Event Transportation

Transportation Companies offer a great career path for people who like to be active and outdoors. Transpo, as we call it in the ‘biz, manages the movement of groups of people (anywhere from 1 to 10,000 or more) from one place to another, utilizing sedans, limos, and motor coaches.

Here’s a common scenario: XYZ Pharmaceutical hosts a sales meeting in Chicago. They are bringing in their entire sales force of 3,000 people from across the country into Chicago for this meeting. Here are their needs for transportation:

• Get all 3,000 people from the airport to the hotel
• Get approximately 20 VIPs in private sedans to the hotel
• On the third night of the meeting, there will be a “dine-around,” which means the 3,000 people break into groups of about 50 and go to various restaurants all over the city. They need the people to be grouped together, informed of where they will be going, and transported to their restaurant and returned to the hotel.
• The next day, they have the day free to go to various activities (golf, sightseeing, etc). The transportation to each activity needs to be arranged with the correct counts of people, and then the people informed on where and when to meet.
• All 3,000 people need to return to the airport according to their specific flight times.

Phew! As you can see, there are a lot of logistics involved with transportation. If you choose this path, you must be good at organizing and cross-checking lists, keeping track of changes, and understanding the logistics of the “equipment” (or vehicles). For example, motor coaches are large vehicles, they can’t just whip in and out of any driveway at a moment’s notice. They also have to load on certain sides of the street, and so on.

There are three capacities in which you would normally work with transportation:

• With a Transportation Company: If you work for the transpo company, you represent the actual company that supplies the vehicles. You most likely would answer to a DMC, who in turn is working with the event planner.

• With a Destination Management Company (DMC): Most often, a DMC manages this part of the meeting, and outsources their vehicles from a transportation company. The DMC manages the lists and itineraries and schedules, and merely tells the transpo company when they need specific vehicles.

• As an On-Site Event Manager: As a freelance, traveling On-Site Event Manager, you can request to manage the transportation of a meeting, incentive, or event. In this case you would work with the transportation company or DMC and act as a liaison between them and your client. Your event planner made most of the arrangements ahead of time, now your job is to manage the many changes that happen on-site and supervise the DMC and/or transpo company to make sure things go smoothly.

****If you are interested in learning more about managing transpo as an On-Site Event Manager, click here to learn more about this exciting career path.

Be sure to read the Career Planning page to maximize your networking options and to find your way "in" to a job in event transportation.

If you are determined and have the right attitude, working in transportation can be a great first step toward a long and rewarding career!

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