read on for more information about the steps our vendor partners take to help keep you safe and healthy while riding in shared spaces including reducing the number of travelers on each motorcoach/bus.

How do our vendor partners help protect customers and drivers?

While each vendor has their own detailed process for cleaning their vehicles, here are some of the basic precautions generally taken for your safety, health and wellness.

The bus cleaning staff have been advised to focus attention when cleaning the areas and touch points listed below with soap and water and spraying with disinfectant each time a motorcoach returns from a charter. Drivers should wipe down these same surfaces with disinfectant wipes during the day for multi-day charters. Drivers should ensure hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies are available on every charter.

• Handrails for entering and exiting the vehicle
• Arm rests
• Driver steering wheel
• Dash area
• Head rest
• Windowsills
• Restroom door handles
• Restroom handrails
• Vehicle sprayed well with Lysol disinfectant spray or similar product on a regular basis
• Baggage door handles interior as well as exterior
• Have Sani-wipes available on vehicles for operator and passenger usage

Next Steps?

We continue to monitor communications from the CDC, USDOT, FMCSA, TSA, the President’s Task Force, and others as the situation evolves.

Contact our team of transportation experts to discuss your needs. They will find the solutions to ensure you have the service to avoid any delays or disruption to get the job done.

We know you have many choices when selecting a transportation partner. We greatly appreciate your loyalty and trust. If you have questions or concerns about future travel or reservations you’ve already made, please don’t hesitate to contact our team.

(800) 215-9154
support@busterprod.wpengine.com

Stay safe and well!

Updated: Thursday, March 19, 2020

Today, finding and booking a bus is difficult and time-intensive, whether you’re an office intern planning the annual outing to the ballpark or a professional wedding planner who needs shuttles and party buses every week.

The difficulties come from the current fragmentation in the market: today, there are 3,264 bus companies in the United States and Canada operating more than 38,000 coach buses. But only 22 of them have more than 100 buses, meaning there’s no single online destination you can visit and reliably find a bus, regardless of your needs. Most people’s bus-booking experience involves conducting a frantic Google search, visiting several companies’ websites, making a handful of phone calls, and sometimes waiting days or even weeks to get quotes to compare.

Obviously, that’s not ideal.

What the Acquisition Means for Customers

Now that Buster and BusBank are joining forces, the frustration and confusion that used to be a part of trying to book group travel from a trusted company is over.

BusBank has thousands of bus operators in its system whose vehicles customers can reserve. Now, they’ll be able to do that online in a matter of minutes, thanks to Buster’s backend technology. Customers of both BusBank and Buster will have access to more vehicles than ever before, and they’ll all benefit from Buster’s easy three-step reservation system:

• Enter itinerary details.
• Choose your vehicle.
• View availability (in real time!) and make a reservation.

In other words, the acquisition means that customers can expect booking a bus to be a lot more like reserving a rental car or buying an airline ticket: online, fast, and simple. A process that once took weeks now takes 10 minutes or less.

And if your request is complicated or multi-faceted, don’t worry: you’ll still be able to talk to the account service specialists who have been providing BusBank’s excellent customer service since its founding.

What the Acquisition Means for Operator Partners

Operators who list their vehicles on Buster will enjoy the same process for accepting jobs: they’ll get emails alerting them to available trips in the Exchange, then claim jobs according to their availability. The major difference is that there will be more bookings available, meaning more opportunity to earn money. That’s thanks to the thousands of BusBank customers operators will now have access to.

BusBank operators will enjoy the same service from the team they know and trust, but, again, with access to more bookings. They’ll also be able to take advantage of Buster’s technology, which will let them accept bookings, review their booking history, and update their fleet information online.

All operator partners will have access to the top-tier operator relations team that has served BusBank customers consistently over the years.

Better Group Travel Options for Everyone

For years now, most people have known where to go online to book individual travel and which brands they trust to provide safe rides and excellent service.

Thanks to the BusBank acquisition of Buster, people will now have a single online destination for booking group travel, whether they need a couple shuttles for a family wedding or daily shuttle transportation for a corporate workforce, or providing transportation for a national music festival.  

The two companies couldn’t be better positioned to make easy group travel a reality: in addition to Buster’s proven tech platform, its leadership team includes former Priceline executives, whose experience in the online travel space can’t be beaten. As for BusBank, it has supported successful bus trips and large events throughout North America for almost two decades.

Customers can expect the following from group travel reservations made through BusBank or Buster:

• A full vehicle suite with nationwide coverage. This includes coach buses, SUVs, Sprinter vans, luxury buses, yellow school buses, and party buses.
• On-call account service specialists who can help plan and execute travel events.
• Instant price quotes you see within seconds of entering your needs. And all trips can be changed or canceled up to one week ahead of your event.
• Reputable, safe vehicles. All operators available through the Buster and BusBank platforms are thoroughly vetted to ensure they meet US Department of Transportation safety and insurance standards. Operators are required to own and maintain their vehicles.
• Proactive event management.  Account service specialists coordinate with operators ahead of your event to make sure all details have been communicated and all vehicles will be on time.

The combined forces of BusBank and Buster will make group travel easier throughout North America, both for those in the passenger seats and those operating the buses. We look forward to seeing you on the road!

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Back when Buster was a wee little roadster, it had big dreams of breaking down the barriers of the charter bus industry and shepherding it into the digital age. The company was established in 2012, gained momentum in 2015 with its operator partnerships and investments, and went national in 2016, so fasten your seat belts because Buster has a lot in store for 2017! New logo, new look, new easy-to-read results page, new lower pricing, and tools that will solve your booking woes.

THE INDUSTRY IS STUCK IN THE PAST

As many of you may already know from booking ground transportation, the pre-Buster industry was stuck in the dial-up days in terms of technology. It could turn into a full time job with all the calling, leaving voicemails, waiting for e-mailed quotes, and reconfirming trip details. Even if you were lucky enough to actually speak with a human, there were still irrational pricing discrepancies and hidden fees leaving you confused and exhausted from the process.

ENTER BUSTER

Buster is an online booking platform for group ground transportation – think Expedia for buses, limos, and vans. Operators across the U.S. input their fleet and pricing information, and the Buster booking platform works its magic to give you instant vehicle options and pricing that match your specific itinerary. No more cash, quote forms, or phone calls necessary.

Check out how easy it is:

WHAT THE BUSTER TEAM IS WORKING ON TODAY

From shuttling options to mobile friendly technology – your voices have been heard! Your experience with Buster is what helps shape the direction of the website, and the team is working hard to put those features and functionality in place so you can overhaul the way you book travel – saving an incredible amount of time and money.

Buster’s new look fits in well with the service it offers – a streamlined approach to helping people mobilize. Whether you are a professional wedding planner or the friend that volunteered to organize a trip to the game, you can begin your search with the same tool at busterprod.wpengine.com/plan.

Brides and Grooms – not so sure where to begin planning shuttles for your guests coming from different hotels at various times? The shuttling tool is getting its finishing touches in the shop and will give you a sigh of relief when you can build out those more detailed trips all online, even from your phone if you prefer! That technology is revolutionary in the online travel industry, so stay tuned for the announcement of that feature and follow Buster’s social channels to keep up with the evolution of the platform.

Happy Travels!

Here’s your guide to five of the most road-trip-worthy festivals to book now:

Boston Calling – Boston, MA (May 27-29)
Get tickets on the Boston Calling site and book a mini bus for 20 people
With around a five hour drive from NYC, the trip up North is just long enough to get in the festival mood. Boston Calling has been around since 2013, attracting close to over 20,000 concert-goers a year. Situated in Downtown Boston, you can easily get some sightseeing in too (we hear the shopping is great). Headliners this year include Sia, Disclosure and Odeza. Bring your dancing shoes.

Electric Daisy Carnival – Citi Field, Queens, NY (May 14-15)
Get tickets on the EDC site and book an SUV stretch limo
The EDC series makes it way to NYC in May. EDC has a reputation as one of the most elaborate electronic festivals during the year. The first production was nearly 10 years ago, and they’ve gotten more dazzling every year. If you are a fan of electronic music, crazy light displays, and a cast of eclectic actors interacting with the crowd, grab your friends and head to this one. Don’t be shy with your outfit choice.

Firefly Music Festival – Dover, DE (June 16-19)
Get tickets on the Firefly site and book a cheap, fancy Sprinter van
Featuring an impressive array of artists from Mumford & Sons to Deadmau5, this is a great festival for those who have an appreciation for a variety of genres of music. Known as one of the larger venues, Firefly sits on 105-acres of space, enough to set up camp and walk around comfortably among the crowds.

Governor’s Ball – Randall’s Island, NY (June 3-5)
Get tickets on the Gov Ball site and book a stretch limo, obviously
For those that want to get away from NY, without really getting away from NY, this is the trip for you. Randall’s Island is conveniently located right off of Manhattan. The lineups have been more impressive over the years, competing with festival giants like Coachella and Lollapalooza. (Because in NYC, we know how to do it.) Headliners this year include Kanye West, the Strokes, and the Killers. With all the recent buzz around some of the artists, particular Kanye, you won’t want to miss it.

Camp Bisco – Scranton, PA (July 14-16)
Get tickets on the Camp Bisco site and book a comfy van for you and your gear
Like the outdoors, and and love live music? Welcome to your paradise. Originally based in upstate NY, this year Camp Bisco’s organizers decided on a move to Montage Mountain outside of Scranton. Founded by artists The Disco Biscuits, this festival doesn’t just put on a show. They contribute to various charities through ticket sales. So you can have a good time while doing a good thing. Nice.

Go ahead, grab your friends, book your ride with Buster, and get your road trip on.