Had a great experience. Drivers were friendly and nice

We had reserved two buses for a field trip this school year. One bus was great. Showed up on time, friendly, and was helpful as he could be. The second bus was over 45 minutes late to pick us up from school to get to our location. I had called twice to see where the bus was and did not receive much information. The same thing happened returning back to school. We were again left to wait with no explanation. There was no apology from the bus driver.

What a fantastic experience!!! We rented the bus for our bus-loving 2 year olds’ 2nd birthday party and it couldn’t have been a better experience! Scheduling and confirming was a breeze. Unfortunately, we accidentally put our home address as the starting point instead of my parents’ house a mile away and the driver and dispatch were so accommodating of the mistake. The bus was clean and comfortable. Our driver was AMAZING! I only wish I could remember her name! She was a safe driver and She made my son’s first bus riding experience truly magical! She was so fun and friendly and we truly enjoyed our time with her. All around a wonderful experience!

Busses were newer, clean and comfortable. Drivers were friendly, on-time and professional.

We used the bus service for shuttling guests to / from the hotel and venue for our wedding. They were great about the planning and coordination of details, and very flexible as we had to push back the date due to covid.

Day of, the driver took a VERY long way between the locations (should have only been 12 mins each way but he probably took at least 20-25 ea way) so we had to wait a while for the bus to come back. When it wasn't there when we expected it to be, we called the off-hours numbers to see if there was some sort of miscommunication (because the bus hadn't been seen in more than 45 minutes) and NO ONE answered either number. We were very disappointed we didn't have a way to reach the bus driver when 20 people were waiting outside the venue for a ride back after the event. Luckily, the bus driver eventually showed up and it worked out OK but didn't leave me with a great overall experience.

Driver was very friendly, on time (early even) and everything went without a flaw. Would absolutely use then again.

We were generally pleased with our First Student Charter Bus Rental - Cincinnati. They make it very easy to book a bus and are very professional on the front end. We are able to get our people where we need to be on time and safely. We originally booked 2 buses, but cancelled one bus about 12 days before our event. There was some mix-up the first day of the event and 2 buses showed up. Other than that, the bus was 30 minutes arriving for day 1 of our event and 20 minutes late for day 2 of our event. Thankfully, we had built extra time in case of this type of delay. Our bus drivers have always been very pleasant and take great care of us. We definitely plan to use this company again.

We originally booked our buses to arrive at 9:00 am and received a confirmation of this time. A few days late we were told that we could not leave until 9:30. On the day of the trip, the buses were 20 minutes late. This was our first experience with First Student. Not a great one.

first, this review does NOT reflect the trip on 2/28. That driver was courteous, on-time, and although road conditions were slippery and snowy, the passengers felt safe the entire time.

However, the return trip on 2/29 was not good. The bus was over an hour late getting to the pick up location. (departure was at 7:00, she arrived at 8:00, but we expected her between 6:30 and 6:45). I began calling the after hours number about 7:30. David, I believe was his name, answered and had no idea where our bus was. He hung up to make a call to the charter supervisor - and if that was the other number on our contact sheet, no one answered that number when we tried it first. I was so nervous at this point with 29 students in my care that i waited and waited for David to call me back. after about 10 minutes i called him back. he said he was on the phone with the supervisor and they were trying to figure it out. He again told me he would call me back. He called 5 minutes later and started with "here's what happened". My heart was jumping out of my chest by now. Understand that we were an hour and 45 minutes from home, at a camp with absolutely no cell service. i was using a land line at the camp director's home. We had no way to contact parents to tell them we were late, or that we were ok.
He said that the drivers were double booked and that he would have to call someone in to come and get us. i was horrified, and said to him 'you're telling me it's going to take 2 and half hours or longer, to get a bus to us, and it's almost a hour drive home?'. His response was, 'well if i could get off the phone i could start calling drivers.'
just then, a bus pulled into the camp! When i got to the bus i asked her if everything was ok, or if she had any trouble getting there and she said no, everything was fine. i couldn't ask why she was an hour late since she was getting off the bus to use the restroom and the kids were all piling out the door and onto the bus.

apparently, she took a few wrong turns to get home, and the trip took way longer than it should've. The group was scheduled to return at 8:45, but i believe they pulled in about 10:30.
I was very disappointed with the service for this part of the trip.

We had trouble using First Student. We booked trips for February four months prior. But when the day arrived, they did not. When I called with our trip confirmation number, they had no record of our trips. They did try to send busses, but when the busses arrived, they saw other busses in our school parking lot and thought another driver had arrived. So they slowed down on the street, but ultimately left. Eventually, three busses did arrive more than two hours late. We were supposed to have the same exact trip planned the following day. I was assured there wouldn't be any problems, but when 9am arrived, the busses still weren't present as they had said they would be. They explained that they were stuck in traffic, but still arrived 20 minutes later than scheduled. Then two of the three drivers refused to move because they didn't want to be the "lead" bus. The students then waited on the bus for an additional 20 minutes. It was just a very difficult situation. I think in the future, there needs to be a better way of making sure that trips booked through the national First Student get appropriately communicated to the local First Student. And the drivers need to have a better sense of where they are going so that they feel confident to be the "lead" bus regardless! Each year, the last week of February, our school books multiple trips for our Spiritual Journey Week. We try to work with a different local bus company because we've never had a problem with them. But when they can't accomodate all of our trips, we default to First Student. We consistently have issues with them arriving late or drivers not knowing all the details. My hope is that when we need to use them in the future, they've been able to do some reorganizing.

Our bus driver was great and we loved her. She was on time, very kind and polite, and drove like a champ. Her experience showed and we were thankful to have her as our driver for the day!

We reserved 2 busses for 2 days and only 1 showed up for the 1st day. The driver who did show up was very nice and we made it work. First Student did refund our money for one bus the first day but said they would call back with an explanation of what happened but never did. The second day both busses showed up and things were fine. Unfortunately, I will be checking around to see what other bus services are available.

Our driver, Brit, was on time and very pleasant. We will use First Charter again.

The buses were 30 minutes late picking up the students from school. Everything else was great. The staff members were very complimentary to the drivers for being personable and making the trip enjoyable for the kids.

Erica was a great driver! Thank you!

The bus driver was friendly. She needed help navigating her phone so that she could get GoogleMaps to provide her with directions. Her instructions were to park on the street to meet the students, though she chose to pull into the parking lot of our school, which then required a staff person to leave their class to move their car so that the bus driver could turn around.
My overall feelings may be influenced by the excessive heat blowing on the bus.

The drivers were friendly and considerate. I specifically said that I needed a pick at the HIGH SCHOOL. Gave the high school address and the name of the high school. Unfortunately, the message did not get to the drivers and so they were late in picking us up.

I heard from individual who accompanied our students...
Excellent trip by bus; everything went very smoothly! Bravo!

Terri