A pandemic isn’t stopping the Hemphill Brothers Coach Company from putting their show on the road...but instead of the show being a concert, it is a view of a full moon over the mountains, and the road leads to the beach, not to Bridgestone Arena.
The Whites Creek, Tennessee-based company has a fleet of more than 115 luxury tour buses and 230 employees, including 150 qualified drivers who take superstars and supergroups (and their gear) across the country as they perform in concert halls and arenas. These are big names, people like Cher, Post Malone, and Little Big Town, not to mention presidential candidates and Secret Service agents. As 2020 started, they were gearing up for their biggest year in 40 years of business when the coronavirus pandemic pumped the brakes. Tours and concerts were canceled and buses rolled back to the garage.
Instead of letting their engines idle, Trent and Joey Hemphill, the brothers who own the business, started brainstorming. They are not new to coming up with different business ideas and models. They first got the taste of the traveling tour life with their family gospel singing group, The Hemphills, before starting their bus company in 1980. And, if you’ve had a drink in the bus-turned-bar on the roof of the Bobby Hotel, you’ve sipped a cocktail in one of their more creative projects.
Over the years, Joey says, they’ve received calls from folks who wanted to use their high-end vehicles for family and business trips. When the speaking engagements and music concerts stopped, they thought maybe this was the time to answer those calls. They could make the unused buses and the skilled drivers who needed work available to folks who wanted to travel post-quarantine, but wanted to do so with a small, select group of friends and family.
“Now you have the general public who might have gone on a European vacation or a cruise this summer asking about trips out West,” Trent says. “It has been a fun transition for us.”
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Of course, these buses are luxury accommodations, with restrooms, kitchenettes, bunks for sleeping, and the kind of great sound systems professional musicians demand. Plus, having a professional driver at the wheel means there’s nothing for vacation-goers to worry about. These drivers are used to easing into a gas station or an off-ramp without disturbing musicians who are sleeping after a show, so the ride is smooth, Trent says. They’re used to navigating through parking lots and traffic and are masters of GPS. That means the family can play cards, watch videos, and plot out their hikes for when they arrive at their destination. And they are doing it without having to be concerned with social distancing and wearing masks, because everyone on the bus is part of the private group.
The brothers say they’ve been getting requests from family groups wanting to travel to the beach with cousins, and even small groups of neighbors planning outings, such as a tour through Kentucky’s bourbon country. Most buses, which are all sanitized before use, can accommodate trailers, so a small car or bikes can be towed along for fun at the final destination. And, yes, Fido is welcome, too, because what’s a family vacation without the family dog?
Prices vary depending on the size of the bus and the length of the trip, but a bus accommodating 12 people (plus luggage and pets) from Nashville to the famous 30A beaches of Florida is $3,600 in July and August 2020.
“It is a unique opportunity to ride in a rock-star bus,” Trent says. “We have taken our kids all over the world, but the trips they talk about most are the family bus trips,” Joey adds.
The brothers are hopeful that once concerts return, this new business opportunity will carry over.
Trent says, “Maybe this will be a new revenue stream that we didn’t have before.”