Re: [BB] Bag & Tag in brief and MAR demystified
 

I like your optimism but i was told there are no drayage contracts this year and we would have to find our own means of getting our robot to the event. I suppose we could pay for drayage although I can't imagine what that will cost after adding shipping over the pacific and airfare for the team (there are no buses from Hawaii to the Mainland) to the costs. Glenn, how are you guys doing it? I see three other Hawaii teams registered for Portland, have they made arrangements for shipping?

Re: [BB] Bag & Tag in brief and MAR demystified
 

Dale,
as of right now, we are not even sure how everything is going to be handled.
We are going to wait until Oct. 27 to see if we get into our second regional....either Portland or Salt Lake City during week 2 or 3 respectively.

The most important challenge for us is getting the robot back from Salt Lake City, if possible, in two day time back to HI for our regional.
Will it cost us a lot? Absolutely....

But as you have mentioned, the drayage issue is something we do not understand fully quite yet since every event is now a bag-tag.

Our team has decided that if we do one of the above regionals.....it will only be a skeleton crew since we wont make any travel arrangements until its all sorted, for which I'm guessing late December.
By that time, the rates should be sky high.:ahh:

Houston during week 6 is guaranteed for us, as we have made payment as of this morning already. I'm not worried about logistics as FIRST has said two airbills will be provided. We plan on bringing the army there! :)

Re: [BB] Bag & Tag in brief and MAR demystified
 

Just an anecdote for you..

In 2008 we had a pretty massive shipping mishap. Our first regional was Arizona in week 2, with our second competition being Boston in week 5 or 6 I believe. When we walked into the Arizona regional on Thursday and got to our pit, we were greeted by the event staff. For some reason, our team didn't have a crate at the event. After much digging, it was discovered our crate was sitting in drayage back in Massachusetts.

We got in touch with drayage and FedEx and arranged for our crate to be overnighted to us in Arizona. Thanks to the efforts of several people we never got a chance to meet, our robot arrived the next day. We missed a ton of matches on Friday trying to get the robot ready to go, but eventually made the elims and lost in the semis.

Hawaii adds another degree of shipping difficulty for sure, but I thought you may find this story somewhat interesting.

-Brando

Re: [BB] Bag & Tag in brief and MAR demystified
 

You bring up a good point. However, I'm not sure it's as difficult as it sounds, considering most teams near your mainland regional did something similar last year. People on this thread have already volunteered for some locales.

I don't know what regional you're looking to attend, but most locations should have at least some local teams with the ability to receive large crates. (After all, they did it last year.) I'm sure at least one would be more than happy to receive your shipment and help you get it to the venue with their own robot. Further, asking a few members of that local team to stay and help pack and move it back to their site doesn't seem too cumbersome. Some teams would even have room on their own truck, saving you that cost at least.

If you don't know anyone around your mainland event, maybe try contacting the regional director for help.