Corporate Event Ground Transport Checklist

Everything downstream depends on a clean list. One row per passenger movement, not per person: someone arriving on Tuesday and leaving on Thursday is two rows. Each row needs a name, a time, an origin, a destination and a contact. Half-finished manifests are the single biggest cause of trouble on event days, and they are always fixable a fortnight out.

Collect the information from delegates in one structured request rather than in a thread of replies. People answer forms; they do not reliably answer questions buried in paragraph three of an email. Once you have the list, send it to us in one piece and we will come back with the vehicle plan, the chauffeur allocation and anything that does not add up.

Fifty delegates invited for the same hour will arrive within the same fifteen minutes, and most venue driveways can absorb perhaps three cars at once. The result is a queue on the approach road and a set of guests who begin the day irritated. Staggering invitations by even twenty minutes across arrival groups removes the problem almost entirely, at no real cost to anyone's schedule.

Departures are harder, because everybody leaves when the last speech ends. The workable answer is a marshalled rank with a named person calling cars forward in order, rather than sixty people trying to identify their own vehicle in the dark. Agree that arrangement with the venue in advance and it is a non-event; leave it to chance and it defines the evening.

Most delegates need a car and a clear instruction. A smaller number need more: a keynote speaker arriving between two other commitments, a board member who dislikes waiting in public, a guest travelling with a mobility aid. Identify that group early and plan their movements individually rather than folding them into the general schedule. It is usually a handful of people, and they are the ones most likely to remember.

For those movements, dedicate a vehicle and a chauffeur rather than sharing across the wider pool. The car waits, so there is no gap between the end of one commitment and the start of the next. Brief the chauffeur on the building, the entrance and the person meeting them, so the guest is handed over rather than pointed in a direction and left to find their way.

Venues rarely volunteer their traffic arrangements, so ask. Most have a preferred set-down point that is not the front door, a service entrance for luggage, a parking area for waiting vehicles and a rule about how long anything may stand at the entrance. Getting these in writing from the venue's own operations team saves a great deal of improvisation on the night.

Then decide who is directing traffic. On smaller events the organiser can do it from a phone. Above roughly twenty vehicles it needs a person outside with a list, because nobody inside can see what is happening at the gate. That role is worth assigning by name in the run sheet. It is the least glamorous job at any event and the most useful.

One channel, one owner. Transport queries scattered across three inboxes and a group chat will not be answered quickly enough to matter. Nominate a single coordinator on your side, agree with us how they reach the chauffeurs, and tell delegates to use that route rather than contacting drivers individually with changes. Everything we arrange runs through WhatsApp and email, so the thread stays in one readable place.

Give delegates something short and useful the day before: their collection time, the vehicle description, where to stand and how to message if plans change. Four lines is enough. Most of the questions asked on an event morning are answered by information the organiser already has but has not yet shared. Sending it out early removes most of the noise before it starts.