Tempo travellers

One vehicle for the whole party, with a gangway down the middle

Every van we run is on the rate card at its own per kilometre figure. A Force Traveller is a ladder-frame van and you go down its gangway with your head bent. A Force Urbania is a monocoque with a moulded roof, so you walk down the middle standing up and there is an air vent and a reading lamp over every seat. The quotation names which one you are getting, because on a long duty that is the difference the party remembers.

Seats: Up to 25
From, per km: ₹26.00

Get a fixed quote What we run in this class

A group boarding at an office gate at the start of an early trip

What we run in this class

These are the models this class is made up of, each at its own per kilometre figure. What is confirmed in writing is the class, and what arrives is one of these or a similar one, because the allotment is made a day or two before the trip.

Force Traveller, 12 seater
The shortest body we run, and the only one that will go down a colony lane, turn at the end of it and come back out.
Seats
12
Per km
₹26.00
Force Traveller, 17 seater
The same ladder-frame van one bay of glass longer. It drives like the twelve and holds five more people, which is why a party of fourteen is usually quoted this one rather than squeezed into the smaller body.
Seats
17
Per km
₹28.00
Force Maharaja, 20 seater
Maharaja is a trim tier in this trade rather than a part number, and no two operators mean the same thing by it. Ours seats twenty and the figure beside it is what it seats, which is worth knowing before you set somebody else’s maharaja quotation against this one.
Seats
20
Per km
₹30.00
Force Traveller, 25 seater
The top of the ladder, and at this length what decides a trip stops being what the vehicle seats and starts being where it can turn and where it can stand. Name the venue and the gate when you enquire rather than the headcount alone.
Seats
25
Per km
₹35.00
Force Urbania, 17 seater
A monocoque body with a moulded roof liner, so the ducting, the air vents and the reading lamps are one continuous run overhead instead of parts screwed to a ceiling. It seats what the seventeen seater seats and costs what the twenty-five costs, and the money is buying the cabin rather than the headcount.
Seats
17
Per km
₹35.00

Effective 1 August 2026. Models are typical of the class and what arrives is that model or a similar one.

Get a fixed quote

The size question, answered before you book

The party is past what two cars will hold, or it is not quite past it and you still want everybody in the same vehicle so the talking carries on and nobody spends the morning following somebody else’s headlights. A temple circuit the group has been planning since Diwali. An office going up to Rishikesh for two nights. A wedding shifting guests between the hotel and the venue all evening and again at midnight. Split that across cars and you are briefing a driver three times over, collecting three sets of toll receipts, and standing at the other end waiting for whichever one got stuck behind a truck on the bypass.

When to take the class above

Past what one tempo traveller seats it is a mini-bus or a coach, and what the extra buys is the whole party still moving as one vehicle with one driver rather than two of everything. What it costs is the approach, because a tempo traveller will get down a colony lane that a bus has to be asked about before it can be quoted.

Mini-bus and coach

The permit and the state tax at a border: The vehicle crosses into Himachal, Uttarakhand or Rajasthan on an all India tourist permit, and the state levies its own tax on it, worked out from the seating band it is registered in. That is not a car’s figure. It is charged at actuals with the receipt and named on the quotation before you confirm, rather than asked for at the barrier while the whole party sits and waits.
Who sits where is decided by the body: The saloon is singles down the kerb side, pairs down the other, and a bench across the back, with the gangway between them. A family that wants to sit together sits in pairs, and somebody in the party is on a single seat looking at the aisle. Worth knowing before you allot places at the gate, because it is not something that can be changed on the day.
The step at the sliding door: The floor sits high off the road and there is a step up at the door, which matters on a pilgrimage group where somebody is elderly or somebody has a bad knee. Say so when you enquire and the driver is told to stand the vehicle where the kerb does half the work, instead of at the crown of the road where the step is at its worst.

Nothing is added at the drop that was not on the quotation.

The quotation carries the per kilometre rate and the driver allowance for every calendar day the car is held, and the hour of the pick-up changes neither of them. Toll, state permit and parking are passed through at the receipt value, and they are named on the quotation too, with the figure filled in once the receipts come back.

In the figure you are quoted

The per kilometre rate published for the class you booked, applied to the kilometres the trip actually runs once it is past the 250 km minimum. A shorter trip is charged for the minimum.
The driver allowance for every calendar day the car is held, including the day it comes back, whether it moves that day or not.
The same per kilometre rate whatever the hour. A pick-up at four in the morning is charged exactly as one at noon.
GST at the rate applicable to passenger road transport, shown as its own line on the quotation and again on the invoice rather than folded into the fare.

Passed through at the receipt value

Toll and state entry tax, at the receipt value. We do not mark it up.
State permit charges where a route crosses into a state the vehicle needs a permit for.
Parking, where the airport or the hotel charges for it.
Hill charges and green tax where a state levies one.

If a charge is not on the quotation you were sent, it does not appear on the invoice.

The full tariff page

Asked about this class

The ones the office answers on the phone most days. If yours is not here, ring and ask, and you will get the same answer as you would get on this page.

What is the difference between a Force Traveller and a Force Urbania?

The Traveller is the older ladder-frame van: a high floor, a gangway you go down with your head bent, and the fittings screwed to the ceiling one by one. The Urbania is a monocoque body with a moulded roof liner, so the ducting, the vents and the reading lamps are one continuous run overhead and a grown adult walks down the middle standing up. They are separate rows on the rate card with their own figures, and the quotation names the one you are booking. On a temple circuit or a two night offsite the walk-through cabin is what the party notices; on a run down to Delhi and back with a group that fits either way, the Traveller does the same job for less.

People keep offering us a maharaja tempo traveller. What is that?

Maharaja is a marketing tier and not a part number, and no two operators define it the same way. What it usually means in practice is a wider seat with more recline and more room around it in the same body, which means fewer seats in the same vehicle. Pushback is the other word it gets confused with, and that one is the mechanism: a manual recliner released by a lever at the side of the seat, ordinary fitment on this class rather than an upgrade anybody should be charging you for. So when somebody quotes you a maharaja, ask what the vehicle actually seats before you set the figure against ours.

The bigger van is dearer per kilometre. What is the extra paying for?

A heavier van that drinks more diesel, a newer vehicle to buy and to keep on the road, and a state tax at a border worked out on a bigger seating band. That is why the card carries five rows with five figures instead of averaging them into one tempo traveller price: a party of thirteen should not be paying what a party of twenty-four pays. Worth knowing while you are comparing quotations: a tempo traveller of any size is charged at a toll plaza in a band above a car, and toll and state tax are passed through at what they actually cost with the receipts rather than folded into the kilometre.

We only need the bigger van for one leg. Can we swap partway through the trip?

It can be done and it is usually a false economy, so we will give you the arithmetic before you decide. A swap is two vehicles, two allotments and two duty slips, and the second one has to reach wherever you are on the day, which is charged from where it starts and not from where you get in. On most trips it comes out cheaper and simpler to run the bigger van throughout. Where the group genuinely splits, guests arriving on one day and going back on another, we quote it as two duties on one quotation under one reference number.

We are carrying our own food for a long temple run. Can we eat in the vehicle?

Yes, and most pilgrimage groups do. Two practical things. Keep the hot dabbas off the seat faces, because a rexine seat marks and the mark does not come out. And tell the driver at the start roughly when you want to stop, because he knows which dhabas on that road have a clean washroom and he would rather plan the halt than pull in wherever you ask him to at the moment you ask.