Noticing Newbies

First off, I am indeed a newbie to this site (created an account a while ago but haven't used it) so, yes - Greetings to you all! And now onto my question.

I've tried to look up information on this problem I've been having but, unfortunately, nothing useful has come of it.

I'm in the middle of my first draft of a novel that eventually settles around a group of four people as the main characters. As such, I need to describe their actions as a group: moving from place to place, all four being addressed at once by someone, etc. (In case you're wondering, I do take care to give them all unique personalities; it's four separate people, not one person and three clones of him.)

The two examples above, moving around and being addressed as a group, happen quite frequently. As a result, I do find myself referring to them as one unit quite often, usually "the travelers" or, once it becomes relevant to the story, "the messengers." Is there a better way to go about this? I could see just naming them off every time if we were talking about a couple people; would the same be true for four? (Later on, a fifth person will end up joining them, but the group splits up quickly after that.) Is there a better word that could be used when it's necessary? Or does the fact that I'm having this dilemma mean I'm doing something wrong and should rewrite it to avoid having it happen so frequently?

I can offer more details for the story if that is necessary to find an answer, and I appreciate any input that people have on this. I chose not to dwell too much on it while just starting out but, now that I'm about halfway done with the first draft, it's time I get this figured out before going too much further.