Transportation to Events

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Instead of buying a trailer that might get used 2 or 3 times a year, rent a small moving truck; they are often $20 a day with a few cents per mile. That would handle all the equipment.

People can be transported by charter bus at a reasonable cost; the school surely uses them all the time. If it is near by (less than an hour) consider a school bus instead: Not as comfortable but a lot less expensive.

You can also rent a small trailer from Uhaul.

For most teams especially those in districts you can do most of your travel with a school bus and a minivan/SUV/enclosed pickup. School buses can be easily acquired through your school and depending on how far you travel it can be very cost effective as I believe we pay for ours with an hourly rate. We transport robot equipment in my family's 15 passenger van but we have also used one of our coaches minivans for some competitions. The bus can also be used to transport a majority of your equipment as long as most of it is in boxes that can easily be placed in a seat. Our team travels via a school bus to a majority of our events (excluding off-season where students are responsible for their transport) throughout New England so that ranges from 45 minutes to 2.5 hours depending on where we go. Its not the most glamorous mode of transport but it is cheap, school approved, and not as bad as it sounds.

We plan to commute daily to our district events (30 minutes and 1 hour away) and if we qualify for the DCMP we will look to stay at a hotel but commuting is also doable.