In general, road managers handle tour details for their specific band, while tour managers are used to oversee the logistics, finances and communications for tours as a holistic entity.
For a young-gun tour manager just starting out on a van tour, the average salary is anywhere between $1000 – $1500 per week. With a few years of touring experience, the average tour manager's salary can range between $2000 – $3000 per week, depending on the organization and responsibilities.
Most employers prefer a degree in business management, music, communication, marketing, entrepreneurship or a related area. To stand out among the competition, additional recommended courses include psychology, business law, logistics, accounting or tourism and travel management.
Kind of in general if it's a solo artist with hired musicians the artist has a bus of their own that maybe their tour manager and assistant are on, band and crew have a separate bus/buses, but a lot of times the artist will fly ahead anyway. If it's a long drive, like a few days, they may fly home in between.
Tour managers are hired by booking agents or artist managers to organize logistics, personnel, communications, and schedules for concert tours.
As modern concert touring involves complex financial, legal and technical arrangements, the booking agent or artist manager hire a tour manager to organize the logistics, personnel, communications and schedule. Concert tour managers are usually freelancers working on a tour-by-tour basis.