Davis Transportation

I hired Davis for transportation on my wedding day. From the planning ahead of time to the actual event, everything went smoothly. It was such a relief. Rhonda was a pleasure to work with. The shuttle was clean and the perfect size. The driver was so friendly and pleasant. I would definitely recommend Davis!

We got married in November and hired Davis Transportation after our friends used them in their wedding.
I can summarize this by saying that they provided great service on our wedding day and we have no complaints there, but that the planning was a huge pain.
Rhonda really is very nice and they handled the initial quote better than most of the transportation companies I talked to but I still found it very confusing. Every other type of vendor would say «You have this situation, this many guests? You’ll probably need XYZ, which we can provide at $$$». None of the transportation companies did that. I called and emailed between 5 – 10 of them, described my exact dates, time schedules, and party sizes, and asked for quotes. What I got back every time was a form letter with a list of half-​described buses and rates attached. I was lucky if I got that with a specific person’s name on the bottom of the email that I could call and ask questions of, like whether they split hours and whether gas was included.
With Davis, I pretty much figured out what I needed based on the rates that they sent me, then I called and talked to Rhonda, who answered all of my questions and sent me the initial contract. The contract was fine, if a bit confusing because we needed one bus early and two later, so there was some time the two would overlap. They didn’t seem to be very familiar with this kind of setup. Also, since Davis is located in Evanston and my wedding was in the suburbs, the buses would need to come out to the burbs and stay there the entire time. This meant I was paying for a few hours that they were just parked there, which I hadn’t been expecting based on my friend’s recommendation, but we just dealt with it and said fine.
Right before the wedding, our day-​of-​wedding planner reviewed the contract and didn’t seem to think we were all on the same page. I called and talked to Rhonda and we had to work through the whole contract again. Part of it was my fault because what we needed had changed slightly. The other part of it was Davis fault because they bus they contracted me was in the shop. I’ll call that a draw. We worked out the changes (good), the cost went up (not so good), and then I had to call twice more to get the updated contract sent to me (infuriating when you’re stressed a week before the wedding).
I expected more help with the basic planning than I got, but that just doesn’t appear to be how this industry works. I also was disappointed about the cost. We picked them partially because their prices were more reasonable than others we found, but between the lack of splitting hours, the need to keep both buses in the burbs, and the last minute contract changes, it ended up being more than we budgeted.
In the end, the buses showed up on time. They were nice, the drivers did a great job, and my wedding party had a blast. The other wedding guests got to and from the reception with no issues. We were very happy with the day-​of service, which is the most important thing. I’d give them an extra star and recommend them if your event is in Evanston and you only need one bus. If things are more complicated than that, they’ll probably still do a good job but be prepared to tell them exactly what you want and don’t expect a lot of hand-​holding.

We hired Davis to transport our wedding guests from the Hilton Garden Inn in Evanston to the Woman’s Club of Wilmette (total distance: less than 3 miles). The driver got lost! As a result, about half of our guests missed most of the cocktail hour. When your company is based in Evanston and you get lost going to Wilmette, that’s a bad sign.
I did have great customer service from the weekday dispatcher, Rhonda. However, her flexibility could not make up for the poor service we received on a Saturday.

If you have a group and you need to get somewhere, call Davis! It’s a family business, and the rates are very competitive to other suburban bus companies, but the service is far better. They have a small 14 passenger bus that’s great for a hotel/​airport shuttle, or a small group outing. They also have a bigger bus. Buses are always clean and in tip-​top shape.
Dispacher Rhonda is great to work with and flexible even to crazy schedule changes. Drivers Carl and Jared are awesome!