Shuttle bus rental in Singapore
A bus looping between two fixed points for as long as you need it. Priced by the hour from $50, with unlimited stops and no waiting charges.
A shuttle is an hourly booking rather than a transfer: $50 an hour on a 23 seater, $60 on a 45 seater, $70 on a 49 seater and $80 on a 50 seater, with a four hour minimum.
What you are really buying is frequency, not seats. One bus on a 20 minute loop puts a bus at each end every 20 minutes. Two buses on the same loop make it every 10.
A shuttle is a loop, not a transfer
A transfer moves a group once, from one place to another, and the job is finished. A shuttle keeps going round: the bus runs a circuit between fixed points for a set window, and people board whenever they arrive rather than at one agreed departure time.
That difference decides how it is priced. A transfer is a single movement from $85. A shuttle is bought by the hour, because the bus and driver are tied to your loop for the whole period. The full comparison of both is on the rates page.
- Book a transfer when everyone travels together at one time, in one direction.
- Book a shuttle when arrivals are spread out, or when the same people need to move back and forth during the day.
How many buses your shuttle needs
This is the question most shuttle bookings get wrong, and it is arithmetic rather than judgement. Time one full circuit, including boarding and getting out again, and that is your loop time. A single bus arrives once per loop. Add a second bus and the wait halves.
| Loop time | Buses | A bus every | People per hour | Cost per hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 minutes | 1 | 20 min | 135 | $60 |
| 20 minutes | 2 | 10 min | 270 | $120 |
| 20 minutes | 3 | about 7 min | 405 | $180 |
| 30 minutes | 1 | 30 min | 90 | $60 |
| 30 minutes | 2 | 15 min | 180 | $120 |
| 30 minutes | 3 | 10 min | 270 | $180 |
The people-per-hour figures assume a full bus on every circuit, so treat them as a ceiling rather than a plan. In practice a loop rarely fills every seat every time, and sizing with a little headroom is what stops a queue forming at the far end.
What a shuttle costs
| Vehicle | Seats | Per hour | Minimum 4 hours | 8 hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23-seater minibus | 23 | $50 | $200 | $400 |
| 45-seater coach | 45 | $60 | $240 | $480 |
| 49-seater coach | 49 | $70 | $280 | $560 |
| 50-seater coach Limited stock | 50 | $80 | $320 | $640 |
The rate is per vehicle, so a two bus shuttle is simply twice the hourly figure. Driver, fuel, ERP and parking are inside every number, there is no waiting charge and no limit on stops inside your booked hours, and no GST is added because we are not GST registered.
What we need to plan the loop
- The two ends of the loop. Exact addresses, because coach access decides where the bus can actually stop.
- The window. Start and finish time, and whether the bus can stand down in the middle.
- Total headcount, and the peak. Five hundred people over eight hours is a different shuttle from five hundred leaving at once.
- Anything fixed. A session that ends at a set time, a last train to catch, a venue curfew.
Where shuttles usually run
Conferences and exhibitions moving delegates between a venue and their hotels. Company family days and open houses running from a car park to a site entrance. Roadshows and product launches. Campus and community loops during a works closure. Anything where people arrive over a period rather than all at once.
Some shuttle jobs have a page of their own, because they are priced or scheduled differently. A daily commute on a fixed route is staff transport. Cover across shift changes is a hospital and shift shuttle. Guests between ceremony and dinner is a wedding shuttle. An ongoing route billed monthly is a monthly contract.
What to check before you book a shuttle
Shuttles go wrong in three predictable ways. Here is how SGBUS.sg handles each, and the question to put to any quote you are holding.
- The queue builds faster than the bus can clear it
- What we doWe size the shuttle on the peak moment, not the average. A session ending at once empties a venue in ten minutes, and that is the number the loop has to survive, not the hourly total.
- Ask this of any quoteHow many buses is this, and what headway does that give at the busiest moment of the day?
- The coach cannot actually stop where you planned
- What we doWe check coach access and parking at every point on the loop before quoting. A pickup that works for a car often pushes a coach to a bay some distance from the entrance, which lengthens the loop and cuts your frequency.
- Ask this of any quoteHas anyone checked that a coach can stop at both ends of this loop, and where exactly?
- The day overruns and the bill is a surprise
- What we doExtra time is billed by the hour at the rate you booked, not at a penalty rate. Tell the driver as early as you can and you will know the figure before you incur it.
- Ask this of any quoteWhat does an extra hour cost, and is it charged at the booked rate or a higher one?
Common questions about shuttle bus rental
How much is a shuttle bus in Singapore?
A shuttle is booked by the hour: $50 on a 23 seater, $60 on a 45 seater, $70 on a 49 seater and $80 on a 50 seater, with a four hour minimum. That is $200, $240, $280 or $320 to start. Driver, fuel, ERP and parking are included.
Why is a shuttle priced by the hour and not per trip?
A transfer is one movement from A to B, from $85. A shuttle keeps circulating, so the bus and driver are committed to your loop for the whole window rather than to a single journey.
How many buses do I need?
Divide the loop time by how often you want a bus. A 20 minute loop run with two buses puts a bus at each end every 10 minutes; three buses makes it about every 7.
Can one bus cover more than two pickup points?
Yes, as long as every point sits on the loop. Each extra stop lengthens the loop, which lowers the frequency, so it is a trade against how often the bus comes round.
Can the shuttle run late at night?
Yes. A job starting at 11pm or later, or finishing between 11pm and 7am, carries the midnight charge of $20 per vehicle, the same as every other service we run.
Is this the same as a staff shuttle?
Not quite. A daily commute on a fixed route is staff transport and is usually priced as a monthly contract. This page covers shuttles that run for an event or a defined window.
A shuttle is one of several ways to book the same fleet. How each type is quoted is set out on the bus rental services page.
Running a shuttle?
Send the two ends of the loop, the window and how many people. We will tell you how many buses it takes and what the frequency works out at.
Driver, fuel, ERP and parking are included, and no GST is added because we are not GST registered. Prefer the phone? Call +65 8065 3479.