Our story

More quote requests. More happy customers. More full-to-the-brim, smile-a-second trips for coach and minibus operators around the country. That’s our mission. But what’s our story? You can read it all below...

From a pocket-sized coach company to an industry-leading comparison specialist, Coach Hire Comparison has been through the motions as a business. Mix in the uncertainty of a worldwide pandemic and you’ll have an idea of how strong we have become as a team.

Our focus has reigned strong since the early days, and is still as prominent today as it ever has been; to champion independent coach travel, providing a fair platform for operators to flourish and thrive. Now where to start...

The early days…

We remember it well. The first morning of our first meeting in our first week as an independent coach company. James had left his job and we were busy getting our hands, knees and god-knows-what-else dirty as we nervously scrubbed our beloved coach.

Thankfully it all went rather well. And after six years’ building our business as a small coach operator, we saw an opportunity. To help other like-minded business owners. To champion independent coach travel. And to make coach hire the simplest, cheapest, happiest choice of travel.

That’s when Coach Hire Comparison was born. We flourished for a decade. Which meant our operators flourished in equal measure. Maybe it sounds soppy, but our small family business became a competitive edge for hundreds of operators around the country. And that makes us very proud indeed.

The Covid years…

Then Covid-19 hit. And the wheels of our industry ground to a halt. Forget the furlough schemes and ferrying key workers around the country. The cold hard truth is that it was scary. Coach and minibus operators across the country had a hard time, and our industry went into survival mode.

We knew there was nothing we could do to help. Apart from being there to help them rebuild when pandemic restrictions were eased.

So that’s what we did. When other companies might have paused investment, we ploughed more time, effort, ideas and investment into Coach Hire Comparison. And we made sure every single operator knew we’d be ready and waiting when the opportunity to rebuild their business arose.

That’s exactly what happened. And together we began building back stronger than ever.

Coach Hire Comparison - Minibus at The Ivy

The CMAC era…

There’s only so far one married couple, two children, two dogs and one orange mascot can take a business. We’d established so much momentum after Covid and had so many ideas to continue building Coach Hire Comparison. It’s just we didn’t have enough hours in the day (or night) to do justice to our ambitions – both for our platform and our operators.

That’s when CMAC came along. Now then, CMAC aren’t just industry-leading ground transport specialists. They’re also a really innovative, ambitious team. Even better? They’re really good people too. Things just *clicked*. And when CMAC asked us if we’d like to join forces, we blushed a little bit and quickly said ‘we do’. Everything just felt right.

So here we are. Whilst James and Laura continue to invest their hearts and minds into Coach Hire Comparison as Joint Managing Directors, the day-to-day business is now led by the brilliant Matt Hanson, who’s helping to pioneer the future path of Coach Hire Comparison and our partner operators, driven by the vision and support of almost 350 talented team members across CMAC Group.

Our belief in the power of our platform grows stronger every day. It’s lovely to know there are people outside of our industry who feel the same way… we’re proud to be winners in the 2023 Derbyshire Business Awards for Business Improvement Through Technology. More than that though, we’re even prouder of the impact Coach Hire Comparison continues to have for operators across the industry we love, and for the people who trust their local coach companies for life’s big (and little) journeys.

Coach Hire Comparison - Minibus at Birmingham Airport