How many seats do you actually need before you book a van

Somebody rings up needing a vehicle for fourteen people. We book the fourteen seat van. They arrive, everyone piles in, and there is a person standing on the tarmac with nowhere to sit, because the count of fourteen was the number of passengers and nobody counted whoever was going to drive them.

This happens constantly. It is not a failure of arithmetic, it is a failure of category: when you picture the group, you picture the people you are taking, and the driver is you, so you are not in the picture. Worth fixing before the day rather than on it.

How the seat numbers are counted

A 14-passenger van seats fourteen people including the driver. A 9-passenger SUV seats nine including the driver. The number on the label is total occupancy, not passengers plus a driver.

So the rule is simple. Count every human being who will be in the vehicle, including yourself and including anyone who is only coming one way. That is the number to give us.

What we keep, and what each one is for

There are two genuine group vehicles on our lot. The 14-passenger Chevy van is the full one, the answer for a team, a church group, a wedding party or a family reunion where the whole point is that everybody travels together. The 9-passenger Ford Expedition is the smaller and, honestly, the more pleasant one to drive: it handles more like a large SUV than a bus, and for a group of seven or eight it is usually the better trip.

Below nine, we would generally steer you away from both. A Chrysler minivan or a Chevy Suburban covers a smaller group for less money and is far easier to park anywhere near downtown.

Seats are not the only measure

A vehicle that seats your group and cannot carry their luggage has not solved your problem. This catches out airport runs in particular: fourteen people flying somewhere for a week is fourteen suitcases, and a fully loaded fourteen seat van does not have fourteen suitcases worth of space behind the back row.

So when you call, tell us both numbers. How many people, and roughly how much they are each bringing. Sometimes the right answer is the van plus a car following behind, and it is better to work that out in advance than in a parking garage.

One way, round trip, and the people who leave early

Groups are rarely as fixed as the booking makes them sound. Somebody flies back a day early, somebody drives themselves and meets you there, somebody joins halfway through. None of that is a problem, but it changes which vehicle is right.

The number that matters for choosing the vehicle is the maximum number of people in it at any single moment, not the total number of people involved across the trip. Those are often different, and the second one is the one people quote us.

Child seats are worth flagging separately. A child seat occupies a seat and needs an anchor point, and not every position in every vehicle has one. If small children are travelling, say how many and how old when you call rather than working it out in the lot.

Who can drive it

The requirements do not change because the vehicle is larger. A valid driver's licence, 21 or over, and at least minimum liability insurance. We are not going to invent an extra qualification here that we do not ask for at the counter.

That said, if you have never driven a fourteen seat van before, tell us when you collect it. It is longer, taller and blinder over the shoulder than anything you drive daily, and the useful version of that conversation happens in the lot with the vehicle in front of you, not in a paragraph on a website.

Book group vehicles early, and mean it

This is the practical part. We hold one 14-passenger van and one 9-passenger Expedition. That is the entire group fleet. On a weekend with a wedding, a tournament or a festival in town, they are the first things to go and they go early.

If your date is fixed, call as soon as the date is fixed, even if the details are not settled. We would much rather tell you in September that a date in November is still open than tell you in November that it is not.

Call (337) 234-3294, Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Give us the real head count, including you.