So, it’s Monday and you’ve volunteered for a transport. What happens next?

I work all week long to find drivers to fill each leg of the transport. As soon as the run sheet is complete (all legs are filled) I will send out a final run sheet to all the people participating. This includes senders, receivers, drivers, overnighters – everyone! This run sheet will list the name, email address, contact phone numbers and vehicle description of everyone, so each driver knows who they are expecting to meet and what type of vehicle to be looking for.

This run sheet goes out ASAP – as soon as it’s filled. In some cases transports don’t fill until the 11th or 12th hour. If this happens, but I have a pretty good inkling that it’s going to fill, I’ll send out a preliminary run sheet on Thursday night or Friday morning so that the people who are on board so far can start getting in touch with each other. Then I will send out updates regularly to keep everyone up to date on how the rest of the openings are filling. If you see on the prelim run sheet that there’s an area open where you have friends or family, feel free to reach out to them and have them get in contact with me! Filling transports is all about networking and getting the word out that help is needed.

Once you receive the run sheet, I typically ask each driver to get in touch with the people they are meeting up with in order to determine the best meeting spot in that town. Not all coordinators do this; some tell the drivers exactly where to meet. I figure that everyone participating is an adult, and chances are that one of you is more familiar with the area than I am, so you might as well make the decision between yourselves. I might tell you to meet at a Cracker Barrel (a favorite meeting location) thinking that’s as good a spot as any, but in actuality it might be in a bad neighborhood, or somewhere prone to heavy traffic on the weekends. I don’t know those kinds of details. Remember, I coordinate for transports all across the country, but I live in San Diego, CA. I can’t be familiar with every exit off of every interstate in the country.

Good meeting places are those that are easy to find, close to the interstate, out of the way of super busy traffic, and have a grassy spot for the puppers to potty during the break. Large parking lots are great for this, and frequently drivers pick Cracker Barrel, Wal-Mart, truck stops, hotels, and sometimes fast food chains or convenience stores depending on the time of day. If the parking lot is large enough that you can get away from the steady stream of traffic, that is ideal.

By Saturday morning, assuming all is still a go (and double check your email to make sure!), you’ve probably figured out your meeting location and who you’re going to meet. All that’s left is to show up!

The times indicated on the run sheet are the times the drivers are expected to be ON THE ROAD. So, if you are driving from Nashville, TN to Bowling Green, KY, and the run sheet says 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM, you would be leaving Nashville at 1:00 and arriving in Bowling Green at 2:15.  The driver coming into Nashville is most likely scheduled to arrive 15 minutes prior to your scheduled departure (maybe more or less depending on the number of dogs on the transport), so I ask that you be there when they are scheduled to arrive. This way everyone can help walk the dog(s), transfer the paperwork and/or supplies, and get the dogs loaded up in the next vehicle(s).

For the overnights, I ask that the person or people overnighting the dogs meet the driver(s) in a central location. It is much easier for everyone involved if the drivers can come into town, all arrive at one place, have the overnighters divide up the dogs and then all head back to their respective homes. The next morning, the overnighters would bring the dogs to another central location and help load up the dogs in the next drivers’ vehicles.

These hand-offs are more difficult to orchestrate, which is part of the reason I ask for the street address of the people overnighting. I can plot them all on a map and based on where they fall decide what the best area would be for the meeting.

For example, my transports overnight in Indianapolis quite often. If I know that everyone is on the east side of town, there’s no sense meeting on the west side. If the overnighters are scattered throughout the area, then we can arrange a meeting location in a central location, but one that is still easy to get to for everyone.

I always ask for pictures. If you have a camera phone and want to send them that way, that’s great too. But so often I may or may not even see a shelter picture of a dog, and it’s great to be able to see the dogs once they are out of their cages and enjoying the fresh air, sunshine, and the attention of all the drivers. I’ve been collecting photos for 3 years now, and I swear I will get them all loaded on Flickr eventually!

So, do you have any more questions? Are you ready to take the plunge?? The transport I’m currently working on is on the front  page of this blog! Go see if it runs through your area!