mini bus business plan

Starting Minibus Transport Business Plan (PDF)

Minibuses play a very important role in the public transport industry. Everyday millions of people use minibuses as transport to get to their destinations. Minibus public transport business is a very lucrative venture, which is highly rewarding. This article will outline how to start the minibus public transport business, and the minibus business plan – PDF, Word and Excel.

Minibus public transportation is a lucrative business, providing income for millions of people, but there are some essential decisions you need to make before you venture into the business. You have to make a decision on how many minibuses you will start with, the type of minibuses, the routes you will be operating in, and your target market. These choices will be affected by the amount of capital you have, and the opportunities available in the market.  If you do not have a lot of capital, you can always start small and grow your minibus public transport business overtime.

Size is not everything in the minibus public transport industry – you do not need a large fleet in order to start up the minibus business. There are stories of people who have started a successful public transport business with nothing more than a single minibus. At the same time, the public transport business industry is diverse and rich enough to accommodate very large companies with large fleets of minibuses. Whatever option you choose; there are some critical issues that you must take into consideration as you come up with your minibus business plan.

Market Research

Formidable competition to contend with.

In many parts of the world there are affordable and reliable public transportation systems. This can be in the form of trains, and buses, amongst others; typically run by government. This is serious competition for a minibus transport business. No wonder you need to conduct market research. You have to figure out your competition i.e. government-run and private public transportation providers.

Seeking To Find A Disruptor Element

You want to know the routes they cover, their fare structures, and the type of transportation they use. People tend to be loyal to certain public transporters. Your market research is to find gaps and loopholes you can leverage on to be more appealing. After all, minibuses are not typical in many parts of the world. Thus you really have to dig deep to understand the public transport dynamics of your target market. That brings to the fore the target market.

Figuring Which Target Market Is Ideal

You want to figure which markets are worth targeting and how. It could be plying a particular route daily. It might be for companies, schools, and the like i.e. daily transportation of staff or students. You could find underserved routes and cater for them. Another niche is hiring out your minibus for intracity or intercity trips. Being able to know how exactly you must package your value proposition requires in-depth market research. Minibuses are atypical so you cannot just assume, be empirical!

Even though your business will be transporting people on the road; you still need some sort of premises for your minibus transport business. You can lease an office in the beginning of your business and then purchase your own later on. The office will have to be furnished and you have to hire employees to manage the office work. The work of the office is vital to the rest of the business. You should not treat it like a separate entity which does not need to conform to the highest standards of customer care. Instead try to ensure that you have a seamless service provision that is uniformly impressive and excellent. You also need secure premises where your minibuses will be parked when not on the road. The minibus business plan should cater for funds to purchase or lease premises.

Vehicles and Equipment

You need to purchase minibus vehicles in order to start the public transport business. The minibus vehicles can be imported from other countries where they are cheap or you can buy them locally from your country. The number and type of minibuses required will depend on the amount of capital which you have and your target market. You will also have to make a decision on whether to buy brand new minibus vehicles or second hand vehicles. When starting the business with limited capital, it maybe better to purchase used minibus vehicles. The advantage of having new minibus vehicles is that you will have lower maintenance costs and better reliability on the road.

There are several factors to take into consideration when purchasing the minibus vehicles. Some of the factors include: purchase price, fuel consumption, transmission mode (automatic vs manual), passenger capacity, model, new minibus vs used minibus. If you have limited capital, you can always start your minibus public transport business with just one vehicle. Minibus public transportation business is very profitable and if you reinvest your profits, you will be able to purchase more minibuses.

Equipment required for the minibus business include garage equipment and repair tools. The minibus drivers should always travel with basic repair tools such that if they encounter minor problems along the way, they can always fix the vehicles. The minibus business plan should include the costs of purchasing the vehicles and equipment.

Minibus Servicing And Repairs

Aim is to be always reliable and efficient.

The success of being a public transportation provider heavily depends on your efficiency and reliability. People will prefer your minibuses if they operate efficiently. Breakdowns or poor vehicle performance will put off customers. After all, people already have so many other options they can turn to. That is why you cannot afford to have minibuses that are unreliable. You have to regularly service your minibus as prescribed.

Stick To A Regular Servicing Schedule

The servicing schedule might differ depending on the type of minibus. At times it can be premised on certain mileage milestones. A general rule is that services should not be spaced by more than 10 weeks. Thus in a year, your minibus must be serviced at least 5 times. Sticking to this servicing regiment keeps the minibus operating efficiently. It helps you detect early any issues requiring attention. The need for repairs is significantly reduced or even eliminated just by regular servicing.

Inevitability Of Repairs And The Need For Professional Hands

A minibus has several moving parts – electrical, electronic, mechanical, and so on. Faults can happen which necessitate repairs. When that happens it is prudent to involve qualified and skilled professionals. Maybe you do it in-house or you engage a repairs provider. Whichever the case is, you must ensure that repairs are done professionally; no shortcuts. Improperly done repairs lead to more complications and can shorten the lifespan of the minibus. Plus your minibus transport business will be severely compromised.

Minibus Public Transport Business Insurance and Licences

One of the critical requirements that can potentially have catastrophic consequences for the public as well as the business is insurance. It is advisable to have a comprehensive insurance plan for all the minibus vehicles. The costs of comprehensive insurance are more than offset by the potential losses if you were to have an accident. As a business; the minibus business may be liable for very significant punitive damages particularly if there is a loss of life. Without adequate insurance, the minibus public transport business could be bankrupted by compensation claims.

The minibus public transport industry is regulated and the specific licences depends with the country. First of all, your drivers must be properly licensed with up to date records including health checks and driver licences.  Your local council will have a list of regulatory requirements which must be diligently followed lest you lose your license to operate the minibus business. The minibus public transportation business plan should include costs for the insurance and licenses.

Staff and Management

Operations staff is a necessity for the minibus public transport business. Operations staff are responsible for handling the operations of the public transport business. They include drivers, conductors, logistics personnel, mechanics and operations manager. You will need a minibus driver as the minimum starting employee for the minibus transport business.

Finance and accounting employees are also required. For a small minibus business, the duty can be handled by the owner of the business or a part time accountant. However as the minibus public transport business grows, there will be need for full time employees who will be responsible for the finance and accounting needs of the business. Their duties will include usual day to day transaction accounting for business, managing the cash flow of the minibus public transport business, and always ensuring the enough funds are available for the day to day needs of the minibus business.

Capital for Starting Minibus Public Transport Business

The amount of capital required for starting the minibus public transport business depends on the size of the business. It all depends on what you want to achieve and the resources that you have. When starting a minibus business, most of the capital goes to acquiring the minibus vehicles. You can get a loan from the bank, or funding from investors, to use as capital to start your minibus public transport business. If you plan to raise capital from investors and a loan from the bank, you need a good minibus public transport business plan. If you don’t have access to investors and bank loan, you can use your personal savings and start small, and grow your minibus business overtime. Minibus transport business is very profitable, so if you reinvest the profits you get, you can grow over time. Even if you are not planning to get a loan, you should still get a minibus project plan to guide you in starting and operating the business. It is essential for you to have a minibus transport business plan before you venture into the minibus business, so that you know all the costs involved and you make an informed decision.

Marketing Plan

Build a solid online presence via a business website and social media accounts. Have a framework that even allows people to book online, if applicable. While you are at it, join strategic online marketplaces or business listing platforms.

Effective Branding

Branding your minibus is a sure way of grabbing people’s attention. Engage branding companies and have it colourfully and informatively branded. Find a strategic location for an office and brand it well too. Incorporate the use of banners and posters. Put signage at strategic locations so that brand awareness is spread out.

Ad Placements

You can do ad placements through strategic platforms such as radio, print media, podcasts, online content, and the like. Consider email marketing by sending promotional material about your minibus transport business to prospects.

Market for the Minibus Transport Business

The market for minibus transport is very huge. Minibuses are an affordable means of transport which are used by many people. Minibuses are used as a form of transport for both short distance routes and long distance routes. Short distance routes include routes within the same city. On the other hand long distance routes maybe from one city to the other or cross boarder routes. Minibuses can also be used for private hire by companies, organisations, schools and individuals.

Expansion Strategies

The minibus transport business is scalable through more trips or getting more minibuses. Expansion should be informed by your minibus transport business’ performance. You can notice that you are underserving the market i.e. demand is higher. There could be more untapped markets or routes. These are both opportunities for expansion. The best way to expand is by growing your fleet. Do not rush this though; roots down first, even if it is just one minibus. It is best to wait till your revenues are now substantial and consistently sustained. This will make it easier to purchase new minibuses either directly or by use of loans.

Keys To Profitability

Niche marketing.

In marketing your minibus transport business you must use niche marketing. Niche marketing refers to concerted marketing efforts specifically channelled towards a clearly-defined segment of prospects. Remember the transport industry is immensely broad. To maximize on marketing resources, time, and energy you need to speak to the right prospects. Niche marketing considers metrics such as price, income levels, quality, interests, and geographical dynamics, amongst others.

Invest In Your Staff To Differentiate You Minibus Business

One of the biggest turnoffs for customers is poor treatment from staff. This also extends to staff not being time-conscious and driving recklessly. Invest in regular staff training or up-skilling. Satisfactorily remunerate your staff so that they do their duties happily and professionally. This is pivotal in building customer loyalty and in turn, referrals. You can further cement this by offering competitive prices.

Public transportation is a lucrative but competitive market space. Downtime should be avoided by all means if your minibus transport business is to thrive. The long term goal should be to grow your fleet. If you have just one minibus, you will hit the ceiling at some point.

Pre-Written Minibus Business Plan (PDF, Word And Excel): Comprehensive Version, Short Funding/Bank Loan Version and Automated Financial Statements

For an in-depth analysis of the minibus public transport business, we encourage you to purchase our well-researched and comprehensive minibus transport business plan. We introduced the business plans after discovering that many were venturing into the minibus transport business without enough knowledge and understanding of how to run the minibus public transport business, lack of understanding of the financial side of the business, lack of understanding of : the industry, the risks involved , costs and profitability of the business; which often leads to disastrous losses.

The StartupBiz Global minibus public transport business plan will make it easier for you to launch and run your minibus transport business successfully, fully knowing what you are going into, and what’s needed to succeed in the business. It will be easier to plan and budget as you will be aware of all the costs involved in setting up and running the minibus public transport business.

Uses of the Minibus Public Transport Business Plan (PDF, Word And Excel)

The minibus transport business plan can be used for many purposes including:

• Raising capital from investors/friends/relatives
• Applying for a bank loan
• Start-up guide to launch your minibus business
• As a minibus business proposal
• Assessing profitability of the minibus transport business
• Finding a business partner
• Assessing the initial start-up costs so that you know how much to save
• Manual for current business owners to help in business and strategy formulation

Contents of the Minibus Transport Business Plan (PDF, Word And Excel)

The minibus business plan include, but not limited to:

• Marketing Strategy
• Financial Statements (monthly cash flow projections, income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, break even analysis, payback period analysis, start-up costs, financial graphs, revenue and expenses, Bank Loan Amortization)
• Risk Analysis
• Industry Analysis
• Market Analysis
• SWOT & PEST Analysis
• Operational Requirements
• Operational Strategy
• Why some people in the minibus transport business fail, so that you can avoid their mistakes
• Ways to raise capital to start your minibus business

The Pre-written minibus public transport business plan package consist of 4 files

• Minibus Business Plan – PDF file (Comprehensive Version – 65 Pages)
• Minibus Transport Business Plan – Editable Word File (Comprehensive Version – 65 Pages)
• Minibus Business Plan Funding/Bank Loan Version- Editable Word File (Short version for applying for a loan/funding – 40 pages)
• Minibus Transport Business Plan Automated Financial Statements – (Editable Excel File)

The business plan can be used in any country and can be easily edited. The financial statements are automated. This implies that you can change eg the number of minibuses, number of trips per day etc, and all the other financial statements will automatically adjust to reflect the change.

Click below to download the Contents Page of the Minibus Public Transport Business Plan (PDF)

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Get the Minibus Business Plan (PDF, Word And Excel)

Click Buy Now  below to purchase using Paypal, Credit Card, or Debit Card. After you have purchased, you will immediately see the download link for the business plan package on the screen. You will also immediately get an email with the business plan download link. The Pre-written business plan package (PDF, Word, and Excel) costs $30 only!

If you want to purchase multiple business plans at once then click here: Business Plans Store.

The business plan package is a zipped compressed file containing the PDF, Word and Excel documents. To open the package after downloading it, just right click, and select Extract All. If you have any problems in downloading and opening the files, email us on [email protected] and we will assist you.

We wish you the best in your minibus business! Check out our collection of business plans  , and more business ideas .

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Charter Bus Business Plan [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business Plans » Transportation Sector

Are you about starting a charter bus company? If YES, here is a complete sample charter bus business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE .

Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a charter bus business . We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample canoe and charter bus business marketing plan template backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for charter bus businesses. So let’s proceed to the business planning section.

You will quite agree that starting a business can be such a wonderful experience even though it can be challenging and demanding.

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Having a product or service out there is one sure way of earning income and perhaps becoming wealthy. There are loads of businesses out there that an aspiring entrepreneur can start without going through business training and one of such businesses is a charter bus service.

If you intend starting a charter bus service business, you must analyze the existing charter bus services around your area in order to check out the competition, as well as know their strengths and weaknesses. Knowing the weaknesses of the existing companies will enable you learn from their mistakes and in turn come up with a better and more preferred charter bus company devoid of the mistakes and weaknesses of others.

Charter bus service as the name implies is a company that puts up buses for charter. This kind of venture needs the effort of more than one person and it is worthy to note that this business is a very lucrative.

So, if you have decided to start a charter bus service business, then you should ensure that you carry out feasibility studies and also market survey. Business plan is yet another very important business document that you should not take for granted when launching your business.

Below is a sample charter bus business plan template that can help you to successfully write your own with little or no difficulty.

A Sample Charter Bus Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

Companies that operate in the Scheduled and Charter Bus Services industry provide scheduled and charter bus transportation for clients. Scheduled buses provide intercity, rural and other long – distance transport services on regular routes and schedules as requested.

Equally, charter bus services are contracted out on an as-needed basis. It is important to state that urban public bus transport or school and employee commuter bus transport services are not classified under the Scheduled and Charter Bus Services industry.

A close study of the industry shows that as the economy recovers, more individuals will begin to spend money on trips and other vacations that may require scheduled and chartered bus services. Charter bus companies are projected to benefit from urban population growth, the aging US population, the green movement and the government’s continued attempt to promote alternate modes of transportation.

Statistics has it that in the united states of America alone, there are about 7,472 licensed and registered Scheduled and Charter Bus Services Companies scattered all across the country and they are responsible for employing about 53,310 employees.

The industry rakes in a whooping sum of $5 billion annually with an annual growth rate projected at 1.6 percent within 2011 and 2016. The organizations with the lion share of the market in the industry are FirstGroup PLC and Stagecoach Group.

A report recently published by IBISWorld shows that the Scheduled and Charter Bus Services industry has a moderate to high level of capital intensity, with the average industry operator expected to spend $0.34 on capital for every $1.00 spent on wages.

The report further stated that the vast majority of industry capital spending is on the purchase and maintenance of bus fleets.

A new bus is a form of fixed capital that must be used to transport passengers over a long period of time in order to recuperate the cost of its purchase. In addition, industry operators usually make very heavy use of the buses they own, sometimes for days or weeks without stopping, in order to operate as many routes as possible with a limited bus fleet.

Such heavy usage requires substantial spending on routine bus maintenance and less regular larger repairs. Some of the factors that encourage entrepreneurs to start their own charter bus business is that the business is easy to set up and it is indeed a profitable business venture that an entrepreneur with little business skills can comfortably start.

Lastly, starting a charter bus services business in the United States requires that you get the necessary permit and license to be able to operate in any city of your choice, and you are expected to have a good grasp of the routes and perhaps financing plans for buses.

2. Executive Summary

Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. is a registered charter bus company that will be located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida – United States of America and we plan to also cover cities like Green – acres City, Miami, Jacksonville, Clearwater, Tampa, Miami Beach, North Miami, West Palm Beach, Palm Harbor, Deltona, Orlando, Palm Bay and Panama City et al.

We chose to operate in these cities because we know that our charter bus services will be in high demand due to the growing number of groups and business activities in these cities.

Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. will provide intercity, rural and other long – distance transport services on regular routes and schedules as requested by our clients. We will also contract out our buses on an as-needed basis to corporate organizations and individual customers. We are set to service a wide range of clientele base in the locations where we choose to operate.

We are well trained and equipped to service the market segment that require charter bus services. Although our intention of starting Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. is to offer only the above stated services, but we will not close our doors to additional services as long as it does not affect our core services.

We are quite optimistic that our values, highly reliable and comfortable fleet of buses and of course our quality of service offering will help us drive our charter bus business to enviable heights and also help us attract the number of clients that will make the business highly profitable.

We are a company that will be dedicated to establishing good business relationship with our clients giving them value for their money.

Our overall business goal is to position Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. to become one of the leading charter bus services in the United States of America within the first 8 years of operation. This might look too tall a dream but we are optimistic that this will surely come to pass.

Our client’s best interest will always come first, and everything we do will be guided by our values and professional ethics. We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by meeting our client’s needs precisely and completely.

Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. is owned and managed by McElroy Williams and his immediate family members. He is a notable figure in the automobile industry in Florida. Aside from this new charter bus service business, the family owns an automobile dealership business and also auto repair workshop in different cities in Florida.

3. Our Products and Services

Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. is a licensed charter bus company that offers services that revolves around the scheduled and charter bus industry. We intend giving our customers every reason to always rent or charter our buses which is why we have customized our services.

Our intention of starting our charter bus company is to favorable compete in the industry and of course to make profits from the industry and we will do all that is permitted by the law in the United States of America to achieve our aim and business goal.

Our business offerings are listed below;

• Scheduled bus services – interurban transit
• Scheduled bus services – rural transit
• Long-distance charter bus services
• Local charter bus services

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our Vision is to become the number one charter bus services company in the whole of Florida with active presence in major cities in the United States of America.
• Our mission as a charter bus company is to develop a highly successful, profitable, all-round charter bus business that provides quality services in our community, and to become a standard for an ideal charter bus services business not only in the State of Florida but also throughout the United States of America.

Our Business Structure

We are quite aware that the success of any business lies in the foundation on which the business is built on, which is why we have decided to build our charter bus services company on the right business foundation.

As a matter of fact, we are set out to build a charter bus services business that will compete favorably with leading brands in the industry such as FirstGroup PLC and Stagecoach Group. We want to build a business of dedicated workforce who will ensure that our customers are satisfied and they get value for their money.

We aware that it takes a business with the right employees and structure to achieve all what we have set to achieve, which is why will be putting structures and standard operating processes in place that will help us deliver excellent services and run the business on auto

With the wide range of our service offerings, we are only expected to employ more than it is required to run a conventional charter bus business. Definitely, we will have various employees to man the various job roles available in Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc.

As a means of maximizing operational cost, we will contract the maintenance of all our buses to a service provider. We don’t intend to maintain a very large overhead from the onset, but as soon as the business grows and stabilizes, we will assemble our own professional in-house maintenance team.

Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. will employ professionals and skilled people to occupy the following position;

• Manager (Owner)

Accountant/Cashier

Marketing and Sales Executive

Client Service Executive

• Car Washer and Auto Detailers (6)

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Manager (Owner):

• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Creating, communicating, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals and payment of salaries
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization
• Responsible for managing the daily activities in the organization
• Defines job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Regularly hold meetings with key stakeholders (clients and member of the board) to review the effectiveness of the business Policies, Procedures and Processes
• Maintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
• Ensures operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Oversees the smooth running of the daily activities of organization.
• Identifies, prioritizes, and reaches out to new clients, and business opportunities et al
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts
• Writes winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with organizations’ policy
• Responsible for handling business research, market surveys and feasibility studies for clients
• Documents all customer contact and information
• Represents Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. in strategic meetings
• Helps to increase sales and growth for Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc.
• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides management with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for the organization
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensures compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc.
• Serves as internal auditor for Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc.
• Monitors the locations of buses rented by clients via car tracker software apps
• Welcomes clients and visitors by greeting them in person or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
• Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
• Manages administrative duties assigned by the manager in an effective and timely manner
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the organizations’ products and, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to clients when they make enquiries

Car washers and Automobile Detailers (6):

• Responsible for cleaning, restoration, and finishing of all our buses, both inside and out, to produce a pristine level of detail
• Cleans up after customers
• Maintains a clean working area by sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, cleaning of glass doors and windows, etc. if required.
• Ensures that toiletries and supplies don’t run out of stock
• Handles any other duty as assigned by the manager.

Standby Professional Drivers:

• Responsible for driving, parking and re – parking of buses as required
• Runs errands for the organization

6. SWOT Analysis

Charter bus services business is one of the many businesses that can easily generate sales with little stress as long as they are well positioned and equipped to carry out their services. We are building a standard charter bus services business with variety of complimentary services which is why we have decided to subject our business idea (company) to SWOT Analysis.

Ordinarily we can successfully run a normal charter bus business without going through the required protocol of setting up a new business including writing a detailed business plan, but because of the nature of the charter bus services business we want to establish and of course the huge startup capital involved, we don’t have any option other than to follow due process.

We hired the services of Dr. Angela Bozeman, a HR and Business consultant with bias in startups to help us conduct SWOT analysis for our company and she did a pretty job for us. Here is a of the result we got from the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc.;

Aside from the large fleet of comfortable and highly reliable buses under our rental services, Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. is centrally located in a densely populated commercial and residential estate in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; our location is in fact one of our major strengths.

Another strength that counts for us is the power of our team; our workforce and management. We have a team that are considered experts in the scheduled and charter bus services industry, a team of hardworking and dedicated individuals.

Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. is a new business which is own by an individual (family), and we may not have the financial muscle to sustain the kind of publicity we want to give our business and also to acquire some of the latest buses. As a new business, we are also quite aware that it will take time for us to build trust with our clients.

• Opportunities:

We are centrally located in one of the busiest areas in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and we are open to all the opportunities that the city has to offer. Our business concept also positioned us to be a one stop shop in the charter bus service business.

The truth is that there are no standard and well – equipped charter bus services business within the area where ours is going to be located; the closest charter bus services company to our proposed location is about 6 miles away. In a nutshell, we do not have any direct competition within our target market area.

Some of the threats that are likely going to confront Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. are unfavorable government policies , seasonal fluctuations, demographic/social factors, downturn in the economy which is likely going to affect consumer spending and of course emergence of new competitors within the same location where our charter bus service business is located.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

If you are conversant with the latest trends in the industry, you will note that more people now book to rent buses via mobile application and over the internet rather than visiting the charter bus office. Charter bus mobile application usage has seen an increment in recent time.

No doubt, the Charter bus services industry has indeed changed gears over the last five years, growing strongly after being forced into retrogression during the recession period. The industry is anticipated to continue growing going forward driven by an increase in the number of air travelers, rising per capita income and of course rising corporate profit as well.

The industry’s largest companies are expected to retain their competitive advantages over smaller players, such as maintaining strategic alliances with airlines and hotels.

The trend in the charter bus services industry is that most charter bus companies in the bid to survive the recent global economic meltdown included additional services to their core service offerings. It is much easier for charter bus services companies to increase their revenues by diversifying as against increasing the scope of their market.

8. Our Target Market

Before choosing a location for our charter bus service, we conducted our feasibility studies and market survey and we were able to identify those who will benefit greatly from our service offerings. Those who will benefit from our service offering are schools, sports clubs, traveling agencies cum tourists, corporate organizations and hotels et al. They cut across different sectors of the economy.

The demographic composition of those who need the services of charter bus companies cut across the public sector, the organized private sector, and individuals from different strata of the society and from all walks of life. Below is a list of the people and organizations that our charter bus services is designed for;

• Traveling Agencies and tourists
• Organized private sector
• Sports clubs
• Corporate Executives
• Business People
• Students/Schools

Our competitive advantage

Charter bus service business is easy to set up and does not require formal training to achieve; anybody can set a charter bus business if they have the required startup capital. It means that the possibility of similar businesses springing up in the location where our charter bus services company is located is high.

We are aware of this which is why we decided to come up with a business concept that will position us to become the leader in Fort Lauderdale – Florida.

Our competitive edge is that we have a fleet of comfortable buses and affordable fees. So also, we have a team that are considered experts in the charter bus services industry, a team of hardworking and dedicated individuals. We can confidently say that the location of our charter bus business will definitely count as a positive for us amongst any competitor.

For the time being, Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. has no real competitors that can match the quality of services we offer. Our customer service will be customized to meet the needs of all our customers.

Lastly, all our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category in the industry. It will enable them to be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our business aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

The marketing strategy for Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. is going to be driven basically by reliable and comfortable buses, excellent customer service, safety, honesty and quality service delivery. We will ensure that we build a loyal customer base. We want to drive sales via the output of our services and via referral from our satisfied customers.

Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. is a charter bus services business that is strategically located and we are going to maximize the opportunities that are available to us which is why we spent more to locate the business in a location that will be visible and enable us to access our target market.

Our sales and marketing team will be recruited based on their vast experience in the industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be well equipped to meet their targets. Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients;

• Introduce our charter bus services business by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to corporate organizations, traveling agencies, hotels, schools, sport clubs and key stake holders in Fort Lauderdale – Florida
• Print out fliers and business cards and strategically drop them in offices, libraries, public facilities, airports and train stations et al.
• Use friends and family to spread word about our business
• Post information about our company and the services we offer on bulletin boards in places like schools, libraries, and local coffee shops et al
• Placing a small or classified advertisement in the newspaper, or local publication about our company and the services we offer
• Leverage on referral networks such as agencies that will attract clients to us
• Advertise our charter bus services company in relevant magazines, newspapers, TV and radio stations.
• Attend relevant expos, seminars, and business fairs et al to market our services
• Engage in direct marketing approach
• Encourage the use of Word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied clients
• Join local chambers of commerce and industry to market our services.

Sources of Income

Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the scheduled and charter bus services industry and we are going to ensure that we do all it takes to attract both clients on a regular basis. Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. will generate income by offering the following charter bus services and other related services;

10. Sales Forecast

We are well positioned to take on the available market in Fort Lauderdale – Florida and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income/profits from the first six months of operation and grow our charter bus services business and our clientele base.

We have been able to examine the charter bus services market, we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. Below is the sales projection for Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc., it is based on the location of our business and of course the wide range of related services that we will be offering;

• First Fiscal Year: $250,000
• Second Fiscal Year: $550,000
• Third Fiscal Year: $1 Million

N.B : This projection was done based on what is obtainable in the charter bus services industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and there won’t be any major competitor offering same services as we do within same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. is set to create a standard for charter bus service business in Fort Lauderdale – Florida which is why we will adopt and apply best practices to promote our business. Good enough there is no hard and fast rules on how to advertise or promote a charter bus business.

Here are the platforms we intend leveraging on to promote and advertise Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc.;

• Encourage our loyal customers to help us use Word of Mouth mode of advertisement (referrals)
• Advertise our charter bus services business in relevant magazines, local newspaper, local TV and radio stations
• Promote our business online via our official website
• List our business on local directories (yellow pages)
• Sponsor relevant community programs
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook, twitter, et al to promote our brand
• Install our billboards in strategic locations in and around Fort Lauderdale – Florida
• Leverage on direct coupon mailing approach
• Engage in roadshow from time to time in target communities
• Distribute our fliers and handbills in target area
• Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our official vehicles are well branded with our company logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

Our pricing system is going to be based on what is obtainable in the charter bus services industry, we don’t intend to charge more and we don’t intend to charge less than our competitors are offering in Fort Lauderdale – Florida.

Be that as it may, we have put plans in place to offer discount services once in a while and also to reward our loyal customers especially when they refer clients to us. The prices of our services will be same as what is obtainable in the open market.

• Payment Options

The payment policy adopted by Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different customers prefer different payment options as it suits them but at the same time, we will ensure that we abide by the financial rules and regulation of the United States of America.

Here are the payment options that Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. will make available to her clients;

• Payment via bank transfer
• Payment with cash
• Payment via credit cards
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via check

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will enable our client make payment for our charter bus without any stress on their part. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional materials.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

We have been able to pull cash that will be enough for us to successfully launch a standard charter bus company with fleets of comfortable and reliable buses. We will leverage on leasing opportunity as against outright purchase of buses. In the bid to cut cost, we will contract the servicing and maintenance of all our buses.

These are the key areas where we will spend our startup capital on;

• The total fee for registering the Business in Fort Lauderdale – Florida – $750.
• Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits – $1,500.
• Marketing promotion expenses (2,000 flyers at $0.04 per copy) for the total amount of $3,580.
• The cost for hiring Business Consultant – $2,000.
• Insurance (general liability, workers’ compensation and property casualty) coverage at a total premium – $60,800.
• The cost of accounting software, car tracker software apps, CRM software and Payroll Software – $3,000
• The cost for leasing standard office facility with large space for parking our buses- $250,000.
• The cost for facility remodeling the facility- $70,000.
• The amount needed to facilitate the lease agreements for the first set of buses – $750,000
• Other start-up expenses including stationery – $1000
• Phone and utility deposits – $3,500
• Operational cost for the first 3 months (salaries of employees, fueling, maintenance, payments of bills et al) – $250,000
• The cost for start-up inventory – $15,000
• The cost for store equipment (cash register, security, ventilation, signage) – $13,750
• The cost for the purchase of furniture and gadgets (Computers, Printers, Telephone, TVs, Credit card machine, POS, tables and chairs et al): $4,000.
• The cost of Launching an official website: $600
• Miscellaneous: $10,000

We would need an estimate of $1.5 million to successfully launch our charter bus services business in Fort Lauderdale – Florida US.

Generating Funds/Startup Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc.

Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. will be owned and managed by McElroy Williams and his immediate family members. They decided to restrict the sourcing of the startup capital for the business to just three major sources.

• Generate part of the startup capital from personal savings and sale of his stocks
• Generate part of the startup capital from friends and other extended family members
• Generate a larger chunk of the startup capital from the bank (loan facility).

N.B: We have been able to generate about $500,000 (Personal savings $400,000 and soft loan from family members $100,000) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $1 million from our bank. All the papers and documents have been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

It is an established fact that, the future of a business lies in the number of loyal customers that they have, the capacity and competence of their employees, their investment strategy and business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business, then it won’t be too long before the business closes shop.

One of our major goals of starting Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without the need for injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running.

We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to offer our charter bus services a little bit cheaper than what is obtainable in the market and we are prepared to survive on lower profit margin for a while.

Red Star™ Charter Bus Services, Inc. will make sure that the right foundation, structures and standard operating processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and retraining of our workforce is at the top burner of our business strategy.

We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List/Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check : Completed
• Business Registration: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
• Securing Point of Sales (POS) Machines: Completed
• Opening Mobile Money Accounts: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Acquiring facility and remodeling the facility: In Progress
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Generating capital from family members: Completed
• Applications for Loan from the bank: In Progress
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents and other relevant Legal Documents: In Progress
• Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
• Printing of Promotional Materials: In Progress
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of electronic appliances, office appliances and bar accessories: In progress
• Financing the lease agreement of the first set of buses – In Progress
• Creating Official Website for the Company: Completed
• Creating Awareness for the business both online and in the neighborhood: In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement (License): Secured
• Establishing business relationship with vendors – bus servicing and maintenance company, bus manufactures and other key stakeholders et al: In Progress

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Here is a free business plan sample for a transportation company.

If the open road calls to you and you envision starting your own transportation company, you've navigated to the perfect starting point.

In the content that follows, we will steer you through a comprehensive sample business plan tailored for a transportation enterprise.

As an aspiring entrepreneur, you're likely aware that a robust business plan is the roadmap to success, guiding you to establish your objectives, strategies, and financial projections.

To shift your planning into high gear with ease and precision, you can utilize our transportation company business plan template. Our specialists are also on standby to provide a complimentary review and refinement of your plan.

How to draft a great business plan for your transportation company?

A good business plan for a transportation company must reflect the unique challenges and opportunities of the logistics and transport industry.

To start, it is crucial to provide a comprehensive overview of the transportation market. This includes current statistics and the identification of emerging trends within the industry, as illustrated in our transportation business plan template .

Your business plan should clearly articulate your vision, define your target market (such as local businesses, international shippers, or e-commerce platforms), and describe your company's unique value proposition (like expedited shipping, specialized vehicle fleets, or cost-effective solutions).

Market analysis is a key component. This section should delve into the competitive landscape, regulatory environment, potential partnerships, and customer needs and expectations.

For a transportation company, it is vital to detail the services you plan to provide. This could include freight shipping, passenger transport, logistics services, or last-mile delivery. Explain how these services will meet the demands of your intended customer base.

The operational plan is critical. It should outline the logistics of your operations, including fleet management, routing and scheduling, maintenance protocols, technology use (such as GPS tracking or transportation management systems), and staffing requirements.

Quality control, adherence to transportation regulations, safety standards, and environmental considerations are also important aspects to emphasize for a transportation business.

Discuss your marketing and sales strategies. How will you build your client base and maintain customer relationships? Consider your approach to sales, pricing strategies, and the role of customer service.

Incorporating digital strategies, such as a professional website, online booking systems, and a social media presence, is increasingly important for modern transportation companies.

The financial section is another cornerstone of the plan. It should include your startup costs, revenue projections, operational expenses, and the point at which you expect to break even.

Transportation companies often deal with significant overhead costs, so precise financial planning and understanding your cash flow is essential. For assistance, refer to our financial forecast for a transportation company .

Compared to other business plans, a transportation company's plan must pay special attention to vehicle acquisition and maintenance, fuel cost management, insurance, and compliance with transportation laws and regulations.

A well-crafted business plan will not only help you clarify your strategy and operational approach but also serve as a tool to attract investors or secure loans.

Lenders and investors are looking for thorough market research, realistic financial projections, and a clear plan for day-to-day operations.

By presenting a detailed and substantiated business plan, you showcase your professionalism and dedication to the success of your transportation company.

To achieve these goals while saving time, you can start with our transportation business plan template .

A free example of business plan for a transportation company

Here, we will provide a concise and illustrative example of a business plan for a specific project.

This example aims to provide an overview of the essential components of a business plan. It is important to note that this version is only a summary. As it stands, this business plan is not sufficiently developed to support a profitability strategy or convince a bank to provide financing.

To be effective, the business plan should be significantly more detailed, including up-to-date market data, more persuasive arguments, a thorough market study, a three-year action plan, as well as detailed financial tables such as a projected income statement, projected balance sheet, cash flow budget, and break-even analysis.

All these elements have been thoroughly included by our experts in the business plan template they have designed for a transportation company .

Here, we will follow the same structure as in our business plan template.

Market Opportunity

Market data and figures.

The transportation industry is a critical component of global commerce and is experiencing significant growth.

Recent estimates value the global transportation market at approximately 7 trillion dollars, with expectations for continued expansion due to the rise in e-commerce, global trade, and technological advancements in logistics and supply chain management.

In the United States alone, there are over 500,000 transportation businesses, contributing to an annual revenue of over 1 trillion dollars for the sector.

These statistics underscore the pivotal role of transportation companies in supporting economic activity and facilitating the movement of goods across the country and internationally.

The transportation sector is witnessing several key trends that are shaping its future.

Electrification and alternative fuels are gaining traction as the industry seeks to reduce its carbon footprint and comply with environmental regulations. Electric trucks, ships, and planes are being developed and deployed to meet these goals.

Autonomous vehicles and drones are also on the rise, promising to revolutionize delivery services and enhance efficiency in logistics.

Digital transformation is another significant trend, with the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, advanced tracking systems, and blockchain technology improving transparency and real-time data access.

Additionally, the demand for last-mile delivery services is surging, driven by online shopping and consumer expectations for faster delivery times.

These trends indicate a dynamic evolution in the transportation industry, with companies investing in innovation to stay competitive and meet the evolving needs of the market.

Success Factors

Several factors contribute to the success of a transportation company.

Efficiency in operations is paramount. Companies that can optimize routes, reduce transit times, and manage costs effectively are more likely to succeed.

Reliability and safety are also critical, as customers depend on timely and secure delivery of their goods.

Strategic location of hubs and networks can greatly influence a company's ability to provide comprehensive service coverage and quick response times.

Customer service excellence is essential for building trust and loyalty, especially when handling customer inquiries and resolving issues promptly.

Lastly, the ability to adapt to industry changes, such as implementing sustainable practices and embracing technological innovations, is crucial for long-term viability in the transportation sector.

The Project

Project presentation.

Our transportation company project is designed to address the increasing need for reliable, efficient, and eco-friendly transportation solutions. Strategically located to serve urban centers, business districts, and residential areas, our company will offer a diverse fleet of vehicles, including electric cars, hybrid buses, and cargo vans, all equipped with the latest technology to ensure safety and comfort.

We will prioritize punctuality, customer service, and adaptability to cater to various transportation needs, from daily commutes to corporate logistics.

Our transportation company aims to set a new standard in the industry, focusing on sustainability and customer satisfaction, and becoming a go-to provider for modern, environmentally-conscious travelers and businesses.

Value Proposition

The value proposition of our transportation company is centered on delivering top-tier transportation services that are both eco-friendly and customer-oriented.

Our commitment to using green technology and reducing carbon emissions offers a responsible choice for those who are environmentally conscious, without compromising on efficiency or convenience.

We are dedicated to enhancing the transportation experience by offering a range of services tailored to individual and corporate needs, ensuring that every journey is smooth, timely, and comfortable.

Our transportation company is poised to become a cornerstone in the community, providing a sustainable alternative to traditional transportation methods and contributing to the betterment of our environment and the quality of life of our customers.

Project Owner

The project owner is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in the transportation and logistics industry.

Armed with a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities in modern transportation, they are committed to launching a company that stands out for its dedication to sustainability, customer satisfaction, and innovation.

With a strategic vision for reducing environmental impact and a commitment to leveraging cutting-edge technology, they are determined to offer a service that not only meets the demands of today's market but also anticipates the needs of tomorrow's world.

Their passion for excellence and their expertise in transportation make them the driving force behind this project, aiming to revolutionize the way we think about travel and logistics in an eco-friendly and customer-centric manner.

The Market Study

Market segments.

The market segments for this transportation company are diverse and cater to various customer needs.

Firstly, there are corporate clients who require reliable and professional transportation services for their employees, clients, or goods.

Secondly, individual customers seeking convenient and efficient personal transport solutions, such as airport transfers or private car services.

Another segment includes businesses that need logistics support, including freight and cargo services for their supply chain operations.

Lastly, the tourism sector can be a significant market, with services tailored to tourists needing guided tours, shuttle services, or chartered trips.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis of this transportation company project highlights several key factors.

Strengths include a diverse fleet of vehicles, experienced drivers, and a strong reputation for reliability and customer service.

Weaknesses might involve the high operational costs of vehicle maintenance and fuel, as well as the need for continuous investment in fleet upgrades.

Opportunities can be found in the expansion of services to new markets, the adoption of green technologies, and partnerships with local businesses and tourism agencies.

Threats may include fluctuating fuel prices, regulatory changes, and intense competition from both traditional and app-based transportation services.

Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis in the transportation sector shows a highly competitive landscape.

Direct competitors range from other local transportation companies to international logistics firms and ride-sharing services.

These competitors vie for market share by offering various services, pricing models, and customer experiences.

Potential competitive advantages include strategic partnerships, specialized services, a modern and eco-friendly fleet, and a strong customer loyalty program.

Understanding the competitive environment is crucial for carving out a niche and offering services that distinguish the company from its competitors.

Competitive Advantages

Our transportation company's competitive edge lies in our commitment to safety, punctuality, and customer satisfaction.

We maintain a modern fleet with a range of vehicle options to suit different client needs, from luxury sedans to spacious cargo trucks.

Our investment in technology, such as real-time tracking and efficient routing systems, ensures a seamless experience for our customers.

Additionally, our dedication to sustainable practices, like using fuel-efficient vehicles and exploring electric options, positions us as a forward-thinking leader in the industry.

We value clear communication and transparency with our clients, which fosters trust and long-term business relationships.

You can also read our articles about: - how to start a transportation company: a complete guide - the customer segments of a transportation company - the competition study for a transportation company

The Strategy

Development plan.

Our three-year development plan for the transportation company is designed to be robust and responsive to market demands.

In the first year, we will concentrate on building a solid foundation by establishing a reliable fleet, optimizing routes, and enhancing customer service to grow our local and regional client base.

The second year will focus on expanding our services to include additional logistics solutions and entering new markets, potentially through strategic partnerships or acquisitions.

In the third year, we aim to solidify our presence in the industry by investing in technology such as fleet tracking and management systems, and exploring eco-friendly transportation options to reduce our carbon footprint.

Throughout this period, we will prioritize safety, efficiency, and customer satisfaction to become a leader in the transportation sector.

Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas for our transportation company targets businesses in need of reliable logistics services, as well as individuals requiring personal transport solutions.

Our value proposition is centered on timely and secure delivery, competitive pricing, and exceptional customer service.

We offer our services through direct contracts, our company website, and partnerships with businesses in related industries.

Key resources include our modern fleet of vehicles, logistics software, and a professional team of drivers and support staff.

Our main activities involve route planning, vehicle maintenance, and customer support.

Revenue streams are generated from service fees for transportation and logistics services, while our costs are associated with vehicle maintenance, fuel, staff salaries, and technology investments.

Access a complete and editable real Business Model Canvas in our business plan template .

Marketing Strategy

Our marketing strategy is focused on building a strong brand reputation for reliability and efficiency.

We plan to engage with businesses through networking events, trade shows, and direct outreach to showcase our services.

For individual customers, we will leverage online marketing, social media campaigns, and referral programs.

We will also explore partnerships with companies in complementary industries to offer integrated logistics solutions.

Our commitment to sustainability and the use of advanced technology will be highlighted to differentiate us from competitors.

Risk Policy

The risk policy for our transportation company is designed to mitigate risks associated with vehicle operation, regulatory compliance, and market fluctuations.

We will implement rigorous maintenance schedules for our fleet, adhere to all transportation laws and regulations, and continuously train our staff to ensure the highest safety standards.

Our financial risk will be managed through careful budgeting, cost control, and diversification of our customer base.

We will also carry comprehensive insurance to protect against potential liabilities related to our transportation services.

Our focus is on delivering dependable transportation solutions while safeguarding the well-being of our customers and employees.

Why Our Project is Viable

We are committed to establishing a transportation company that meets the evolving needs of the market.

With our focus on customer service, operational excellence, and strategic growth, we are poised to capture significant market share.

We are enthusiastic about the opportunity to facilitate commerce and mobility, contributing positively to the economy and society.

We remain adaptable to industry trends and customer feedback, ensuring the long-term viability and success of our transportation business.

You can also read our articles about: - the Business Model Canvas of a transportation company - the marketing strategy for a transportation company

The Financial Plan

Of course, the text presented below is far from sufficient to serve as a solid and credible financial analysis for a bank or potential investor. They expect specific numbers, financial statements, and charts demonstrating the profitability of your project.

All these elements are available in our business plan template for a transportation company and our financial plan for a transportation company .

Initial expenses for our transportation company include acquiring a fleet of reliable vehicles, obtaining the necessary licenses and permits, investing in logistics software to optimize routes and track deliveries, training drivers and logistics staff, as well as costs related to brand creation and launching targeted marketing campaigns to establish our presence in the market.

Our revenue assumptions are based on a thorough analysis of the local and regional demand for transportation services, considering the economic growth and the need for efficient logistics solutions.

We anticipate progressively increasing sales, starting modestly and growing as the reputation of our transportation company strengthens.

The projected income statement indicates expected revenues from our transportation services, operational costs (vehicle maintenance, fuel, driver wages, insurance), and operating expenses (office rent, marketing, administrative salaries, etc.).

This results in a forecasted net profit crucial for evaluating the profitability of our business over time.

The projected balance sheet reflects assets specific to our business, such as our vehicle fleet, maintenance equipment, and liabilities including loans and anticipated expenses.

It shows the overall financial health of our transportation company at the end of each period.

Our projected cash flow budget details incoming and outgoing cash flows, allowing us to anticipate our cash needs at any given time. This will help us effectively manage our finances and avoid cash flow problems.

The projected financing plan lists the specific financing sources we plan to use to cover our startup expenses.

The working capital requirement for our transportation company will be closely monitored to ensure we have the necessary liquidity to finance our daily operations, including fuel purchases, vehicle maintenance, and salary payments.

The break-even point specific to our project is the level of sales needed to cover all our costs, including startup expenses, and start making a profit.

It will indicate when our business will be profitable.

Performance indicators we will track include the profit margin rate on our transportation services, the asset turnover ratio to assess the efficiency of our fleet utilization, and the return on investment to measure the effectiveness of the capital invested in the project.

These indicators will help us evaluate the financial health and overall success of our transportation company.

If you want to know more about the financial analysis of this type of activity, please read our article about the financial plan for a transportation company .

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Transportation Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Transportation Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their transportation businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a transportation business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What is a Transportation Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your transportation business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Transportation Business

If you’re looking to start a transportation business, or grow your existing transportation business, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your transportation business in order to improve your chances of success. Your business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Transportation Companies

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a transportation business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for transportation businesses.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

How to write a business plan for a transportation company.

If you want to start a transportation business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. Below we detail what you should include in each section of your own business plan:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of transportation business you are operating and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a transportation business that you would like to grow, or are you operating transportation businesses in multiple markets?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the transportation industry. Discuss the type of transportation business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of transportation business you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types of transportation businesses:

• Moving Van Transportation : this type of transportation company specializes in large vans or small fleet trucks to move individuals to a new home. Larger companies are able to move the family or individual to a different country.
• Medical Transportation: this type of transportation company specializes in the transportation of medical supplies and/or devices and equipment.
• Taxi Company: this type of transportation company focuses on individuals needing to get to different locations. These trips are often short and within the same city or neighborhood. Many individuals utilize taxi companies for pickup or dropoff from the airport.

In addition to explaining the type of transportation business you will operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to question such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of clients served, number of positive reviews, reaching X amount of clients served, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the transportation industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the transportation industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating. 

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy, particularly if your research identifies market trends.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section:

• How big is the transportation industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your transportation business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments:individuals, seniors, families, and companies that need to transport their products.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of transportation business you operate. Clearly, companies would respond to different marketing promotions than individuals, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other transportation businesses. 

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes transportation companies such as limousines, bicycle services, car rental companies, etc.

With regards to direct competition, you want to describe the other transportation businesses with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be transportation businesses located very close to your location.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of vehicles do they operate?
• What areas do they serve?
• What type of transportation company are they?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Are your vehicles more fully-equipped than the competition?
• Will you provide transportation services that your competitors don’t offer?
• Will you provide faster delivery time?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a transportation company, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of transportation company that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, in addition to transportation services, will you provide GPS tracking, 24/7/365 service, client communication, and any other services?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your transportation company. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your transportation business located near a warehouse district, an office complex, an urban setting, or a busy neighborhood, etc. Discuss how your location might be the ideal location for your customers.

Promotions : The final part of your transportation marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Advertising in local papers and magazines
• Commercials
• Social media marketing
• Local radio advertising

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your transportation business, including cleaning the vehicle, any necessary mechanical needs the vehicle may require, fueling the vehicle, and informing clients of location and status updates.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to obtain your XXth client, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your transportation business to a new location.  

Management Team

To demonstrate your transportation business’ ability to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company. 

Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing transportation businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in managing a transportation business or is connected to a wide network of professional associations.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you take on one new client at a time or multiple new clients with multiple vehicles and drivers ? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your transportation business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. 

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a transportation business:

• Cost of vehicles
• Cost of fuel and transportation overhead
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your vehicle lease or cost, types of customer you will be targeting, and the areas your transportation business will serve.  

Putting together a business plan for your transportation business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the transportation industry, your competition, and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful transportation business.  

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How to Start a Small Bus Transport Business

The small bus transport business is an integral cog in the wheel of urban and interurban connectivity, often operating in the shadows of their larger counterparts but playing a pivotal role in daily commutes. These businesses typically serve niche markets, offering specialized transit options tailored to community needs or geographical peculiarities. The agility of small bus operations allows them to adapt routes and schedules to serve community events, corporate functions, or regular shuttle services for institutions. They act as crucial links for suburban and rural areas, connecting them to mainline transport services and providing a lifeline for communities that might otherwise be isolated.

In many cities and towns, small bus businesses bridge the gap between personal and public transport. They offer the flexibility and convenience of a private car with the cost-effectiveness and social interaction of public transport. Such services can range from school runs, which provide safe passage for children, to luxury coaches for tourists exploring off-the-beaten-track attractions. They can also include shuttle services for businesses or last-mile connectivity services for more extensive public transport networks.

Importance of a Business Plan

A robust business plan stands as a beacon that guides a small bus transport business through the tumultuous waters of the transport sector. It’s not merely a document, but a strategic blueprint that encompasses the mission, operational strategy, marketing plans, and financial forecasts of the business. Such a plan is critical not only for guiding the company internally but also for communicating its vision and potential to external stakeholders. It serves as a persuasive tool for attracting investors, securing loans, and forming partnerships.

The business plan is the narrative of the business, telling the story of where the company aims to go and how it plans to get there. It outlines the unique selling propositions of the services offered, the expertise of the management team, and the financial acumen that underpins the venture. By presenting a clear picture of the market analysis, strategy, and financial viability, the business plan acts as a compass for decision-making and a gauge for measuring progress against objectives.

Understanding the Transport Industry

Current market trends

Navigating the current market trends in the transport industry requires vigilance and adaptability. With a growing emphasis on sustainability, operators are increasingly investing in low-emission buses and exploring alternative fuels. Innovations in technology are offering small bus businesses tools to streamline their operations, from dynamic routing software to advanced booking and payment platforms. These trends not only reflect changing consumer expectations but also the industry’s response to broader societal shifts.

The industry is also facing a period of reconstruction post-pandemic, as patterns of work and travel have been irrevocably altered. Flexible and dynamic transport solutions that can respond to changing commuter volumes and patterns are becoming the new standard. Small bus businesses are uniquely positioned to capitalize on this shift, given their inherent flexibility and capability to offer personalized services.

Different types of small bus transport business models

The ecosystem of small bus transport is diverse, encompassing a range of business models each with its distinctive characteristics. Contract-based models can provide steady income, establishing recurring business with schools, businesses, or government services. Demand-responsive transport is gaining traction, offering users a flexible and efficient alternative to fixed-route services, especially in low-density areas where traditional services may not be viable. Fixed-route services cater to consistent demand along key corridors and can provide reliable income if managed efficiently.

Each model serves different customer segments and requires distinct operational strategies. A contract service model demands punctuality and reliability, while demand-responsive services require sophisticated dispatch and booking systems. Fixed-route services need careful planning and marketing to ensure high ridership and route profitability.

Knowledge about regional and national laws, regulations, and permits

In the transport sector, compliance with laws and regulations is non-negotiable. It is imperative for small bus businesses to be well-versed in the regulatory environment, which includes obtaining the necessary permits, adhering to safety regulations, and meeting vehicle and driver standards. These laws ensure the safety of passengers and the general public, and they can vary greatly from one region to another.

Understanding these regulations is also crucial for planning the business model and operations. It affects everything from bus purchase decisions to hiring practices and route planning. Failure to comply can result in fines, legal action, or even the revocation of the right to operate, underscoring the importance of this knowledge in the foundational stages of business planning.

How to Start a Small Bus Transport Business:

Business plan creation.

In conceptualizing your business idea, it’s essential to identify the unique value proposition your small bus transport business will offer. This could mean identifying underserved routes, providing premium comfort in daily commutes, or creating bespoke services for tourists. The idea should stem from a clear understanding of potential customers’ pain points and seek to address them with innovative transport solutions.

A well-defined business concept not only clarifies the operational focus but also helps in branding and marketing efforts. It sets the foundation for all future strategies and decisions, anchoring the business in a clear purpose and direction. Whether it’s providing cost-effective daily transport for workers or luxurious coaches for tourists, the idea must resonate with the target market and meet specific needs.

Becoming familiar with the competition

In any business, knowledge of the competition is crucial, and in the small bus transport sector, it is doubly so. Understanding who your competitors are, their strengths and weaknesses, their market share, and their business models is vital. This intelligence informs your strategic decisions, from pricing to route planning, and can identify gaps in the market that your business could exploit.

A thorough analysis of competitors can reveal opportunities for differentiation. Perhaps there’s a gap in the quality of customer service offered or a potential for higher-end services that have not been tapped into. Knowledge of the competitive landscape helps in positioning your service in a way that appeals to customers looking for something that current options don’t provide.

Market research and target audience

Conducting thorough market research is critical in painting a detailed picture of the potential customer base. It allows you to understand the demographics, preferences, and behaviors of the population you intend to serve. This information is the cornerstone of developing effective marketing strategies and crafting services that resonate with your intended audience.

Identifying the target audience is not just about understanding who they are, but also where they need to go, their expectations for service, and their willingness to pay. This insight will inform everything from the frequency and timing of services to the choice of vehicles and onboard amenities. Market research ultimately ensures that the services provided align with what the market needs and wants, thus maximizing the potential for business success.

Pricing strategy and income projection

Developing a pricing strategy is a delicate balancing act that requires careful consideration of cost structures, competitive pricing, and perceived value. The goal is to find a sweet spot where prices are attractive enough to lure passengers away from other modes of transport, yet high enough to cover costs and deliver a profit. It’s a core aspect of the business model that affects demand, revenue, and overall financial health.

Income projections, based on the pricing strategy, are a vital part of the business plan. They are used to forecast future financial performance and are critical in securing funding from investors or lenders. These projections must be grounded in realistic assumptions about ridership, operational costs, and market growth. They provide a financial framework within which the business must operate, setting targets for revenue and identifying the path to profitability.

Building Your Own Fleet

• Choosing the right type of buses : Building an efficient and effective fleet starts with choosing the right type of buses. Key factors to consider include fuel efficiency, which impacts long-term operational costs, and seating capacity, which should align with your anticipated passenger volume. Maintenance costs are another crucial factor; lower maintenance needs can significantly reduce operating expenses over time. The type of service planned also dictates the choice of buses. For instance, city transit services may require different features compared to long-distance travel buses. You’ll need to balance budget constraints with these operational considerations to select the most appropriate buses for your service.
• Proper vehicle maintenance : Regular and systematic vehicle maintenance is non-negotiable in the transportation industry. Investing in preventive maintenance can significantly reduce the likelihood of costly repairs and unexpected breakdowns. Consistent maintenance ensures the buses remain in top condition, extending their useful life and guaranteeing the safety and comfort of passengers. A well-maintained fleet also reflects positively on your business’s reputation for reliability and safety.
• Acquisition of necessary equipment : Equipping your buses with necessary safety features is both a legal requirement and a moral imperative. This includes fitting each bus with fire extinguishers, visible and functional emergency exit signs, and comprehensive first aid kits. Beyond safety equipment, consider the comfort of your passengers, especially for longer journeys. Features like air conditioning, entertainment systems, and Wi-Fi can significantly enhance passenger experience. The choice of these additional features often depends on your customer demographic and the nature of your service.

Designing Operational Procedure

• Hiring and training staff : The efficiency and quality of your service heavily depend on your staff. Hiring competent employees and investing in their continuous training are crucial. Regular training ensures that your team stays up-to-date with the latest industry regulations, safety protocols, and technological advancements. It also plays a vital role in boosting employee morale and job satisfaction, which in turn can improve the quality of service provided to passengers.
• Creating a schedule and routes : Effective route planning and scheduling are the backbones of a successful transport business. Developing optimized routes and schedules requires a deep understanding of your target market, including the peak travel times and preferred destinations of your passengers. Efficient scheduling ensures that your service is both convenient for users and cost-effective for your business.
• Preparation for special needs passengers : Inclusivity is key in public transport services. It’s essential to make provisions for passengers with special needs. This includes ensuring wheelchair accessibility, incorporating braille signs for the visually impaired, and providing dedicated seating areas. Catering to special needs passengers not only broadens your potential customer base but also demonstrates a commitment to community service and accessibility.

Marketing and Advertising Your Business

• Branding your business : Creating a strong and recognizable brand is vital in setting your transport service apart from competitors. A good brand reflects your business’s values, promises, and identity. It should resonate with your target audience and create a lasting impression. Investing in a professional logo, distinctive bus designs, and consistent branding across all touchpoints can significantly enhance brand recognition.
• Developing a marketing strategy : An effective marketing strategy combines multiple channels to reach and engage with your target audience. This could include traditional marketing methods like print and broadcast media, as well as digital marketing. Tailor your marketing efforts to align with the preferences and behaviors of your target market. Analyzing market trends and customer feedback can help refine your strategy for maximum impact.
• Using social media and other online platforms for advertising : In today’s digital age, social media and online platforms are crucial for reaching out to customers. These platforms offer a cost-effective way to increase visibility, interact with passengers, and build a community around your brand. Leveraging social media for targeted advertising campaigns, engaging content, and customer service can drive significant growth and brand loyalty. In addition, having an intuitive and informative website can further enhance your online presence, providing a platform for customers to access information, book tickets, and provide feedback.

Ensuring Financial Stability and Growth

Financial stability is the bedrock on which successful businesses are built. Especially in the transport sector, where margins can often be thin, and competition is stiff, ensuring that you manage your resources optimally is crucial.

Managing your operating costs

One of the primary avenues to ensure profitability is to keep a tight leash on operating costs. Every penny saved on unnecessary expenses directly contributes to your bottom line. A diligent and consistent evaluation of operational expenditures can help identify inefficiencies or areas where costs can be trimmed without affecting performance. For instance, renegotiating vendor contracts, exploring fuel-efficient routes, or investing in preventive maintenance to reduce breakdowns can lead to significant savings in the long run.

Expanding your services

In a dynamic marketplace, businesses that adapt and expand often fare better than those that remain static. Diversifying the services your fleet provides not only taps into new customer segments but can also hedge against downturns in any single service area. This might involve moving into specialized transportation sectors, adding value-added services like logistics management, or tapping into emerging markets. As you diversify, it’s essential to ensure that the quality of service remains consistent, as this will be vital in building and retaining a loyal customer base.

Investment opportunities and financial management

To secure a future of sustained growth, a transport business must do more than just manage its day-to-day finances. A forward-looking financial strategy involves recognizing and seizing investment opportunities. This could mean expanding the fleet, exploring technological upgrades, or even acquisitions and mergers. Having a clear understanding of the transport business cycle, along with an agile approach to financial management, can provide the liquidity and flexibility needed to capitalize on these opportunities when they arise.

Handling Possible Challenges and Risks

The transport business, while lucrative, comes with its fair share of challenges. Being forearmed with knowledge and strategies can be the difference between weathering these challenges and being overwhelmed by them.

Dealing with insurance

The potential for damages and accidents makes insurance a non-negotiable aspect of the transport business. While third-party insurance is mandatory, it’s often prudent to consider comprehensive insurance. This can cover damages to your own vehicles, theft, or even loss of income due to disruptions. Periodically reviewing and updating your insurance cover, based on the evolving needs and risks of your business, ensures you remain adequately protected without paying for unnecessary coverage.

Addressing common possible pitfalls

The road to success in the transport industry is not without its bumps. Fluctuating fuel prices can erode profitability. Mechanical breakdowns can lead to service disruptions, unhappy clients, and potential loss of business. Accidents, besides being potential financial drains, can also harm the company’s reputation. And then there are the ever-present regulatory changes, which can necessitate expensive compliance measures. Being vigilant, staying updated on industry trends, and investing in training and maintenance can mitigate many of these risks.

Contingency planning

Every seasoned business owner knows that despite the best precautions, unforeseen disruptions can and will occur. It’s not enough to hope for the best; one must also plan for the worst. This involves identifying potential threats to your business and having a blueprint to navigate them. Whether it’s a sudden spike in fuel prices, loss of a major client, or even global events like economic downturns, a robust contingency plan ensures that the business remains resilient. This involves financial provisions, backup vendors, alternate routes, and even crisis communication strategies to keep stakeholders informed. Preparedness is, after all, half the battle won.

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Mini Bus Business Plan

Mini bus business Plan Mini bus business Plan Mini bus business Plan Mini bus business Plan The Mini bus business Plan is perhaps the most important document an entrepreneur can create. The mini bus business plan helps guide the direction of the start-up company''s first several years, as well as giving potential investors an idea of the company structure, goals and future plans. Parts of A Mini bus business Plan The major parts of a mini bus business plan are:Cover Sheet Basic mini bus business info here - be sure to include contact people and phone numbers. Table of Contents This index can move readers in the right direction. Make sure that it is presented clearly. Executive Summary Because this if often the first part that is read, it must make a statement in a hurry. The entire mini bus business plan is reduced to a few paragraphs. Be sure to focus on: selling advantage, future projections, mini bus business cash requirements, payback time table, and mini bus business mission. Mini bus business Context Provide information that will give the reader an understanding of the larger market that you are in. Talk about growth potential, new products, and economic trends. Mini bus business Profile Explain in detail about your mini bus business, trends, organizational structure, influential factors in the market, patterns of research and development, contracts, and operational procedures. Marketing Analysis State who your customers are, your geographical range, growth potential, and customer satisfaction / customer service procedures. Challenges and Responses You need to show that you have thought out what could happen with your market and how your mini bus business will respond. Focus on dealing with the competition, your weaknesses and corrections, legal issues, and staffing issues. Marketing Plan This is probably the most important part of the plan. You need to have the following: a marketing strategy, pricing scheme, timetable for growth and development, marketing budget, guarantee policies, packaging and presentation, plan to test the effectiveness of your marketing, and knowledge of what certain media marketing costs. Financials Entrepreneurs tend to hate this section most. Bankers tend to look at it first. Spend some time here. You need a Profit and Loss Statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statements (for next three years). Time Table This part talks about when you need the financing to come into the plan, lists parts of the marketing campaign (including dates), and gives the scheduled dates of production (when you actually will deliver the goods/services). Summary of Needed Capital Sum up why you want their money. Banks will usually loan money for equipment and raw materials or inventory (things they can sell off if you default).  Most people dream of one day owning a large corporation of their own and making a bundle of money from it, but there are certain steps that must be taken in the successful completion of owning a mini bus business. When one decides that he or she would like to start their own mini bus business, one must ask themselves three basic economic questions; one, what to produce, two, ...

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Let`s get social, 4 things to remember if you want to start a minibus business.

Last Updated on: 22nd November 2023, 09:17 am

When it comes to starting a business, there are so many different directions that you can go in.

Given the recent popularity of companies like Uber, something that might be worth considering is some form of ride-share service. How do you do this in a way that sets you apart from your competitors, though?

One option is to start a minibus business. However, if this is your plan, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind.

Do You Have the Right Licences?

It’s perfectly legal to drive a minibus on a standard driving licence in the UK, provided that you’re not paid for your services. Unfortunately, your business won’t last very long if you offer all your rides for free.

So, if you want to make money with this venture, you’ll need to apply for a passenger-carrying vehicle (PCV) licence and a public service vehicle (PSV) operator licence. You can find information and help on how to apply for both of these  here .

Do You Have the Money?

As with any business, if you’re going to succeed, your venture will need to be profitable. Obviously, it’s impossible to go into something like this and know exactly what will happen. However, there are ways that you can improve your chances of making money.

This includes building a client list before starting the business and setting competitive rates for your services. Ensuring that you have enough money set aside to buy your new minibus , as well as a budget for marketing or advertising, is also ideal. The better you budget beforehand, the less likely you are to run into any nasty surprises once your business gets going.

Do You Have the Right Insurance?

No matter what vehicle you drive, insurance is essential. It ensures that should you or your passengers be involved in any kind of accident, you’re all compensated.

It can sometimes be tricky organising minibus insurance, especially as what you need differs depending on what you plan on using the vehicle for. Thankfully, you can get some peace of mind if you  insure your minibus on this website . They compare cheap quotes from across the UK, so you can find the best minibus insurance for your business while saving yourself time, money, and effort.

Do You Know the Rules Of The Road?

If you’re looking to start a business involving driving, the chances are that you’re familiar with the rules of the road. Of course, some of the rules can differ depending on the vehicle you drive. That means that’s what’s expected of you in a minibus could be slightly different from what you’re used to when in a car.

To ensure you’re up to date on what’s required of you, it’s worth checking out  the UK Highway Code . All the information you need is right here, and it never hurts to refresh your mind with this, especially if it’s been a while since you did your test. You never know what might have changed in that time.

A minibus business could be precisely the venture you need to make your mark on the world. However, if you’re going to go in this direction, just make sure you’re fully prepared for what lies ahead.

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How to start a bus company

Our experts

Written and reviewed by:, how to start a bus company – the essential steps:.

• 01 | Find your niche
• 02 | Choose the right location
• 03 | Do market research
• 04 | Write a business plan
• 05 | Research costs and equipment
• 06 | Understand licence and regulation requirements
• 07 | Find customers

With a range of vehicle types to choose from and array of target audiences to focus on, starting a bus company gives you plenty of options. You can start small with a minibus and grow into a large company with a fleet of vehicles.

Alternatively, it could be that you focus solely on coach hire and have one large vehicle. Whichever you choose, it’s a business idea that’s flexible and relatively lean to run so you can match it to your lifestyle, as well as your professional goals.

If you’re interested in starting your own bus company and not sure where to begin, read on for our step-by-step guide. We’ll cover the essential information you need to know to get started.

Before you get started, it may be worth comparing quotes for:

• Vehicle Tracking

Click either option to get quotes today!

1. Find your niche

When you first picture what starting a bus company might look like, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s only all about intercity travel. While that’s certainly one key area, there are a whole range of different types of bus companies available.

What are the different types of bus businesses?

• School services – take and collect children from local schools
• Luxury vehicles – offer transport by executive coaches
• Transport for parties – get guests to and from venues
• Day trips – group travel to places of interest
• Intercity travel – provide national services
• Tourism routes – cater for sightseeing trips
• Care home transit – offer transport between care facilities and associated places

Choosing between these options will ultimately come down to deciding where your strengths lie. It means figuring out what specific skills are needed for each type of bus business.

For example, you’ll need to be a patient and caring person to work a school bus route. While offering a transit service to and from parties and venues is more likely to need good people skills and an upbeat, sociable manner.

These are just some factors to consider – you’ll also need to look at it from a business perspective too, such as how much longevity is available in each option in the area you want to operate in, as well as the revenue potential.

2. How to choose the right location

Picking a prime place to operate your bus company from is crucial because you need to choose a location that can offer you a steady stream of customers, as well as the potential for growth. Here are some ideas to think about.

• Nationwide services – offer routes between cities across the country
• City centre travel – specialise in transit in particular towns
• Events transport – provide transport to and from stadiums and conference centres
• Transport hubs – base services around train or bus stations
• Rural routes – connect remote locations

Some factors that may influence your decision include: work/life balance – you’ll need to work out how much time you’ll spend on the road away from home; driving ability – sitting in city centre traffic jams and navigating winding country roads require different skills; as well as workflow – if you opt for an events transport, bear in mind this is likely to be seasonal work.

If you want to base your service around airport transport specifically, then read our how to start an airport shuttle service guide.

Now that you’re aware of the different types of bus companies and location options available to you, it’s time to think about your business strategy.

3. Do market research

Take some time to look into the bus companies currently operating in your local area and/or the niche you want to break into. Go online and find out what services they offer and consider what gaps are visible.

Similarly, local newspapers and notice boards in supermarkets and other places can be helpful to see if any community groups or other organisations are looking for bus or coach hire.

While online research will get you so far, it’s also really useful to get on the phone and make contact with the groups you want to target.

For example, if you’re interested in starting a school bus company, find out from your local education authority or school board if and when they put transport contracts out to tender. Plus, be sure to ask about the process. Try to collect as much information as possible at this stage.

4. Write a business plan

Once you’ve gathered your initial research, it’s time to think about organising it into a coherent and practical business strategy.

It’s essential to write a business plan – not only to help you stay on track to reach your goals and targets, but it’s also often a necessary document if you’re trying to secure funding too.

A free business plan template is available here.

5. Research costs and equipment

All businesses require thorough research into the costs and necessary equipment needed to get started.

This is especially true when running your own bus company, where you might potentially be operating multiple vehicles on the road at the same time. They will all require maintenance and servicing, not to mention the initial outlay as well.

So what costs and equipment do you have to think about?

• Vehicles – allocate funds to purchase a bus, or consider a long or short term lease, if more suitable (you can find a cost breakdown below )
• Maintenance – the coaches will need repairs and fixes, as well as MOTs and other essential services. Don’t forget running costs of petrol or diesel as well (you may find it worth considering a fuel card ).
• Insurance – minibuses and coaches require specific bus insurance (see below)
• Upgrades – as your business grows over time, you’re likely to require new and improved vehicles
• Design – depending on your brand, you may need to customise the vehicles, as well as have creative, professionally designed promotional material
• Sign-writing – it pays to sign-write your fleet with your business’ name and booking/contact details; your buses are free on-the-go advertising, after all

How to choose the right type of vehicle

This decision will often be tied into the type and location of the bus business you want to run that we covered in step one.

Sometimes, this will be a clear choice – for example, if you plan to offer intercity travel, you’ll need a large capacity coach. Here we break down some of your options.

• Luxury – opt for extra details such as air-conditioning, high-spec finishes, leather seats as well as more leg room, plus TVs and tables for a quality coach business
• Vintage – consider classic London red buses or retro coaches for an eye-catching and quirky bus company
• Practical – large capacity coaches or minibuses with accessible features are examples of practical vehicles that allow you to put your passengers’ requirements first

How much does a minibus cost?

There are a variety of factors that will determine the price of a minibus. Here are some key questions to consider:

Used or new?

While a used minibus will have a lower purchase price than a new vehicle, be aware of potential faults or other work that it may need to be roadworthy.

On the other hand, a new vehicle will require greater upfront expenditure , although will be ready to drive straight away .

Buy or lease?

If you’re not ready to purchase a vehicle, then a short or long term lease could be an ideal solution.

Leasing is essentially a fixed term rental – you pay the company a set amount, usually on a monthly basis.

Plus, as leased vehicles can come up for a sale after the agreement expires, you could purchase the vehicle eventually.

Alternatively, buying a minibus means you have greater control over the specifications, as well as the ability to customise your vehicle, such as sign-writing.

Essentially, this decision comes down to your finances, as well as how much control you want to have over design.

Other additional factors that could affect the cost include:

• Bluetooth capacity – if you need your vehicles to be connected to the internet while driving then this functionality is likely to increase the price
• Delivery – will you have to collect the vehicle or will the seller drop it off to you?
• Extra features – automatic doors, wheelchair access as well as luggage/roof racks are additional features that could affect the price
• Mileage – if you’re considering a used vehicle, check the mileage for how far it’s travelled
• Tachograph – the device that measures distance, speed and other activity. Will it be pre-fitted or will you have to install it separately?

While minibus prices can vary, below we’ve compiled a guide as to what you can expect to pay, approximately.

How much does it cost to buy a minibus?

Used:  £1,000 – 20,000

New:  £20,000 – £30,000

High-end/fully wheelchair accessible:  £30,000+

How long can you lease a minibus for?

Leasing prices are variable, depending on the provider, the length as well as the model or make. Generally, leases are available from £150-£500 per month, depending on the type of vehicle you require.

Remember, you can factor in the costs of your minibus (whether you buy or lease) into the coach hire prices you set for your customers.

6. Understand licence and regulation requirements

If you’re interested in finding out how to start a bus company in the UK, then understanding the licence and regulation requirements is essential. Minibuses are almost all manual vehicles so ensure you (or your staff) have the correct licence. Note that different rules apply for running a bus company in England and Wales, as well as Scotland. If you want to operate a local bus service in London, there are specific rules for the capital too.

Operating buses in central London: what are the requirements?

It’s worth noting that vehicles with nine or more seats can apply for a 100% discount on the congestion charge in central London. It costs £10 per vehicle to register for the discount – you can find out more here .

You can also discover if the T-charge and other emissions requirements are necessary for your vehicle.

What are the requirements for school buses?

Entrepreneurs that are interested in starting a school bus company will have to factor in additional requirements. For example, DBS background checks are a requirement to work with children.

Additionally, it could be useful for your staff to undergo first aid training. There may also be extra insurance requirements for transporting children in vehicles. If it’s specifically working with children you’re interested in, you could also consider how to open a nursery or become a childminder too.

How much does a minibus licence cost?

To gain a minibus licence, you’ll need to complete specialist driving training. This is conducted on an hourly basis and is determined by your current driving level. On average, for those completely new to minibus driving, training and testing will cost between £700-£1200.

What is a D1 licence?

If you plan to carry nine people or more in your vehicle, then you’ll need a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licence. This is also known as a D1 licence , which is a category of driving licence and requires an additional driving course, as mentioned above.When driving a minibus (a vehicle that can seat nine-16 people plus the driver) for hire or reward, then these additional licensing requirements come into effect.

You may also hear about a Passenger Carrying Vehicle (PCV) licence , which is part of the D1 licensing category. Smaller vehicles with fewer passenger capacity will also need the PSV licences, if separate fares are charged for the journey.

There are four different types of PSV licence :

• Standard licence – national
• Standard licence – national and international
• Restricted licence
• Special restricted licence

If you plan to run your bus or coach company in London, then you’ll also need to apply for a London Service Permit . Note that a minimum of three months’ notice is required.

To drive a bus or a coach for hire , drivers will need to complete 35 hours of training every five years to gain the Certificate of Professional Competence . Without it, you could be subject to a fine.

Why is minibus insurance necessary?

As you’ll be driving people and offering a transport service for a fee, it’s absolutely vital to ensure you have the correct insurance in place. You can use insurance to protect your vehicles, as well as your staff and passengers.

You can opt to insure your entire fleet with the same provider for easier organisation, as well as the possibility for discounts. Be aware that higher charges are likely for liability to provide cover for your passengers.

For more information, you can check out our relevant business insurance pages, including employers’ liability cover if you employ drivers.

What is vehicle tracking?

Whether you’re running one vehicle or managing a large fleet, ensuring that your drivers are following the correct routes and that the services are running to the timetable is going to be essential to your company’s success.Plus, making sure your drivers are taking sufficient rest stops is vital too, as there can be significant consequences of driving while tired.

That’s where vehicle tracking steps in, using GPS technology to monitor and track driver and vehicle activity. You can view the data and use it to drive business decisions, all the while putting safety at the forefront too.

7. Find customers

Once you’ve thought about the type of bus business you want to start and created a business plan, along with researching the relevant requirements, it’s time to find customers. You could buy an existing coach hire business (and so a readymade customer base), although be sure to check why the business is being sold – you could gain a glowing network or inherit disgruntled customers.

Whether you buy a business or set up your own start-up, branding is going to be key to distinguish your business from your competitors. This means thinking about:

• Your bus company name
• Your bus design

Whichever route you choose, there are a number of ways to reach your target audience.

• Create a website – whether you opt for a website builder or choose a web designer, an online presence is vital
• Print flyers – display in local shops and attractions or hand them out
• Sign write vehicles – display your business’ name, logo and details on your vehicles
• Word of mouth – attend business events and fairs, as well as tell your network
• Social media – use the platforms most relevant to your target audience to reach them
• Business cards – hand out cards with contact information on to potential customers, partners and suppliers

After creating your marketing materials, it’s crucial to distribute them accurately. Think about places where your potential customers are likely to be, such as:

• Accommodation providers
• Food and beverage businesses
• Tourist attractions
• Transport hubs

What are the next steps?

Now that you’ve read about how to start a bus company in the UK, from how to find a niche to the essential equipment to acquire, now’s the time to actually get going and start your own bus company!

So where do you go from here? If you’re planning on having several buses in your business, you might want to consider implementing vehicle tracking. Find out how you could improve your start-up’s efficiency and save money in our guide to business vehicle tracking .

And how will you keep track of your business’ fuel expenses? Learn more about fuel cards for small businesses .

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Sightseeing Bus Tours Business Plan

Start your own sightseeing bus tours business plan

Double Decker Tours of Washington

Executive summary executive summary is a brief introduction to your business plan. it describes your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.">.

The Company

Double Decker Tours of Washington, LLC (DDTOW), located in the city of Washington, DC is a new sightseeing company in its formative stages.  It is being organized to take advantage of a specific gap in the local sightseeing tour market.  The gap exists in high quality, reasonably priced sightseeing tours in the nation’s capital away from the city center, indicating that a new entrant tour company could be expected to capture a significant portion of the current sightseeing tour market.

The Company’s Mission

Double Decker Tours of Washington’s mission is to provide safe, reliable and fun sightseeing tours to the visitors of Washington, DC using London-style double-decker buses.  Nine of the buses will be open top for sunny warm and beautiful days and three will be closed for cold and inclement weather.

Product and Services

DDTOW will provide daily sightseeing tours and charter services in Washington, DC.  We will survey the White House, Capitol Building, Supreme Court, Senate Office Buildings, House Office Buildings, Museums, Library of Congress, etc., as well as Adams Morgan, the U Street Corridor, Catholic University and many other sites that make up the city. 

Marketing and Sales Strategy

DDTOW will develop a message that touring with us is fun and we will project that message over the airwaves and in print.  We will kick off our message using Comcast Cable System in the Washington area as well as hosting parties for certain tour association decision makers and the media.  We plan a pre-opening marketing budget of $80,000.  As we profit, we will spend about 1% of gross revenues on advertisement and marketing.  We will also distribute survey cards to assess what we are doing right and identify what we are doing wrong.

The Competition

Our main competitors in the Washington sightseeing market are:

• Tourmobile:  Tourmobile is based at East Potomac Park and is authorized by the National Park Service to conduct sightseeing tours along the National Mall and in Arlington National Cemetary.  Tourmobile uses a shuttle service employing 85-passenger trams along the Mall and 120-passenger trams in Arlington.  They have been in business for over 25 years.  Tourmobile was started in 1969 as a subsidiary of Universal Studios to provide interpretive services along the National Mall.  In 1981 Tom Mack bought the company making Tourmobile, Inc. a locally owned Washington DC company.  Tourmobile has over 42 vehicles and serves upwards of 2 million riders annually.
• Historic Tours of America:  HTA operates in Washington as the Old Town Trolley and DC Ducks.  HTA is a national company with outlets across the country.  HTA, like Tourmobile, uses a shuttle system for its passengers and they use 35- to 60-passenger trolleys.
• Grayline:  Grayline International is a global company with offices and tours around the world.  Grayline contracts out its services to local bus lines and runs multiple tours.  Grayline runs the Lil Red Trolley as its service in Washington.
• Zohery Tours:  Zohery Tours is a local company that runs 15-passenger vans and 45-passenger coach buses.  Zohery tours are about 3 hours in length.

Target Market

In recent Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation figures, it showed that 17.6 million people came to visit Washington, DC, spending over $10 billion dollars; $4 billion of that on sightseeing and tourism related activities.  Although overnight leisure travel increased significantly while day-trip volume was down, the good news was that average trip expenditures increased to levels of $480 per day per trip. Many of the trips that were made to the city centered around visiting historical places and museums (36%) and  shopping (24%).  In leisure travel, 36% of visitors were solo travelers as compared to 80% of business travelers and 23% of leisure travelers came with children as compared to 6% of business travelers.  Also many of our visitors to the city have income of over $75K, were married, had no children, were in the 35-54 age group, and had an advanced degree.  Visits from foreign tourists fell three years ago by 19% and by 14% two years ago, but over 1 million foreign tourists came to Washington, making it 8th in US destinations by foreign visitors.

Michael Frank Coleman* will serve as member manager. He has extensive experience in the Washington sightseeing industry, working for Tourmobile and conducting walking tours around town.  Mr. Coleman has a knack for recognizing opportunities and developing staff members to take advantage of those situations.  Mr. Coleman will assemble a staff of experienced tour professionals to oversee operations and market our services.   

Paul F. Williams* has over 30 years of entrepreneurial experience in international and private sector business development and will act as DDTOW’s business development manager. 

*Confidential and proprietary resume data has been omitted from this sample plan.  

Tickets sales and boarding of the buses will take place at the MCI Center at 601 F Street in Northwest Washington.  This site gives us great foot traffic in the heart of the entertainment district as well as ample parking and public transportation access.  The buses will be stored and serviced by Peter Pan Bus Service in Tuxedo, Maryland thereby reducing staff cost and insuring top notch services for our customers.  A small office located on Third Street in Northeast Washington will serve as administrative offices.

Our research and projections indicate that the demand for sightseeing tours in and around Washington is sufficient to provide Double Decker Tours of Washington, LLC with revenues of over $14 million dollars in its first full year of operations, utilizing 15 used London-style double-decker tour buses and selected routes throughout the city.  These sales figures are based on capturing 453,000 customers out of a potential customer base of 22 million people.  Second year revenues are expected  to exceed $17 million serving over 500,000 customers with additional advertising and expanded tours.  The DDTOW plan has the potential for a more rapid growth due in part to new memorial and other venues that are opening in Washington in the near future.  In short, the demands for tours in DDTOW’s target market during the coming year will be more than enough to support DDTOW’s anticipated market share.  These sales levels will produce net profits of $13 million dollars in the first operational year and $15 million in year two.  Net profits in year one will be over 60% of sales and will maintain that level in year two.  The company’s long term plan is part of the due diligence package.  The first few months of formative operation will burn cash (see the Start-up table later in this document) until revenue can commence.  This is due to the organizational and regulatory obligations of a new tour operator but aggressive marketing and promotion will readily make up for the slow start.  

Long-Term Development & Exit Plan

After our service starts, we will keep a close eye on sales and profit.  If we are on target at the end of year two,  we will look to expand into a new market.

Risk Evaluation

With any new venture, there is risk involved.  The success of our project hinges on the strength of acceptance of our new tours and buses.  After year one, we expect a lot of competition in the form of the established tour operators banding together against us.

Ideally, DDTOW would like to expand into the Baltimore, Richmond, Atlanta and Miami markets over the next ten years.  At that time, we will entertain the possibility of a buy-out by a larger Sightseeing/Tour operator or seek to sell to a new owner.

Funds Sought and Utilization

DDTOW is seeking financing of $800,000, in the form of a five-year loan.  Most of the planned start-up costs are apportioned to the following areas in approximately declining value:

• Purchasing twelve 70-passenger London-style double-decker sightseeing buses, nine of which are open top for beautiful days and nights and three closed top for cold or inclement weather.
• Provisions of a sufficient cash reserve to assure timely payment of operating costs of the buses for the first three months.
• Costs associated with recruiting, training, and paying operational crews.
• Marketing, advertising, and public relations costs, including the cost of setting up a website capable of offering tour information and making online sales and reservations, and related Internet marketing, as well as conventional print and broadcast advertising, and public relations activities.
• Administrative and legal costs incurred in setting up the business and the tour operations.
• A reserve to cover overall operating costs, aside from bus operating costs, over at least the first three months of operations.

The following chart illustrates the highlights of our business plan over the first three years. 

1.1 Objectives

Double Decker Tours of Washington will have as it primary objectives the following elements:

• To establish and operate a new tour company aiming specifically at touring the monuments, memorials, museums, and government buildings of the capital city as well as touring the historic neighborhoods away from the city center.
• To implement an organizational and marketing strategy that will, beginning in the first months of operation, achieve an average load per bus of 65-85 percent depending on season and increasing thereafter to 75-100 percent, thereby maximizing revenues and return on investment while reducing risk.
• To achieve revenues of about $14 million by our first full year of tour operations, exceeding $20 million by our third year.  Also to expand into newer markets in the Baltimore-Washington corridor.
• To achieve net operating profits of 60-70 percent within the first 12 months of tour operations and steady growth enabling rational expansion of the company thereafter.
• To achieve the following results starting with twelve 70-passenger London-style doubledecker buses obtained through purchase to serve the touring public in Washington and incrementally expanding the fleet as demand grows.
• To gear operations, and present a professional, serious, growth-oriented image from the outset, that will set the stage for a reasoned, planned expansion, mirroring growth rates projected for the first years of operations.
• As an element critical to achieving DDTOW’s other key objectives, to identify and develop strategic alliances through the DC Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation and other Washington associations and tourism groups. 

1.2 Keys to Success

In descending order of importance, the five critical keys to success for Double Decker Tours of Washington are:

• Employing an experienced, highly professional management team that combines vision; realism; financial ability; solid knowledge of the Washington tour/sightseeing market; familiarity with, and belief in, the utilization and benefits of the latest computer informational technologies; realization of the crucial importance of an organization personnel to its success; and a total commitment to the overall mission and goals of Double Decker Tours of Washington.
• Intelligent, progressive, and aggressive marketing that identifies the company as a different kind of player, one that is sharper and smarter, with a higher level of professionalism and operational standard than is the norm in the Washington region.  Concentration on safety, with highly trained, dedicated, and professional personnel, caring for the customer and the customer’s needs and straightforward, understandable fare pricing will form key pillars of the marketing strategy.
• Identification, through careful market research, of unserved or under-served routes in the city that may be of interest to our customers and enable high load factors and profitable operations.
• Use of a fleet of London-style doubledecker buses that offer an unobstructed view of the city from the top deck and offers a high level of comfort, safety, and fuel and operational efficiency.
• Use of information technology to reduce staffing and other operational cost; expand the potential market base; readily capture sales opportunities; and enhance customer convenience and satisfaction.

1.3 Mission

Double Decker Tours of Washington, LLC has a mission to provide safe, professional, reasonably priced sightseeing services to our customers.  We intend to fill a niche in the Washington sightseeing market that is unmet at this time, to sites in the city that are not currently shown, as well as highlight the sites that are known to millions of visitors.  We will operate and maintain the best fleet of buses available and we will never skimp on safety or customer service.  We will always have and promote fun tours so that when the customer leaves us, they will remember the good time they had and recommend us to a friend or relative.  We will provide friendly and courteous service from the time we meet to the time they leave.  

With a combination of clean buses, friendly and informative and helpful driver guides along with outstanding customer service, DDTOW intends to lead the other companies and make our standards their ambition.

Company Summary company overview ) is an overview of the most important points about your company—your history, management team, location, mission statement and legal structure.">

Double Decker Tours of Washington is a new company that will provide daily sightseeing tours in Washington DC.  Its sales and boarding point will be located at the MCI Center in Northwest Washington, and administrative offices on Third Street in Northeast Washington.  The operation will focus on:

• Providing regular sightseeing tours of the nation’s capital to include monuments, memorials and other sites of interest.
• Provide charter service for special groups.
• Provide tours of other historical and interesting venues away from the city center.

2.1 Company Ownership

Double Decker Tours of Washington will be created as a closely held private District of Columbia Limited Liability Company based in Washington, DC. It will be owned by its founder and principle investors. 

2.2 Company Locations and Facilities

2.2.1 hours of operation.

DDTOW will be open seven days a week.  Tour service will begin at 8:30 am during the spring and summer months and 9:00 am during the winter.  Our evening tour service will begin at 6:30 pm during the winter months and 7:30 pm during spring and summer.  We will be closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

2.3 Start-up Summary

Most of the planned start-up costs are apportioned to the following areas:

• Purchasing twelve 70-passenger London-style double-decker sightseeing buses, nine of which are open top for beautiful days and nights and three closed top for cold or inclement weather.  We budgeted $225,000 for the buses, and it will cost us an additional $100,000 for the paint job.
• In addition to the twelve buses, our other long-term assets will include the audio-visual system that will be installed on the buses, for which we budget $80,450.
• Provisions of a sufficient cash reserve to assure timely payment of operating cost of the buses for the first three months.
• Costs associated with recruiting, training and paying operational crews.
• A reserve to cover overall operating costs, aside from bus operating costs, over at least the first three months of operations. 

  Start-up capital will be financed through investment and long-term loans.  Start-up details are located in the table listed below.

Double Decker Tours of Washington will provide double-decker bus sightseeing tours throughout Washington and close-in memorials.  We will survey the national monuments, White House, US Capitol, and the many government buildings along the way during a 2-1/2 to 3 hour  tour.  DDTOW will run 12 converted London-style double-decker buses, giving our tour customers an unobstructed photo opportunity of the many beautiful sites in Washington. 

To make us different from the rest of the companies that operate here, we will aggressively advertise our services and stress and strive for the best service, tours and customer service in the industry.  To accomplish this, we will present surveys to our customers after every tour and we will evaluate our services at our weekly meetings to expand what we are doing right and correct what we are doing wrong.  Each night, our buses will be cleaned and serviced to prevent breakdowns and each day, before tours begin, we will inspect ourselves to make sure that we are presentable to our customers.  To expand our services to the widest amount of people, in the future, we will install a multilingual audiovisual system aboard each bus that will explain the tour in Spanish, French, Japanese and German, as our driver guide narrates in English.

3.1 Service Description

Double Decker Tours will be a full service tour and sightseeing company which will also provide charters for special occasions.  DDTOW’s knowledge of the nation’s capital, it’s rich history, and it’s local entertainment and cultural areas will ensure we provide our customers with a well narrated tour.  Our competitive rates and our focus on customer satisfaction will position DDTOW as a tour company that will be able to weather the economic climate that is facing Washington today and help garner repeat business. 

Our tours will consist of surveying the White House, Capitol, Senate Office Buildings, House Office Buildings, Library of Congress, Supreme  Court, Botanical Garden, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Museums, Washington Monument, Holocaust Museum, Hains Point, Jefferson Memorial, Roosevelt Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Kennedy Center, Georgetown, Iwo Jima Memorial, Embassy Row, National Cathedral, Ford’s Theatre, FBI Headquarters, Union Station, Japanese-American Memorial and many other sites throughout the city.

3.2 Competitive Comparison

The Washington DC tourism and convention market before September 11, 2001 was robust and  hosted more than 18 million visitors annually.  Since that time, the industry has seen a reduction in the number of visitors because many of the sites that were open now have been closed or access restricted.  Although this may present a deterrent to many people, Washington has many visitors that still come for business and pleasure, so that while depressed, the market is growing and will climb back to previous levels in the future.  In the Washington metro area, over 4 million people make this their home so Double Decker Tours will have many customers to choose from.  DDTOW will tailor its tours to take advantage of areas that are still open.

3.3 Sales Literature

Brochures to feature our tours and services will be produced locally and distributed to hotels, information service kiosks and the Washington Visitor Center.  Direct mail, advertisements and sales promotion literature will be utilized as needed.

3.4 Special Interest Tours

Double Decker Tours of Washington will concentrate on the local sightseeing and tour services, but we will also develop special interest tours for Black History Month, Veteran’s Day, Cherry Blossom Festival and others to showcase the diverse cultural aspect of the city.  We will employ multilingual narrators to cater to our foreign visitors. 

In the future, DDTOW will add buses to our fleet so that we may offer a shuttle service narrative tour in the same way that Tourmobile does today.  We intend to expand into the Annapolis and Baltimore markets.

Market Analysis Summary how to do a market analysis for your business plan.">

In recent 2002 WCTC figures, overnight leisure travel increased significantly, while day-trip volume was down, but the good thing was that average trip expenditures increased to 2000 levels of $480 per day per trip.  Many of trips that were made to the city centered around visiting historical places and museums (36%) and  shopping (24%).  In leisure travel, 36% of visitors were solo travelers as compared to 80% of business travelers and 23% of leisure travelers came with children as compared to 6% of business travelers.  Also many of our visitors to the city have income of over $75 thousand, were married, had no children and were in the 35-54 age group.

Our potential customers are people who want a unique tour experience at a reasonable price.  These will include people who come to the city for the day, leisure travelers, honeymooners, budget-conscious travelers, business travelers, families, students and seniors.

4.1 Market Segmentation

• Sightseeing, R&R, Honeymoon, Special Interest: Our most important customers will be the people who visit Washington for sightseeing, rest and relaxation, on their honeymoon or are here for a convention or other special interest.   We will develop special pricing to encourage honeymooners to spend some time with us and we will highlight their recent marriage during the tour.  Because we support our service people, we will offer discounts to active duty and retired military personnel during Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day holidays.
• High-income:  For these travelers price is not an option, so by pricing ourselves in the middle of the market, we will be able to attract these customers.
• Budget conscious travelers, families, students and seniors:  This group of travelers will find our prices competitive and the tour unsurpassed by the existing tour companies.

Overall, we split our potential market into the DC visitors and Washington area residents. The table below summarizes our market analysis projections.

4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy

Double Decker Tours is located in Washington, DC, our nation’s capital.  The monuments, memorials, theatres, museums and other points of interest make this one of the most visitor intense cities in the country.  Each year over 18 million visitors come here and with the opening of the new convention center, an additional 3-4 million are expected.  Also in the next year, many new sites will be opened such as the World War II Memorial Museum, City Museum, US Capitol Visitor Center, Martin Luther King Memorial and American Indian Museum bringing many new visitors and potential customers to the city. 

All who come for a day trip or who are here for business or pleasure and stay overnight will be in our target market.  We will develop our marketing message to attract these customers and our company policy and aim will be to develop repeat business through word-of-mouth advertising and paid advertisement in the local media.  Our proposed location at the MCI Center will also help in attracting customers since it will be in the heart of the entertainment district with plenty of parking and access to Metro.

4.2.1 Market Opportunities

In addition to 4 million residents, the Washington area also welcomes around 18 million visitors annually.  As indicated above, both of these groups represent DDTOW’s potential customers.  Market research shows that our potential customers spend over 45 weeks per year in a work setting and when they come to Washington, they have between 3 to 7 days to experience our fair city.  Many take sightseeing tours to get an informative layout of the monuments and other points of interest.  This allows them to familiarize themselves with the historic monuments of the nation’s capital in a relaxing and informative way.

4.3 Service Business Analysis

The US travel and tourism industry is the third largest retail industry generating revenues of over $100 billion dollars a year.  The industry is separated into two main categories, business and leisure travel.  Each constitutes about 45% to total revenues.  The remainder of revenues are generated from combined business/leisure travel.  The market is further divided into domestic and international travel.  Domestic travel accounts for more than 70% of generated revenues.  Business travel can be divided into two categories, the medium and large corporate account and the small independent businessman.  Leisure travel is classified according to the types of trips they take, age, and income.

The four primary leisure travel groups are:

• Adventure, Special interest, R&R, Honeymoon and Sightseeing
• High-income Travelers
• Budget-conscious Travelers
• Families, Students and Seniors

4.3.1 Competition and Buying Patterns

There are many companies in Washington providing sightseeing, tours and charter services.  Most of them have one or two things in common, they use coach buses (45 passengers), Trolleys (35-40 passengers) or Tram (85-120 passengers) and the two largest, Tourmobile and Old Town Trolley, use a shuttle system where they stop at certain points in the city so the passenger can get off and explore the site.  Double Decker Tours may do this in the future, but our focus at this time will be to provide clean buses and  informative tours from a single pick-up and drop-off point.  During the warm spring, summer, and fall nights we will conduct a three-hour tour where we will make three stops so that our customers can explore the Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt memorials.

4.3.2 Main Competitors

Our main competitors in the Washington sightseeing industry are:

• Tourmobile :  Tourmobile is based at East Potomac Park and is authorized by the National Park Service to conduct sightseeing tours along the National Mall and in Arlington National Cemetary.  Tourmobile uses a shuttle service employing 85-passenger trams along the Mall and 120-passenger trams in Arlington.  They have been in business for over 25 years.  Tourmobile was started in 1969 as a subsidiary of Universal Studios to provide interpretive services along the National Mall.  In 1981 Tom Mack bought the company making Tourmobile, Inc. a locally-owned, Washington, DC company.  Tourmobile has over 42 vehicles and serves upwards of 2 million riders annually.
• Historic Tours of America :  HTA operates in Washington as the Old Town Trolley and DC Ducks.  HTA is a national company with outlets across the country.  HTA, like Tourmobile, uses a shuttle system for its passengers and they use 35- to 60-passenger trolleys.
• Grayline :  Grayline International is a global company with offices and tours around the world.  Grayline contracts out its services to local bus lines and runs multiple tours.  Grayline runs the Lil Red Trolley as its service in Washington.
• Zohery Tours :  Zohery Tours is a local company that runs 15-passenger vans and 45-passenger coach buses.  Zohery tours are about 3 hours in length.

Strategy and Implementation Summary

DDTOW will focus it’s efforts, initially, on tours in and around the city of Washington.  Being the nation’s capital, its rich history attracts visitors from across the country and around the world.  Estimates from the Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation concludes that over 18 million visitors come to the city spending over $10 billion dollars.  Most of the money is spent on lodging and food but a considerable portion is spent for touring and sightseeing.  By tapping into 2% of the potential market or 453,000 customers,  Double Decker Tours is posed to make over $14 million dollars in sales during it’s first full year of operations.  We intend to advertise heavily in the region to attract customers and hold unique events to help boost sales.

Another method we will utilize to capture sales will be a Welcome Aboard photograph.  How this works is that as our customers are boarding the bus for a tour, we will take a photograph of them and when they return, we will have a digital photo board with their picture on it.  If they would like their photo, we will print it and frame it with one of our DDTOW frames, and we will let them e-mail their photo to anyone in the world from our e-mail server.

5.1 Competitive Edge

DDTOW’s competitive edge is recognizing a niche market that is unfulfilled at the moment.  That market consists of introducing to the Washington sightseeing public the other city away from the monuments and memorials of the Federal City.  Groups such as CulturalTourismDC, HeritageDC, DowntownDC and the mayor’s office are spending millions of dollars to entice visitors to the scenic and entertainment sections of Washington.  DDTOW can take advantage of this promotion by introducing a fleet of London-style double-decker buses and specialized tours in the areas that are being highlighted.  Tourmobile, because of their charter with the National Park Service, cannot operate off the National Mall and Old Town Trolley, being a national service, has established their routes and at this time are not interested in exploring areas that may not be profitable to them.  We, on the other hand, with aggressive marketing and promotion in conjunction with the above groups can capitalize on that new and emerging market as well as provide regular tour around the monument and memorial that most tourist want to see.

5.2 Marketing Strategy

Double Decker Tours adheres to the theory that the goal of business is to create and keep customers happy.  Our marketing strategy will reflect this goal as we build our reputation in the Washington sightseeing/tour market.  Many of DDTOW’s potential customers spend over 55 weeks per year in a work setting and when they come to Washington, they have between 3 to 7 days to experience our fair city.  Many take sightseeing tours to get an informative layout of the monuments and other points of interest. 

DDTOW will promote the capital city of monuments, memorial and historical sites plus we will provide them with a view of the other city.  Our tours will take them to the neighborhoods that they might have seen in the movies, our entertainment districts, and other prominent sites that will pique their interest.  At the end of the tour, our goal is have each and every customer leave the bus with an ear-to-ear grin.  That way when the customer goes home, they will tell their friends about our service and the beauty of Washington.  We will also follow up our tours with survey forms so that we can get feedback from our customers so that we may improve.

5.2.1 Pricing Scheme

Much of Double Decker Tours’ pricing is determined by our competition.  The price of sightseeing in Washington ranges from $15 to $40.  By setting our price at the level of $30, we will appeal to the budget conscious traveler as well as those that price is not an option.  With a potential market of over 22 million people per year, we are basing our first year figures on servicing 453,000 or 2% of the potential visitors.

5.2.2 Promotion Scheme

The overall concept and design of Double Decker Tours of Washington sets the stage for its promotion.  Marketing and promotion will stress the unique buses, the fun you can have with us and quality of tours that will set it apart from the rest.  Strong public relations combined with well-placed, well-designed, distinctive advertising appealing directly to people who are our prospective customers will help get the word out.

5.2.3 Marketing Scheme

Customers will be reached through traditional marketing communication methods.  Research suggests that our target market customers, and travelers in general, are Internet savvy, so before traveling to Washington, many will access the Web for sightseeing information and may make reservations or purchases via that medium.  Besides, the Internet will serve as an effective means of communication and distribution of information about our services.  DDTOW will target our customers initially at our kiosks and bus stops as we board our passengers, giving them brochures and other literature that they may share with their family and friends, but we will also look at cable television, radio and other inexpensive media to get our message out.

5.2.3.1 Marketing Effort

The marketing effort will employ a mix of vehicles to convey our message and presence.

• Print media — local newspapers, free weeklies
• Broadcast media — local programming and special interest shows
• Hotel guides — concierge relations, Chamber of Commerce, Board of Trade, Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation brochures
• Misc. — Yellow Pages, charity events

The marketing effort will be split into three phases using the media vehicle described above:

1) Opening — An advanced notice (press packet) sent out to all media and printed announcement ads in key places, rack brochures, direct mail/giveaways.  Budget – $80,000

2) Ongoing — A flexible campaign (using above media), assessed regularly for effectiveness.  Budget – $12,000 per month in the first year

3) Point of sale — A well trained staff can enhance the customer’s overall experience.  Word-of-mouth referral is very important in building a customer base.

5.2.4 Futuristic Plans and Strategic Opportunities

DDTOW, upon successful operation of two years, will begin to develop strategies and plans geared towards opening new offices and sightseeing services in Baltimore, Annapolis, Miami and eventually Atlanta, expanding as the need and resources allow.

5.3 Sales Strategy

Double Decker Tours will aggressively sell the benefits of touring with us by implementing the following action items:

In our first months of operations we will:

• Begin a major advertisement campaign to let the Washington area sightseeing public know that there is a new tour in town.
• We will host a party for the concierges of all the major hotels in Washington and present them with an incentives offer for referrals to DDTOW.
• We will join the DC Chamber of Commerce, Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation and Washington Board of Trade and cohost a meet and greet party for the local business, media and government officials and invite decision makers from the area.
• We will buy inexpensive media time throughout the year on local radio, in the print media, on television and cable television outlets to promote our tours and the fun that you can have traveling with Double Decker Tours.

In the future we will:

• During the school year we will offer discount tours to area schools and during the summer we will offer discount tours to area colleges and universities for their incoming freshmen and their families.
• Develop special tours such as ‘Lovers Only’ tours at Valentine Day.
• Host Fraternity and Sorority night tours.
• Develop ‘Movie Scene’ tours.
• Host Family Reunion special tours.
• Develop Veterans tour specials.
• Host a once a year Stone Cold Family Picnic tour.
• Add to our product line a picture-taking ability so that before customers go on one of our tours, we will take pictures of the group and have a framed portrait waiting for their return, as well as the ability to send the picture via e-mail to anywhere in the world.

Our commitment is to maximize the pleasure of our customers so that their time with us will be one of the most memorable parts of their trip to Washington.  As we grow and profit, Double Decker Tours intends to spend from 5% to 10% of gross revenues on advertising thereby raising DDTOW’s image in the regional tour and sightseeing market.

5.3.1 Sales Forecast

The sales forecast is based on DDTOW capturing a 2% share of the over 18 million visitors that visit Washington along with the approximately 4 million people that live in the metro area.  That means that DDTOW would have to service 453,000 customers during the 2004-2005 year, 543,600 during the 2005-2006 year and 652,300 during the 2006-2007 year.  These figures are based on running an average of 24 tours per day divided between 12 buses during the summer and  8 to 18 tour per day during the winter months.  During the summer months in Washington, with the amount of advertising  and aggressive marketing that we plan to do, DDTOW will be able to meet the goals that we have set for ourselves. 

Another service that DDTOW will offer our customers will be a digital photograph of their group.  As the groups prepare to board our buses, we will take photographs of them.  After they finish the tour and return to the MCI Center, we will have a framed photo of them already mounted along with a digital copy that they can e-mail through our Internet station to anyone in the world.  We will charge only $10 dollars for this and we forecast only about 1 in 15 will take advantage of this option.  This is an option that none of our competitors are using at the moment.

The table below summarizes our sales forecast.  We have chosen to treat only fuel and photo processing and Internet connections as our direct costs of sales, while some of our other projected expenses related to the service delivery, such as drivers’ salaries, are reflected in our Profit & Loss projections later in this document.

5.4 Milestones

Double Decker Tours of Washington’s important milestones are detailed in the following table.  DDTOW believes that it is important for a company to set goals because this helps determine the company’s strategy and tactics, and maintain company focus.  The milestones are seen as progress points and will be used to measure DDTOW’s success in reaching it’s goals.

What the table doesn’t show is the commitment behind it. Our business plan includes complete provisions for plan-vs.-actual analysis, and we will hold monthly follow-up meetings to discuss the variance and course corrections.

Web Plan Summary

DDTOW will establish a presence on the World Wide Web, linking it to the Washington Visitor Center Web site, to promote our tours, accept electronic mail to answer queries and take reservations.

Management Summary management summary will include information about who's on your team and why they're the right people for the job, as well as your future hiring plans.">

Mike Coleman and Paul Williams will serve as member managers, however, DDTOW is a small company and its administrative staff will share in management duties and decision making.  This will make it important for each member of the team to be capable in all aspects of the business.  Prerequisites for all administrative employees will be cash handling, personnel management, computer skills and sightseeing/tour experience. 

We will train our staff to become competent in these areas and we will embark on a continuous training program for all employees.  Our operations staff will consist of experienced driver/guides, many of whom have already worked in the local market and we will contract out to certain narrators for special projects.  DDTOW will contract the maintenance of the buses to Peter Pan in Tuxedo, Maryland, which services Old Town Trolley and Grayline’s Lil Red Trolley, so that the fleet will be well maintained at all times.

7.1 Personnel Plan

DDTOW will begin operating with 22 full time positions.  The positions are as follows:

• Member Manager – Michael F. Coleman
• Member Business Development – Paul F. Williams
• Marketing / Sales Associates (4)
• Courtesy Captains (4)
• Driver/guides (12)

Member Manager and owner, Michael F. Coleman, age 50, has knowledge of the local sightseeing and touring industry in the Washington area.  Mike has gained his sightseeing and tour experience from working for Tourmobile and conducting walking tours in the city over the past two year.  From that experience, he has gain an unique perspective of what it would take to start and run a successful tour and sightseeing company.  Mike has also been involved in scheduling, guiding and many administrative functions needed for running a business. 

Before starting Double Decker Tours of Washington, LLC, Mike sold health care products under the Equinox label until the company went out of business in November 1999.  From that experience, Mike learned how to motivate a sales force, help design new sales strategies and develop creative ways to market the products.

Before that, Mike was a software and database consultant to different companies throughout the Washington area working for such firms as Computer Sciences Corporation, Computer and Applied Sciences, Inc., General Services, Inc., the General Services Administration and PATA USA.  In this capacity, Mike was responsible for scheduling, customer service, writing numerous reports and billing of services. 

Mike also worked as a member of the board for the H Street Northeast Merchants and Professional Association.  Working on the board with numerous business people gave Mike an insight into the day-to-day operations of small businesses and gave him a chance to meet other business people through the associations membership in the Greater Washington Board of Trade.  Mike, as a member of the board, also worked on the H Street Festival Committee in 1999, which re-introduced the H Street Festival back to Washington after a long hiatus. 

Mike also wrote and independently published a book called the Fitness Diary, which allowed fitness enthusiasts to document their workouts.  The Fitness Diary was well received by bodybuilders and those that just wanted to look good.

Member Business Development, Paul F. Williams, has over 30 years of entrepreneurial experience in computer and information technology, export promotion, international business development, private sector development, technology transfer and management and technical assistance domestically and in Africa.  Mr. Williams is founder and president of THE INFORMATION PROCESSING COMPANY, INC. (TIPCO, INC.), an international trade and business development firm.  His company consults with governmental and private sector organizations, businesses and individuals on issues involving domestic and international trade and business development. 

Mr. Williams was the counselor and instructor in International Business Development/Export-Import; past Counselor/Director of Cities In Schools Youth Entrepreneurial Empowerment Project; creator and coordinator of the Volunteer Consultant Corp at Howard University Small Business Development Center; Chairperson, International Trade Committee of the Black Presidents’ Roundtable Association (BPRA); Chairperson, International Trade Committee of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce and many other accomplishments.  Mr. Williams will develop strategies for increasing business for DDTOW.

Marketing/Sales Associates:  The individuals selected for these positions will have extensive experience in the local tourism and sightseeing industry.  They will have a proven track record in generating sales.  Their responsibilities in this position will be to develop marketing and sales materials and campaigns as well as supervising sales personnel as we grow.

Courtesy Captains:  The individuals selected for these positions will have customer service experience as they will be our face to the public.  They will hand out literature about the company and our tours, help customers board the buses and answer questions or complaint that come up.  The Captains will also take photographs of our customers as they board the buses for later sales.

Driver/Guides:  The individuals selected will be required to have a Commercial Drivers License and Tour Guide License.  Drivers will have local knowledge of the city and they will be responsible for the safety of the buses and passengers and will present informative, humorous tours to our customers.

7.2 Compensation and Incentive Plan

Compensation and incentives for employees and managers of Double Decker Tours of Washington, LLC is as follows:

Courtesy Captains and Driver/Guides will receive overtime pay (currently estimated at 20%) in addition to their regular salary.  Also all employees will be covered under a health, dental, and vision plan after three months of employment.  Plans for a profit sharing or 401(k) plan will be available for employees.

At Double Decker Tours of Washington, we believe in an incentive based entrepreneurial approach to management.  To have the employee want to work and make money, we will institute programs that will benefit the employee as well as the company.  For example, when we sell photographs of our passengers, the Courtesy Captains will make a commission on the photos sold during their shift.  How this will benefit them is that a receipt will be processed with the CC name on it so that when a purchase has been transacted, that CC is credited with the sale, thus the commission.  At this point, we will assess what commission will be paid.  For the drivers, we will allow them to compete for tips as well as overtime pay.  But we will also keep tabs on their attendance and appearance.  At the end of the month, those drivers that have the best attendance record and appearance will be allowed to compete for the monthly bonus.

7.3 Advisory Committee

Mr. Coleman is in the process of assembling a group of established businessman as his board of advisors so that he may learn from them the lessons they have learned before encountering them himself.

7.4 Professional Support

• Stitcher, Mosley & Company, PA of Lanham-Seabrook Maryland has been tapped to be our accountants.
• DH Lloyd and Associates have been contacted about our insurance needs.

Financial Plan investor-ready personnel plan .">

Double Decker Tours of Washington’s financial plan is detailed in the following sections.  Preliminary estimates suggest a substantial profit after our first two quarters of operations.  Income estimates are based on garnering 2% of the tourist/sightseeing business in Washington with a growth rate of 20% for the next three years and a growth of 10% after that.

All our financial projections present a conservative but realistic depiction of DDTOW’s financial position based on loans and financing of $800,000.

8.1 Important Assumptions

DDTOW, LLC assumes the following:

• Market growth projections for sightseeing will be down because of war fears that permeate the city but with over 4 million residents in the area and over 20 million visitors per year, DDTOW, LLC will be able to experience a 20% growth rate over the next three years.
• Local economic conditions will remain viable and favorable to the tourism industry for the next five years.
• International conditions will change from a war footing to peace thus increasing tourism to the city.

8.2 Break-even Analysis

The break-even analysis is based on an average monthly fixed cost of approximately $121,200. By placing our ticket price between Tourmobile’s price and Old town Trolley’s, we needed only4,000 riders per month to break even. On a thirty-day basis that comes to about 134 riders per day or 12 riders per bus per day. During the fall, spring and summer months, we will more than surpass that number of riders.

8.3 Projected Profit and Loss

Our projected profit and loss is shown on the following table, with sales increasing from more than $14 million the first year to more than $21 million the third, and profits varying substantially for the start-up phase of this business. We show a profit in the first year on 2% of 22 million visitors to the city or 453,000 customers which equals 1,286 customers per day or making two tours per day for 12 buses.

As with the break-even analysis, we are projecting very conservatively regarding cost of sales and gross margin. Our cost of sales should be much lower, and gross margin higher, than in this projection. We prefer to project conservatively so that we make sure we have enough cash.

The detailed monthly projections are included in the appendices.

8.4 Projected Cash Flow

Cash flow projections are critical to our success. Our analysis shows strong cash generation over the projected period. Some of our assumptions for the cash flow table below are as follows:

• We start repaying on the $800,000 five-year long-term loan at the very beginning of our operations. The first few months will be critical to our survival as we need to make sure that our cash balance remains strong.
• We do not plan any additional long-term asset purchases, except for those summarized in the start-up table earlier in this document, for the first year. During the second and third year we budget $100,000 for each year for additional long-term asset, which may include some additional or replacement buses.
• We assume collecting the District of Columbia’s sales tax (5.75%) off the ticket sales. These sales taxes will be paid out quarterly. For all additional purchases (i.e., operational expenses and capital assets) we assume prices inclusive of applicable sales taxes.

The monthly cash is shown in the illustration below, with one bar representing the cash flow per month, and the other the monthly cash balance. The annual cash flow figures are included here and the more important detailed monthly numbers are included in the appendices.

8.5 Projected Balance Sheet

The balance sheet in the following table shows managed but sufficient growth of net worth, and a sufficiently healthy financial position. The monthly estimates are included in the appendices.

8.6 Business Ratios

We expect to maintain healthy ratios for profitability, risk, and return. The following table outlines some of the more important ratios from the Sightseeing tour company industry. The final column, Industry Profile, details specific ratios based on the industry as it is classified by the Standard Industry Classification (SIC) code, 4725.9902.

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How to Start a Private Bus Transportation Business with Coach Buses

There’s no denying that fuel gets more expensive each year, and as a result, people are looking for alternate ways to travel, from using public transportation to carpooling. If you’re like other enterprising individuals, you might consider using this trend to your advantage and enter the passenger transportation business. 

Maybe you weren’t too sold on the idea of, say, a car-hauling business , so you turned to transportation. You could start an app-based taxi service (think Uber), a car shuttle service, or a passenger bus service, to name a few. If you’d rather not wait around for your next group of passengers, you’ll want to consider the last option. 

So how do you get started? Here are some tips to remember.

What’s Inside

5 Tips on Starting a Private Bus Transportation Business

Decide on a type of private transportation business, work on your business plan, raise the necessary funds, get your business license and registration.

Before you get started on paperwork and other legal matters, you need to decide what kind of service you’ll provide, as far as private transportation businesses go. Do some research on the present modes of transportation available in the city or state where you plan to start the business. Then, you’ll see if another transportation business is needed, and if so, what problems your business will help solve.

Private buses, for instance, can run within a city, within a state, or across states. Some can even cater solely to corporate passengers, ferrying them from the office to any number of designated stops on a set route every day. If you don’t mind going out and driving corporate passengers around every day, then you can focus on that. If you’d rather limit the number of trips you make each month, consider a business that uses coach buses to ferry a group – say, a tour group – within a state or across states. 

Your business plan should include an executive summary that describes your target market, the services you provide, and your goals. Other details to include are key aspects of your business such as your location, mission statement, expenses, what kind of vehicles you’ll be getting, and how much you expect to earn. 

You’ll want to think about how you’ll get the coach bus – or buses – you’ll be using. Renting one when you need it is a good idea if you’re just starting out, because it means you won’t have to worry about parking, and you won’t need a physical storefront; buying a coach bus means you’ll need those two things as well. 

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider purchasing a bus, of course. As with other mobile businesses – like a mobile IV therapy business , for example – if you are both the owner and operator of the vehicle, you’ll be ready to go at practically a moment’s notice. Compared to renting a coach bus, where you’ll have to wait and see if there’ll be one available for your use on the day you need it. 

Once you decide if you’ll be renting your vehicle or buying one, don’t forget to include it in your business plan. 

There are five different ways to raise the funds you’ll need. The first option is to use your own financial resources. This can be risky, though, because if you’re not careful, you may go overboard and then you won’t have as much as you need to pay for things your family needs. The second option is to turn to friends and family. You could just ask for a loan, or convince them to invest in the company in return for a percentage from future profits. 

A third potential option is to crowdfund your business. This option makes it possible for many people to give even a small amount to your cause because all those small donations add up. The fourth option is the opposite of crowdfunding, with you going to a small community of wealthy investors and asking them to invest in your business in return for a stake in the company, ownership equity, or convertible debt. 

Last, but not the least, there’s the good old bank loan. You can usually get more capital through this option compared to the first four, but you’ll need to provide collateral that’s approximately the same value as the loan you’re hoping to get. 

Once you have your capital, use your list of foreseeable expenses to decide how much of your funds to allocate to each, from acquiring the first coach bus or two, to fuel, to marketing. It may be a good idea to operate this business from the comfort of your own home and work with one or two people you trust at first. Then, when you have a steady stream of income, you can think of moving to a separate office and hiring more people, not to mention investing in additional coach buses if necessary.

Before you can actually start operating, though, you’ll need to register your business and get your license. For a passenger transport company, there are various permits needed, and if you own the coach buses you’ll be operating, you may be required to get insurance for each one.

This is where knowing what your business model is and what service you plan to provide can help. You may feel overwhelmed by all the paperwork you need to do and the licenses, permits, and other documentation you’ll need to get. The truth is, you just have to know what requirements your business needs to fulfill, and don’t bother with the rest. So make sure you do your research to know what’s compulsory and what isn’t.

There are other things you’ll need to do when starting a private bus transportation business, such as promoting your business and finding clients. But the things mentioned above are the most important for getting the business up and running, literally and figuratively.

Need help in finding the right vehicle for your business? Check out the best deals on coach buses for sale here .

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update

We would like to thank you for your co-operation during this difficult time with the spread of the Coronavirus. As a business, our priority is to minimise any risk to our staff, whilst at the same time ensure we are able to service all of our customers. We have staff working from home and you may experience longer than normal delays, but rest assured, we are doing our best to answer all of our customer queries as swiftly as possible.

Should you have any concern regarding paying for your insurance then we will do everything we can to support you if you have been affected by the Coronavirus. There are a number of ways in which we can help, so please contact us on 0800 0815 024 as soon as possible in order to discuss the options we have available.

Our entire team thank you for your patience and co-operation during these exceptional circumstances.

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Want to start a minibus business?

Don’t miss out on our fantastic newsletters, emails and blogs

Friday, 11 September 2015 GMT

Author: Staveley Head

Richard Branson once said that if you want to become a millionaire all you have to do is start off with a billion then buy an airline.

Now it’s not quite the same financial risk starting a minibus service, but the challenges are still there and you do need to be careful.

Unless you know your market, know what to buy and how to operate efficiently, then you’ll be losing money quicker than you can say PCV D licence category.

So before you even put a deposit down on your first Transit, let’s look at some of the main things he you need to consider:

Why are you doing this in the first place?

Have you spotted a gap in the market or know of a contract that’s coming up for renewal?

For your business to succeed, make sure you have plenty of work lined up and coming in on a regular basis. So contact schools, colleges, hotels, businesses, taxi companies, retirement homes, everyone in your area who you think will need your services.

Do you have the right licence?

Here it gets tricky. A minibus is defined as a passenger carrying vehicle with a minimum of nine and a maximum of 16 passenger seats (plus your seat).

Now, if you’ve held a driving licence before 01.01.97, then you can drive a minibus with up to 16 passenger seats without having to take an additional driving test.

But – and this is the biggie – you cannot drive it for hire or reward (basically, get paid for doing it).

Do you have the right minibus insurance?

This isn’t a nice-to-have item, it’s vital that you, your passengers and other road users are fully covered in the event of incident or accident.

Do you have the right budget?

Have a budget that will cover advertising and the creation of your brand/company name, website, leaflets, lettering on your vehicles and stationary such as business cards. Your minicab business will need to look professional, established, trustworthy and customer-focused.

Keep up to date with the law as it changes all the time.

For example, ‘vehicles over 3.5 tonnes (3500kg), registered after 1 May 2006 are legally required to have a digital tachograph fitted. Minibuses with more than eight passenger seats registered after 1 May 2006 will also need to be fitted with digital tachographs.

Where are you getting your minibus from?

Privately or from a dealer? Are you buying or leasing them?

You need to buy the most comfortable, well-equipped and properly looked after vehicles with the lowest possible mileage. They’ll need to have a comprehensive service book and the longest warranty.

What type of minibus are you getting?

How big? What make and model? Petrol or diesel? Make sure your choice matches your workload both now and in the immediate future.

Hope this all helps. Running a minibus business can be a lot of fun, especially if you’re a people person, love driving and have a business head on your shoulders.

Anyway, good luck with your venture and do let us know if we’ve missed anything out here!

By the way, take a look at the excellent Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme ( MiDAS ) which is a really useful training and registration scheme for UK minibus drivers.

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Transport Business Plan Sample

Published Aug.16, 2016

Updated Apr.24, 2024

By: Jakub Babkins

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Table of Content

Transport business plan for starting your own business

Do you want to know how to start a transport business ? Well, technology hasn’t yet got sufficiently advanced to enable teleportation of things and thus humans have to still rely on old friends: trucks, vans, and cars for transportation.

The business is never going to fall in demand and immense profits can be generated through launching it if you are good at business management. To have a guide on how to start and run this business we’re providing a free business plan here. This business plan for transport was written for ‘Niro Transports’ a transport startup based in Atlanta.

You can benefit from here. Moreover, you can also hire our business plan writing services if you want to get a specialized business plan tailored to your needs.

Executive Summary

2.1 the business.

Niro Transports will be owned by Tom Niro. The business will provide transport vehicles for enabling the transportation of goods in multiple domains. In the initial years, manufacturing and construction businesses will be specifically targeted so that they can be made to enter long-term contracts with us.

2.2 Management of transport business

The crux of the transportation business lies in your managerial skills. A transport business cannot be run successfully if you are not willing to stay vigilant throughout the operational days. You have to have a strong hold over your employees, and you must have a mechanism to check and measure their performance.

To effectively manage your transport business, you will need to start by developing a transport company business plan. In your strategic business plan you should include the details of how many employees you will be hiring and how you will spend your finances to manage the business.

This transport business sample can serve as a model for you. From here you can learn how to start a transport company and manage it effectively by studying the real-life experience of Niro Transports.

2.3 Customers of transport business

Before starting a transport company you must study some transport business plans to identify the group of target customers. Generally, the customers of this enterprise are:

• Manufacturing Bases
• Construction Business
• Food Enterprises
• Home Shifting Businesses

2.4 Business Target

The fiscal business targets are demonstrated in the following graph. However, the business targets related to marketing and expansion of the transport network will be given in the next sections.

Company Summary

3.1 company owner.

Tom Niro will be the owner of Niro Transports. Niro has acquired a degree in Executive MBA. After excelling in his academic career, he went on to earn fame in the business world. Working for 4 years in the freight business, he earned a reputation as an honest and hard-working manager.

3.2 Why the transport business is being started

While working in the freight business, Niro came to have various transport ideas that he couldn’t implement due to having limited decision-making authority. Finally, he decided to exploit a transport business opportunity and manage it the way he wanted.

3.3 How the transport business will be started

As per the transport company business plan of Niro Transports, the following steps should be taken to start this business.

Step1: Plan & Take Down

The first step is to develop a business plan transport company. Your strategic plan should cover all aspects such as how to get a transport contract, what would be the broad guidelines for agreements done to the consumer businesses etc. This business plan for transport company pdf will be elaborating all those aspects for your help.

Step2: Recruit

The next step is to hire talented and hardworking employees for your business. For the transport sector, you will need to hire relatively more employees in managerial positions as well as for the posts of drivers.

Step3: Get the Vehicles

To conduct the transport business, you will need to purchase vehicles of different sizes and functionality.

Step4: Market with a Strong Web Presence

Lastly, you will need to ensure a strong web presence to advertise your venture. Moreover, offline media should also be used to ensure the marketing is done rightly.

Operational and Strategic Planning

Services of transport business.

If you are starting your own transport business it would be good to have your hands on multiple transport business opportunities. For that, you should study many sample trucking business plans and notice which type of services they are providing. Since the services may overlap with those of other enterprises, it is advisable to also consult passenger transport business plan and general freight trucking business plan .

In this transport business plan, we are providing the services of Niro Transports so that you can have help with your transport proposal, if you plan to enter transport services business.

• Transporting Food Items

Our major service will be transporting raw food materials to the industries that deal in food products. We will also transport the raw items to hotels and motels that need an influx of new material on daily basis.

• Home Shifting

We will also serve in the arena of house shifting. To move the furniture and household appliances, we will provide both the vehicles and drivers.

• Transporting Construction Material

We will also serve in the construction sector. We will procure vehicles specialized in functionality to carry grit, concrete, bricks, and other construction materials.

• Transporting General Goods

We will provide vehicles and drivers to enable transportation to and from manufacturing bases.

Marketing Analysis of transport business 

Excellent work.

excellent work, competent advice. Alex is very friendly, great communication. 100% I recommend CGS capital. Thank you so much for your hard work!

There are various types of transport business and depending on your interest and area, the marketing analysis can be entirely different. For instance, if you are more towards transporting general goods, you would need trucking business plan doc.

For marketing analysis, you have to study how many businesses of the same type are operating near your startup. Moreover, you should study their respective strategies to conduct the business so to know how to succeed in transport business in that locality.

Since Niro decided to provide a myriad of services, the transport business plan developed by him can be taken as general guidance. If you are starting a transport business in any city, you can have help from here. You can get transport business tips, and a complete guidance on how to run transport business and how to manage transport business.

5.1 Market Trends

In the United States, more than 40k businesses are successfully running in each category such as freight packing and logistics, water transportation, moving services, taxi services, etc. Owners of these businesses are earning profits in billions in each category, as per the specified statistics by IBISWorld.

The market trends are promising and therefore if you are thinking about starting a transport business, you must go for it. Here is a complete guide on how to register a transport company and how to run a transport company for information.

5.2 Marketing Segmentation

The customers of the transport business are almost the same as those mentioned in starting a towing business plan and starting logistics business plan .

5.2.1 Manufacturing Bases

The biggest category of our target customers will be the manufacturing bases. They will need our services to get the raw materials, tools, and machinery transported to their sites. They will also need us to transport the finished products in bulk.

5.2.2 Construction Business

The construction businesses will be utilizing our services to get the construction material transported. In Atlanta, several construction businesses are located near the place where we have established ourselves. And thus, working with them will save us time and money.

5.2.3 Food Enterprises

Companies that prepare packed food items from the raw materials and hotels that cook their own meals will acquire our services.

5.2.4 Home Shifting Businesses

People who do jobs usually possess a car or any vehicle for the commute. However, still, some of them are expected to avail themselves of our services.

5.3 Business Target

Niro Transports aim to meet the following business targets:

• Acquiring a CSAT score of 90+ within a year of the launch
• Expanding the business activity to one more location by the end of the first five years
• Start making at least $30k in monthly profits by the end of the first three years 

5.4 Product Pricing

For the initial two years, we aim to keep our prices slightly less than our competitors. This will be done to expand the reach. However, following this time duration, we will raise the prices such that they become almost equivalent to those of our competitors.

Marketing Strategy of transport business

Running a transport business demands huge investment in terms of both time and money. And unless you have the mindset determined enough, you would feel difficulty managing the business. Just searching on Google for I want to start transport business wouldn’t suffice. You have to research how to start a transport business in your preferred city. Moreover, you have to craft a business proposal for transport services. 

The sales strategy of Niro Transports is given in this business plan of a transport company.

6.1 Competitive Analysis

• Our biggest competitive advantage is our strategic location near all the giant organizations that we aim to serve.
• Secondly, we are especially focusing on reaching a maximum number of customers whether that means parting from monetary benefits. This strategy when carefully continued will benefit us in the longer run.

6.2 Sales Strategy

• We will create and brand posters based on memes so that more and more people see and share them.
• We will offer a 10% discount to hotels for the first year of our launch.
• We will set up a photography base with some vehicles culturally decorated so that teens and youngsters could capture pictures and share our brand name.

For more advertisement ideas, you may want to visit dump truck business plan sample as well as taxi company business plan .

6.3 Sales Monthly

6.4 Sales Yearly

6.5 Sales Forecast

Personnel plan of transport business

Most of the transport business depends on the dedication of drivers and the vigilance of managers. in your business plan transport company you must enlist the staff you would hire to fill up different positions. For your help, we are listing the personnel plan of Niro Transports in this transport business plan template free of cost. If you want to save the business plan for later use, you can download it from transport company business plan pdf.

7.1 Company Staff

Niro, the CEO, will hire the following people:

• 1 Operation Manager
• 2 Sales Executives
• 1 Digital Media Manager 
• 1 Customer Care Executive
• 2 Technical Assistants (Mechanics)

7.2 Average Salary of Employees

Financial Plan of transport business

Making a comprehensive financial plan is essential to ensure that your business generates profit and remains safe from getting into a loss. The financial plan should cover detailed planning for at least three years. It should entail the expected sales, investments, earnings, and the ratios mentioned below.

In this transporter business plan the financial plan that enabled Niro to earn huge profits is given free of cost. Through this transport business plan sample you can have an insight into how much one can earn through this business.

While you skim through, you must identify that your profit generation would depend a lot on your transport business ideas. It is because due to increased competition, one has to be ultra-competitive and hardworking to earn fame in this field.

8.1 Important Assumptions

8.2 Break-even Analysis

8.3 Projected Profit and Loss

8.3.1 Profit Monthly

8.3.2 Profit Yearly

8.3.3 Gross Margin Monthly

8.3.4 Gross Margin Yearly

8.4 Projected Cash Flow

8.5 Projected Balance Sheet

8.6 Business Ratios

• What is the most profitable transportation business?

Goods transport business is profitable in all domains and entirety. Though air transportation is considered the most profitable, the fact is you can make immense profits in other domains with relative ease and freedom.

• How do you write a transportation proposal?

To write a business plan for transport, you need to have an understanding of business terms and trends. It is good to hire a specialist to make a transport company business plan for you. For an idea about what the transport business plan would look like, you can see this sample business plan transport company.

• What are the 4 types of transportation?

The 4 types of transportation are Marine Transportation, Air Transportation, Road Transportation, and Rail Transportation.

• How can I start a small transport business in the USA?

To start the transport business in any U.S. city, you need to first get transport company registration. Further steps can be seen in detail from this blog on how to start a transport company in any city.

Download Transport Business Plan Sample in pdf

OGSCapital’s team has assisted thousands of entrepreneurs with top-rate business plan development, consultancy and analysis. They’ve helped thousands of SME owners secure more than $1.5 billion in funding, and they can do the same for you.

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Starting a Minibus Private Hire Business

Step 1. research the minibus market.

You most likely already have identified a gap in the market, it may be a contract that is up for renewal with a local council or school, or a lack of large people carrying vehicles in your local area.

For a business to be successful it needs to identify a niche or gap in the market and then offer a service or product that people want.

A few things to consider:

Where are the nearest local Minibus companies?

What do the competition offer that you could improve on?

Who needs your minibus service?

Step 2. Make a business Plan

New start-ups without a business plan have a far higher chance of failing than those that do.

Business plans are critical for the following reasons:

• To raise money for your business – Such as a bank loan to finance minibuses.
• To make decisions
• Help identify and potential issues with cash flow etc.

Step 3. Plan your Finances

Starting a minibus company can require a lot of money particularly for purchasing of vehicles, insurance and paying for all the relevant licences. It is well worthwhile putting together a spreadsheet that collated all the costs and predicts cash flow.

Step 4: Your Business structure.

When you are starting a business it is worth speaking with a qualified accountant to ensure the business is set up correctly. An accountant will advise the correct business structure which may be as a limited company or a sole proprietor or a number of other ways.

Step 5: Pick a Name

Choose a name that appeals not only to you but also to your customers.

Step 6: Get the correct Licences and Permits

If you are setting up a Private Hire business and you have over 9 seats you will need to speak to VOSA and apply for an Operator’s Licence more details can be found on the VOSA website. You will also need to speak with the DVLA to ensure you have the correct extensions on your Driving Licence.

Step 7: Choose an accounting system that fits your business

A good accounting system is critical for managing budgets and cash flow, alternatively your accountant may deal with all of your accounting for you.

Step 8: Promote your business

To attract clients it is critical you promote your business be it distributing business cards, posters social media or adverts in magazines. It is recommended that you also put together a marketing plan to detail where you intent to receive your enquiries in.

If you need any help with the Insurance side of your new minibus business please do not hesitate to call our dedicated Minibus team on 0208 691 9691 . We wish you many years of success!

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Starting a bowling alley business, how to make a business plan for a pool hall.

• How to Start a Charter Bus Company
• How to Make a Business Plan for Running a Dog Kennel

A business plan is a valuable tool for a charter bus company, since this type of business requires a sizable investment to buy new or used buses that are large enough to handle the number of customers you want to take places. The plan should help identify your ideal customer -- those who rent the buses or who are interested in sightseeing or event tours you arrange. Once you complete the plan, you’ll have a better idea if a charter bus company is still the answer to your entrepreneurial spirit.

About Your Company

This section explains the legal structure of your company and what types of charter bus services you plan to provide. Explain where your office will be located, where you’ll park your buses and hours of operation. List the number of buses you plan to start with and how many you want to grow into. Discuss the deposits you’ll require for reservations and the cost of chartering the bus. Explain how your fares will be determined, whether it’s by the trip or per rider.

Market Analysis

Your plan should analyze both competitors and the potential target market so you find a way to stand out from the crowd while attracting enough customers to make the business a success. Look at the prices competitors charge per bus or passenger, the level of customer service provided and the features of the buses, such as individual air conditioning or heating control and computer screens to show movies. Determine who your competition’s main buyers are -- are they individuals, travel agents or tour agencies? Your niche might focus on providing charter buses for specific events, such as community groups, senior citizens organizations, sports events or tours.

The management section of your plan needs to show how you and your team’s background, expertise and education will guide you in running a charter bus venture. If you don’t have much experience with buses, explain your business background and how that will help with this venture. Describe the bus drivers you’ve lined up; if you haven’t found drivers yet, list the qualifications you expect each one to bring to the company.

To find agencies, groups or individuals who want to rent your charter bus, you need to create a marketing plan that identifies strategies for promoting your business. Include a mix of advertising, promotional tactics and publicity that conveys your niche and brand, such as renting luxury buses for sightseeing tours or inexpensive transportation solutions to sporting events. Plan to build a website and use social media to spread word about your bus rentals.

If you need to seek financing or want to calculate how many times you need to charter your bus on a monthly basis to make your company profitable, include a breakdown of all expenses and income. Include profit and loss statements for three years to calculate how much start-up capital you need to buy the buses, properly license and insure them, open an office, do advertising and cover maintenance and gas for the vehicles.

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Nancy Wagner is a marketing strategist and speaker who started writing in 1998. She writes business plans for startups and established companies and teaches marketing and promotional tactics at local workshops. Wagner's business and marketing articles have appeared in "Home Business Journal," "Nation’s Business," "Emerging Business" and "The Mortgage Press," among others. She holds a B.S. from Eastern Illinois University.

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Community Bus Service | Days Out | Private Hire

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TISBUS business plan

• ‘TISBUS, A local community initiative’ YouTube video, 2000, by Dean Alleyne

TISBURY & DISTRICT COMMUNITY MINIBUS LTD

A service to the community.

EDITION 12: APRIL 2020

TISBUS MISSION STATEMENT

To provide a community led, affordable, door-to-door, wheel chair accessible community transport service for everyone in Tisbury and the surrounding area, on specific designated services, special outings and on private journeys.

OUR PURPOSE

TISBUS was founded in 2000 to create a community transport service for the people of Tisbury and the surrounding villages through a concerted effort that benefits social welfare and the community at large.

One of the key aims is to provide help with wheelchair accessible vehicles to the isolated and less mobile who may be unable to access public transport. We continue to try to improve our services by listening to the needs of our users, both current and potential, and thereby to provide a responsive and flexible range of services in our region.

CRITICAL FACTORS

To succeed TISBUS needs:

• Committed, effective volunteer trustees and sufficient volunteer and paid drivers
• A range of reliable, safe and appropriate vehicles
• Adequate revenue and funding to enable TISBUS to operate as a commercially viable enterprise
• To effectively promote our services to both current and potential users and to keep the services under constant review
• Good communications with our members and the public at large.
• Our area is lightly populated and widely spread (around 8,000 people in an area of 400 square miles) and has a predominately elderly population with associated mobility issues in which only limited PSV services operate
• Local PSV fares are expensive and therefore there are difficulties for the less well-off user
• Our fleet now compares well with similar organisations in the rest of Wiltshire and in neighbouring counties. Successful fund raising over the past 10 years and effective financial management have enabled us to provide a fleet of four vehicles, two of which are wheelchair accessible. The size of the fleet will be under constant review. We will consider retiring one bus and replacing it with a new one during the 2020/2021 financial year. The option of running three or four buses in the fleet will also be reconsidered, as will the basis of funding, either through purchase or lease.
• Given that buses age, we need to be aware of the need to replace minibuses at the end of their useful life cycle. This means a replacement about every three years.
• We must ensure our vehicles are used efficiently to provide the most effective service possible.
• Working closely with adjacent transport operators allows us all to maximise services efficiently for our isolated populations and to meet our charitable remit.

OUR MAIN OBJECTIVES

Short Term: 1 Year (2020/2021)

• Manage the re-start of TISBUS trips following the easing of movement restrictions imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic and to evaluate and adapt operating practices to ensure the safety of members and volunteers with respect to possible residual virus transmission
• Manage existing money for the next replacement 16-seat bus
• Continue to maximise the use of the existing fleet by keeping existing commitments under review and seeking new work
• Maintain the availability of committed and trained staff; ideally volunteers
• Increase the number of drivers available to us
• Maintain positive communications with drivers and reinforce their participation
• Maintain user satisfaction and safety
• Improve the awareness of TISBUS in the area with renewed publicity
• Continue to work with LINK where possible
• Maintain our communications with our members

Medium Term: 2-4 Years (2021-2025)

• Continue to update and improve our service by listening to feedback for our customers
• Continue to seek and encourage volunteers to come forward as drivers and trustees
• Maximise group talents
• Initiate fund raising for a replacement vehicle in 2021/22
• Investigate the use of electric or other non-fossil-fuelled vehicles

IMPLEMENTATION

Short Term (by end 2021)

New 16 seat vehicle for 2020/21

• Confirm funding
• Discussion and decision on type and usage of new vehicle among trustees
• Continue to ensure that we balance our books and use our money effectively
• Effective use of the Transport Sub Committee to monitor transport costs
• Seek to make more use of volunteer drivers and so minimise paid driver hours

Market and users

• Publicity plan
• Refine and publish The Tisbus Times on a regular basis
• Improve regular TISBUS news feed in local media
• Continued volunteer recruitment drive
• Always be receptive to possible expansion or variation of services
• Continue to monitor user feedback to enhance and improve our appeal to the community
• Co-operate and help where possible with the establishment of transport links with the Tisbury Campus and other local venues
• Improve the website and electronic communications wherever possible
• Keep members informed
• Reinforce public awareness of our charity status
• Investigate and support where practicable, transport initiatives that improve social welfare.
• Investigate possible grant funding

Medium Term: (2021-2023)

New 16 seat vehicle

• Start fundraising for 2022/24 bus
• Continue to ensure efficient use of TISBUS funds.
• Review trustees’ responsibilities – continuous improvement
• Continue cooperation with adjacent operators
• Continued publicity campaign
• Recruit new members and keep them involved

TISBUS and management responsibilities

Gordon Sorensen (GS)

Operational strategy and objectives

Board effectiveness/co-ordination

Liaison with public authorities, local councils etc

Recruitment of trustees

Responses to public concerns and complaints

Liaison with Charities Commission

Liaison with Companies House

Public relations, website and newsletter

COMPANY SECRETARY

Anne Ralphs (AR)

Insurance and protection of assets/liabilities

Legal compliance

Company administration

Trustee/Director registration

Board records and property register

AGM administration

Maintenance of members list

Martin Ryan (MR)

Maintenance of financial systems

Control/management of finances

Annual accounts

With KW: BSOG and Community Transport Grants

Financial security

Book-keeping outsource

Cash flow management

Financial advice to the Board

Bank liaison

Service cost analysis/profitability

TRANSPORT OPERATIONS

Keith Walters (KW)

Fleet operations and vehicle/passenger safety

Bus serviceability and maintenance

Service delivery and scheduling

Driver training and standards

Transport cost control

With MR: BSOG and Community Transport Grants

First line of contact with public for transport concerns and complaints

ADMINISTRATION

Chris Ewin (CE)

Meeting agendas and minutes

Management advice and support

Special projects

Don McLaren (DM)

DBS clearances

TRIP COORDINATION

First point of contact by phone

Member trips and private hire administration and scheduling

The Tisbury and District Community Minibus Ltd, a Registered Charity

Company No 04014172 Charity No 1085583

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Starting a minibus/kombi transport business in Zimbabwe and the business plan

Posted by StartupBiz Zimbabwe | Dec 28, 2016 | Business Ideas , Business Plans , Starting a Business | 10

Operating a minibus/kombi transport business in Zimbabwe is a highly rewarding venture if done properly. Millions of Zimbabweans who use public transport prefer travelling via commuter omnibuses especially for short to medium distances. A minibus business will pump cash into your pocket every day if operated efficiently. This article will outline how to start a profitable kombi public transport business in Zimbabwe, and the business plan.

Before you start a kombi business in Zimbabwe, you have to decide on the routes your minibuses will be travelling, and the size of your business i.e. the number of minibuses you will be starting with.  You should always carry out a feasibility study, market research and write a business plan before you venture into any business. Do not make the mistake of starting a kombi business or any other business just because someone is doing it and he/she says it’s profitable.

What you need

You will need a garage for the kombi public transport business. This is where you will be operating from, and where your offices will be based. You may buy or rent a garage in the industrial areas e.g. if you are operating from Harare you may get a Garage in the Southerton and Workington industrial areas. However, for most small transport businesses, the kombis will usually park at the owner’s place of residence overnight. Some small business owners allow the drivers to go with the kombis to their homes.

Vehicles and Equipment

You will need to purchase minibuses for the public transport business. Most people purchase the vehicles online from Beforward website, Japan. You can also purchase the kombis from car sales in South Africa e.g. Mussina, and from local car sales garages in Harare. The kind of minibus you need will depend on the route of your kombis. For short to medium distance routes, you can purchase Toyota Hiace passenger van. Examples of such routes include local routes e.g. Harare CBD to Mufakose, or medium distance intercity routes e.g. Gweru to Masvingo, Harare to Chinhoyi e.t.c.

For long distance routes, you can purchase vehicles such as IVECO minibuses, Mercedes-Benz Sprinter passenger van, or Toyota Quantum minibuses. Example of such routes are Harare-Bulawayo route, Bulawayo to Victoria Fall route or Harare to Mussina South Africa Route. You will need garage equipment for your minibuses, and repair tools. The drivers should always travel with basic repair tools such that if they encounter minor problems along the way, they can always fix the kombis.

Iveco Minibus

You are required by Road Traffic Act to have Third Party Insurance for your public transport business. This is a legal requirement, and you cannot operate a kombi transport business without this insurance. This is the most basic cover and protects the client (or insured/policyholder) against loss or damage to third Party Properties in the course of driving, and death or bodily injury to these Third Parties only.

It’s also better to take fully comprehensive insurance for your public transport business. This is the most extensive and complete form of motor insurance cover, which covers third party insurance, fire and theft, and also provides accidental damage to the policyholder’s vehicle. It is important to protect all of the assets of the business. Appropriate and adequate insurance coverage is an important part of this. Insurance cover can be arranged through an insurance company directly, through an agent of an insurance company, or through an insurance broker. There are many insurance companies in Zimbabwe.

Licenses for kombi business

To operate a kombi transport business in Zimbabwe, you need to pay Vehicle license fee, obtain an Operator’s license, a route authority, and certificate of fitness from the VID. If you are operating a cross boarder transport business, e.g. Harare to Mussina South Africa, you will also need a Bilateral Permit.

Management and Staff

The number of employees you need will depend on the size of your business. There is need for someone to handle finance and accounting issues. For a small transport business, this can be done by the owner of the business. As the business grows, there is need to hire full time staff that will be responsible for all the day to day transactional accounting for the transport business, and management of the organization’s cash flow, ensuring there are enough funds available to meet the day to day payments.

You will also require drivers and conductors for the kombis. The drivers and conductors need to be monitored closely, to ensure that they are not stealing from the business, and that they meet the daily revenue targets. Depending on the size of the business, you may also need mechanics, supervisors, and operations mangers.

Profitability of the kombi transport business

The kombi transport business is very profitable when it is operated efficiently and managed properly. The minibuses need to be serviced regularly to ensure that they are always in roadworthy condition. You need to properly account for all the money the public transport business generates, do not mix personal and business funds.

Pre-written Business Plan for Minibus/Kombi Transport Business : Comprehensive Version, Short Bank Loan Version, Automated Excel Financial Statements

For an in-depth analysis of the kombi transport business in Zimbabwe, purchase our business plan. We decided to introduce the business plans after noting that many Zimbabweans were venturing into the kombi business without a full understanding of the industry, market, how to run the business, the risks involved, profitability of the business and the costs involved, leading to a high failure rate of their businesses.

Our business plan will make it easier for you to launch and run a kombi transport business successfully, fully knowing what you are going into, and what’s needed to succeed in the business. It will be easier to plan and budget as the kombi business plan will lay out all the costs involved in setting up and running the business. The minibus/kombi business plan is designed uniquely for the Zimbabwean market.

I have been impressed with the level of depth and completeness of your business plans. All product, operational, financial and marketing guidelines are there. Fantastic! Please do add more plans.

The StartupBiz business plans are excellent, well prepared, fully detailed. I had not that much of the financial knowledge of the Agri business I wanted to venture into but I can tell you right now that from the moment I went through those farm business plans I had purchased, I started having the real picture of what I was to get in to,what was needed for me to be financially successful and I would want to tell my fellow mates that if you really want the business you want to venture into to be successful I think you need to get one of the StartupBiz Business plan.You wont go wrong with those ones

I recently used their service am delighted to say I am a happy customer thank you keep it up and God bless with the business

The business plan I purchased was well written and you did an extensive research, I am satisfied keep  up the good work guys and I am planning to come back for more other orders.

You have been really helpful. Its a rare commodity in Zimbabwe. Keep it up!

Very insightful and relevant homegrown solutions. Empowerment begins in the mind and this is it…

You have been such a wonderful help.God bless you,I have somewhere to start now….it’s been a dream come true to embark on this

I found the business plans very informative, helpful to make appropriate decisions.

Good job and extensive research on your business plan thank you.

It is a great opportunity having you around. Your business plans are well planned after a thorough research. They have actually opened up my approach to business. Thanx

Uses of the Kombi/Minibus Business Plan (PDF, Word And Excel)

The kombi/minibus business plan can be used for many purposes including:

• Raising capital from investors/friends/relatives
• Applying for a bank loan
• Start-up guide to launch your kombi business
• As a project proposal
• Assessing profitability of the minibus business
• Finding a business partner
• Assessing the initial start-up costs so that you know how much to save
• Manual for current business owners to help in business and strategy formulation

Contents of the Kombi Business Plan (PDF, Word And Excel)

The business plan includes, but not limited to:

• Market Analysis
• Industry Analysis
• Automated Financial Statements (monthly cash flow projections, income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, break even analysis, loan repayment calculations, start-up costs)
• Marketing Strategy
• Risk Analysis
• SWOT & PEST Analysis
• Operational Requirements
• Government regulations, Licence requirements and Licence Fees
• Operational Strategy
• Why some Zimbabweans in kombi business fail, so that you can avoid their mistakes
• Ways to raise capital to start your kombi transport business in Zimbabwe

The Kombi/Minibus Public Transport business plan package consist of 4 files

• Kombi/Minibus Public Transport Business Plan – PDF file (Comprehensive – 56 pages)
• Kombi/Minibus Transport Business Plan – Editable Word File (Comprehensive – 56 pages)
• Kombi/Minibus Business Plan Bank Version – Editable Word File (Short version for applying for a loan – 33 pages)
• Kombi/Minibus Business Plan Automated Financial Statements – (Editable Excel file)

The business plan financials are in USD currency. 

The financial statements are automated. This implies that you can change eg the revenue per route, number of trips done etc, and all the other financial statements will automatically adjust to reflect the change. 

Get the Kombi/Minibus Public Transport Business Plan (PDF, Word And Excel)

We decided to make them affordable for anyone who would want a minibus business plan, and the price for pre-written business plans is only US$10 for soft copies.

You can purchase via Paynow (Ecocash/Innbucks/One Money/MasterCard/Visa Card)  or via Paypal. You just click Buy Now  (scroll down)    and you will then be taken to payment website where you make the payment. Just follow the instructions; you will be done with the payment process in 2 minutes. We will email the business plan (PDF format, Microsoft word format, and a Microsoft Excel file with the financial statements)  to you within 24 hours, using the email address you provided when you were paying.

You can also purchase  soft copies  at our  offices  in Harare. Visit  StartupBiz Zimbabwe, Suite 201, 2nd Floor, Morgan House, George Silundika Avenue (between 1st Street & 2nd Street), Harare  . The cost of the business plan is US$10 (soft copies).

For any questions, other payment options, email us on  [email protected]  , call/whatsapp us on +263778798072  (Whatsapp us by clicking the link https://wa.me/263778798072 )  .

Kombi Public Transport /Commuter Omnibus/Mini-Bus Business Plan 

Click Buy now to purchase using Ecocash, Innbucks, Paypal, MasterCard or VisaCard (US$10)

Click the above button

Check out more business ideas and our collection of business plans . Like us on Facebook , follow us on Twitter , and subscribe to receive notifications of new posts in your email.

A note from StartupBiz Zimbabwe: Everyday we send business updates via Whatsapp. Click the link to join: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KTPPiZpsPPS6laELHIaJ0R or send the word join via Whatsapp to  +263778798072  (Whatsapp us by clicking the link https://wa.me/263778798072 ).

About The Author

StartupBiz Zimbabwe

StartupBiz Zimbabwe is a business research firm based in Zimbabwe. We sell prewritten business plans for various industries including agriculture, transport, manufacturing, retail and education. StartupBiz Zimbabwe also publishes articles on business ideas, business news, business tips, personal finance, entrepreneur interviews and profiles.

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10 Comments

Mataurire ako about kombis as a very profitable business anoita kuti police iite manyawi. Bvironyarara zvako. Why are you not talking about the motor bike, ford, v.i d,presumptive tax, service, city council, zhing zhong parts etc.

that’s a very informative overview of this business In Zimbabwe, you only left the challenges to the business and how you can overcome them. anyway you are very helpful.

Hi guys l need help l bought my Toyota taxi super 16 in Zimbabwe l need to start up a taxi business eg Bulawayo to plumtree my problem is l don’t know wat is needed on paper work help me guys, you can also get me on my watsapp me on my 0027627446968

I also need information on how to register my combi

whatsup me on 0027719558531

Very much informative, you are doing a great job to make people professionally kick start business

Oh thank you so much, what an eye opener, very informative. I am thinking to venture in this business

Thanks this is nhelpful

Thank you for the feedback.

Thanks it’s helpful

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How to Write a Small Business Plan

• Published August 26, 2024 August 26, 2024

Starting a small business can be both exciting and overwhelming. To set yourself up for success, start by creating a solid small business plan. A business plan not only helps you clarify your ideas but also serves as a roadmap for growth and a tool to attract investors and secure loans.

What is a Small Business Plan?

A business plan is a document that explains what your business does, how you intend to make money, and what your future strategies will be. According to the U.S. Small Business Association , “Your business plan is the tool you’ll use to convince people that working with you—or investing in your company—is a smart choice.” It often includes a mission statement, details about the products or services offered, and a timeline for achieving goals. They are also living documents, so you can—and should—change your business plan as your business evolves.

What to Include in Your Small Business Plan

As the U.S. Small Business Association notes, there is no right or wrong way to write a business plan. The key is to structure your plan to meet your business’s needs. Here’s a simple guide to help you write a small business plan (along with some essential business banking tips to keep in mind).

1. Executive Summary

What it is: A brief overview of your business, including your mission statement, the products or services you offer, and your business goals.

Why it matters: This section captures the essence of your business and is often the first thing potential investors or lenders will read. Keep it concise and compelling.

2. Business Description

What it is: A detailed description of your business, including its history, the market needs it will meet, and what sets it apart from competitors.

Why it matters: This section shows you have a clear understanding of your industry and your place within it.

3. Market Analysis

What it is: An analysis of your target market, including demographics, buying habits, and market trends.

Why it matters: Demonstrating knowledge of your market can help you craft strategies that resonate with your audience and help you stand out.

4. Organization and Management

What it is: A breakdown of your business’s organizational structure, including the roles of your team members.

Why it matters: This section shows that you have the right people in place to execute your business plan.

5. Product Line or Services

What it is: A detailed description of the products or services your business will offer.

Why it matters: Clearly defining what you’re selling helps investors and customers understand your value proposition.

6. Marketing and Sales Strategy

What it is: Your plan for attracting and retaining customers, including pricing, promotion, and distribution strategies.

W hy it matters: A strong marketing plan shows that you’re serious about reaching your target audience and generating revenue.

7. Funding Request

What it is: If you’re seeking financing, this section outlines how much money you need, what you’ll use it for, and how you’ll repay it.

Why it matters: Being clear about your financial needs and plans shows lenders that you’re responsible and prepared.

8. Financial Projections

What it is: Forecasts of your business’s future financial performance, including income statements, cash flow statements, and balance sheets.

Why it matters: This section shows potential lenders and investors that your business is financially viable.

9. Appendix

What it is: Additional information that supports your business plan, such as resumes, permits, and other legal documents.

Why it matters: The appendix provides credibility and additional context for your business plan.

Writing a small business plan might seem daunting but breaking it down into these sections makes it manageable. Remember, your business plan is a living document—update it regularly as your business grows and changes.

With a well-thought-out business plan and the right banking strategies in place, you’ll be better positioned to navigate the challenges of starting and growing your small business.

Small Business Banking Tips

• When seeking funding, consider opening both business checking and savings accounts to draw a clear line between your personal and business finances. This makes managing your finances easier and more professional.
• Use online business banking tools to monitor your cash flow regularly. Many financial institutions (including Maps) offer budgeting tools that can help you track expenses and income in real time, making it easier to stay on top of your financial projections.
• As your business evolves, your banking needs might change too. Regularly review your business bank account, credit options, and financial services to ensure they align with your current goals.

Want more small business strategies?

• Check out our article on how to minimize small business taxes (coming soon).
• Learn about the business banking tools Maps has to offer .
• Find out whether your  side hustle should become a small business .

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