Transportation. Is It Worth It?

[missT]

So I have an in home daycare but will be starting a center soon. I get calls pretty frequently asking if I transport kids. It would also be nice to be able to take the kids on field trips. There's also the added bonus of having a second car since right now my husband and I share a car and I have meetings during the day on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month that I always have to borrow a car for. But I do know that there's the added insurance expense and car payment (our current car is paid off) so I'm wondering if it's worth it. What do you think?

[LittleExplorers]

A commercial auto policy was super expensive when I looked into it. Definitely not worth it for me, but each state may be different.

[storybookending]

Originally Posted by missT

So I have an in home daycare but will be starting a center soon. I get calls pretty frequently asking if I transport kids. It would also be nice to be able to take the kids on field trips. There's also the added bonus of having a second car since right now my husband and I share a car and I have meetings during the day on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month that I always have to borrow a car for. But I do know that there's the added insurance expense and car payment (our current car is paid off) so I'm wondering if it's worth it. What do you think?

I don’t transport for daycare and I don’t think I would want to in my own personal vehicle. Too much liability and insurance and additional licensing requirements.

Could you look into bussing in your area for field trips? My local bus company contracts for field trips and stuff at the center that I used to be employed at.

[happymom]

As a parent it was #1 priority for me to find a center that could transport my SA child home from school.

Field trips were low on my priority list.

Every family is different, I am sure you can fill your spaces if you don't offer transportation. I don't know anything about the expense, but I imagine it is huge. Unless you have a very large center, I think it'd be hard to justify the added expense.

[LysesKids]

Originally Posted by missT

So I have an in home daycare but will be starting a center soon. I get calls pretty frequently asking if I transport kids. It would also be nice to be able to take the kids on field trips. There's also the added bonus of having a second car since right now my husband and I share a car and I have meetings during the day on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month that I always have to borrow a car for. But I do know that there's the added insurance expense and car payment (our current car is paid off) so I'm wondering if it's worth it. What do you think?

Even when I ran my personal errand service, I refused to transport clients; the Insurance was way to high (taxi Insurance type rates for commercial business in most states); I didn't make enough to justify offering that service without a huge price increase & in the case of childcare, you have to play by state licensing rules too, not just the business aspect of it.

Some states might require you get a commercial license to transport. I know here, If I worked with the disabled community, I have to get an addition on my license before I could drive just a regular 7-8 seater van for the center

[MarinaVanessa]

In my city it wouldn't be worth it. The commercial auto insurance is expensive and in my county we need a special transporting permit if we are picking up or dropping clients off somewhere. I only take the kids with me when dropping off my own children but don't pick up or drop off the DC kids at school or anywhere else so I don't need a permit but if I did the permit alone would cost somewhere around $9k a year. Check your own local city and county ordinances as well as state requirements.

[CityGarden]

It was not worth the added insurance cost (both daycare and auto) in my area and personally I would not want the hassle.

I do see the value for SA programs as most parents needing aftercare work full time and need the program to provide transportation - in my area it is only much larger centers that offer it.

[DaveA]

I transport kids. We do a lot of off-site activities and up until a couple years ago the school didn't bus pre-K. So it was transport kids or pretty much lose the 3-5 age group. Plus for the first few years DD was in school there were quite a few times I would have to go get her from school for health reasons. If I couldn't transport I would have to emergency find a sub or call DW and have her get off work 45 min away. Insurance wasn't cheap but reasonable. I can't remember the amount or how we did the policy (& frankly I'm being too lazy to go downstairs and open the file cabinet ), but my insurance is already a mess because of the home daycare and my metalworking shop (my other business).