Lilbutterflie 06:12 AM 10-07-2010
Just curious, for those of you that offer transportation- what vehicle do you use and how many children are you transporting? What do you like & dislike about your vehicle for daycare purposes?
I ask b/c I transport five children every day & I own a Chevy Tahoe with the 3rd row seat. But the 3rd row seat is a pain in the butt! The two boys who sit back there either have to enter from the back and climb over, or enter from the side doors & climb over the seats that have carseats already. I don't know, I'm kind of thinking of buying something else that has a sliding door and easy access to ALL seats!
kitkat 06:35 AM 10-07-2010
I only care for 3 children at a time, plus my own. I have a Grand Caravan and it has worked out fine (can seat 5 kids in the 2 rows). However, I'm now at 3 dck, have 2 of my own, and am pregnant w/#3. When baby is born, I won't have enough seats in the van. I don't transport often, but I like the security of knowing I have a vehicle with enough space for everyone in the event that we need it. Not completely sure how I'm going to handle it after the baby is born.
I remember someone on here bought a big passenger van. Hopefully she's around and can post something.
momofsix 06:47 AM 10-07-2010
Right now I have a Suburban that seats 8, it's ok. The third seat -it's very hard to get 3 car seats into it.
I used to have a Dodge van that seated 12 and I LOVED it!!! If i could have found one in my price range that is what I would have gotten again. We ran ours into the ground! It's so easy to get everyone in and out! It had the two captain chairs for the front seats, then three bench seats that held 3,3, and 4. We have 6 children and so it was great for family trips too! There is nothing bad that I could say about my "big blue"! I miss it so much!
BentleysBands 07:00 AM 10-07-2010
i have a dodge caravan thats seats 5 kids comfortably. both doors slide open and all doors r automatic which is nice when u have ur hands full. i dont transport often if at all just for liability purposes. i no longer have insurance to cover daycare kids due to the price so i keep outtings down. i try to have one fieldtrip a month and have parents attend so thats a big help.
I have a Chevy Venture Van. It's an 8-passenger (6 kids and 2 adults). One of the sliding doors opens using the remote key, which is wonderful. The door opens to the middle row, which has 3 seats. Each of the two outside seats of that middle row have a very easy two step fold system. First, the back folds down to the seat, and you can easily put a little one into a carseat in the back row, or then the whole seat flips up toward the front of the van. So hard to describe! But that opens up the floor where you can walk to the back row. Love it!
DancingQueen 11:58 AM 10-07-2010
I want a 9 passenger used vehicle - not having any luck :*(
MarinaVanessa 01:21 PM 10-07-2010
Even though I swore I'd never drive a mini-van it seems that things change once you have a daycare lol. I don't usually transport but I was thinking that I would soon seeing as to how it would benefit myself and the families that I serve when their kids start school.
We've been thinking about the Toyota Sienna. It seats 7 (or you can get the model for 8 passengers) and since I have a 6 kid max it would work perfectly for me. It has two sliding doors (one on each side) and the middle row seats 2 in their own seperate seats (which would work perfectly for two infant carseats) and there's enough room even with a carseat so that the other kiddos or myself can climb in, walk between the seats and into the 3rd row. In any case even if you get the 7 passenger or the 8 passenger van all of the seats slide forward for access into the back. The bigger kids would sit back there in their carseats/boosters and my oldest DCB (8yo) could sit in the front seat. The windows on the slider doors roll-down etc. I can go on and on. I'm excited but we're saving up for a large down-payment ($24,000 brand new) or crossing our fingers for a used one from a dealer.
Unregistered 02:47 PM 10-07-2010
I have a 12 passenger Ford van and I love it. I usually have 7 children in my daycare and often take one or two of my young adult children also. It's great for transporting kids and we've used it for family vacations too. A couple of drawbacks with it are the amount of gas it uses and the fact that I had to get a special driver's license to drive a vehicle that sat more than 9 people that weren't all my family.
Jan
TomCopeland 06:40 PM 10-07-2010
I don't want to be a killjoy here but I want to remind everyone about the importance of making sure you are covered by your car insurance policy when you are transporting children. Most major car insurance companies won't cover you or will make you buy commercial car insurance (at twice the price) if you regularly transport children. Tell your car insurance agent how you use your vehicle for your business and get in writing a statement that says you are covered for this kind of use.