Our team has doubled in size compared to last year and it’s brining in a logistical problem that is good to have…how to we transport everyone and our gear to competitions? Last year we were small enough that we could put all our members, a couple mentors and all our gear in a 14 passenger minibus. That won’t be the case this year.
One idea we have is to purchase an enclosed trailer to carry our equipment and charter a bus for our team members. I’ve broached the subject with our principal in the hope that if we get a trailer, it can be added to the school’s insurance policy and have them pick up the registration fees. Getting a bus would probably be expensive but I don’t see another option.
What is everyone’s methods for transporting their teams to events?
DC Public Schools has 8 teams participating this year, and for our local event, Chesapeake, we are planning to run shuttle buses from the nearest Metro station. The students will get themselves to the College Park metro station and then take the shuttle to the venue, which is ~2 miles away. For the robots and equipment, the DCPS warehouse will send a box truck to each school on Monday/Tuesday to pick up everything, deliver to the venue on Wednesday, then pick up on Saturday and return to the schools over the following week.
Team 3883 has a trailer for our robot and toolboxes for all event transportation. I’m fairly certain it actually belongs to one of the mentors, which is why its pretty nondescript-most teams decorate theirs.
We’re also trying to get some type of-bus like transportation but currently have 5-7 parents and mentors drive students to events, depending how many students they can fit. The parents who drive students to further regional events (Northern Lights, Lake Superior) also end up being chaperones, so there’s that to consider as well.
We’ve used different transport over the years, from a few vans driven by teachers, to a normal school bus (which costs extra for the driver time/housing). And airplanes if it’s more than about 500 miles.
I’ve been doing the robot/equipment hauling myself lately…
on our team the mentors are also teachers the school districts allows us to use a minibus two mini vans and an enclosed trailer. We haul 20 ppl 200 miles to our regional competition
For the 2014 season, in order to get to the Northern Lights regional, 2220 used two district minibuses, a coach bus, and a mentor’s truck pulling a trailer. I think somewhere around 70-80 students and mentors were in team-provided transportation, and the rest got up to Duluth via self-transport (it’s around 2-3 hours from our area). The first time we went up, it was a school bus, some minivans, and a pickup truck. Whatever you end up doing this year, take notes and refine it for the next year. Robots, ice cream, and team transportation are all iterative processes
I would highly recommend starting to try to secure funding now if you plan to use a coach bus to get to a competition. They’re expensive, but there isn’t a much easier way to transport a lot of kids somewhere. If you don’t have enough people to fill a bus, talk to other teams in your area and try to arrange to split the costs.
Also make sure that if you aren’t taking the whole team up Wednesday, you know how the people that are going up are getting there. Some districts have rather strict rules regarding student transportation-- don’t run afoul of them!
First of all, awesome job on expanding your team. You guys were a great bunch at WPI and NECMP!
For hauling tools and robots, buying an enclosed trailer is always a plus. My team got one going into the 2014 season, and we’ve loved having it - it’s useful not only for events, but for demos and parades as well. Another option is to rent from Uhaul; depending on how large a van you’d need, it can be a cheaper option compared to a trailer.
For students, definitely charter a bus if it’s out of state, and stick with school buses if the event is close. Also, reach out to teams around you to see if they’d be interested in sharing a bus, as you could effectively halve each team’s cost and use up the empty space on the bus.
If you have the cash to drop on a trailer or bus then I would say the sky is the limit, you will probably have the freedom to get to competition any way you want.
If not you may have to do what other teams do and carpool. Find the parents with the biggest cars / vans / trucks and load up your robot and pit necessities in those then fill the rest of the cars with students / adults. Generally an increase in students means an increase in parents and transportation provides an excellent opportunity to involve them with the team!
True, just be sure to check with your principal and/or school district to learn about their transportation policies. A lot of school districts do not allow parents to drive students (other than their own) on field trips.
Sharing transportation with other teams is also a great cost-effective way to get around, and having your own trailer is the best!
This can be a sticky situation, which can be handled many different ways. Depending on distance to events, I have participated in carpooling, School Bus, Charter Bus and Planes. For the carpooling ensure your team draws up a permission slip so that the parents/mentors driving feel comfortable taking other students. For the Charter bus and plane, it is more the cost issue.
As for trailer, many teams have trailers and a mentor or two take the trailer while the students and other mentors take buses, planes etc. The School bus is always practicle for local events. I will say, though the charter bus for 10-16 hrs can drain you, it is also quite fun and a great team builder, as the kids really get to know each other during that time.
On a different bit of the topic of students to events, as you grow your team will want to come up with requirements for attending. I know CRyptonite has a minimum of build hrs and non-build hours students must have to travel to events. They do allow all students to attend the Lonestar Regional since it’s just downtown and we car pool. But something to think about in the future as you grow.
Good Luck
We had been borrowing trailers from parents, mentors, etc until last year. We applied for a local grant and got it. That along with some fund raising let us get our own trailer. A mentor with twins on the team owns a sign shop so he put our logo on it and it makes a lot of difference in team pride and just the ability to get our stuff to the event with as little issue as possible.
As for transportation we are blessed with enough mentors to be able to carpool. There are some full cars but we have been able to make it work for us. The exception is world’s and even that could be carpooled. We just wanted the shared experience.
And because we never get to show off our trailer here it is. The picture is dark to show off the letters that glow when headlights (or flash bulbs hit it) http://www.five-star.com/trailer.png
Hhm, I’ve never heard of that. How do they vet out the people who CAN drive other students? Do they have to be teachers? Professional drivers from a bus company? Staffed bus drivers?
I ask because we have a couple students from new high schools this year and I don’t want to run afoul of any policies.
Our principal only wants school employees transporting kids in school vehicles. Makes it difficult when you have a large amount of kids and short funds.
The people allowed to drive students to and from any school event (other than their own parents), depends on the school district. I have seen policies vary depending on where you are.
In our district, there are two things we need to establish for each and every local event we do.
Who is driving?
What are they riding in?
Our parents and mentors volunteer to drive most of our students. They sign forms with approval of our principal, providing driver’s license and insurance information. They also sign a waiver that says that they are not using professional drivers or a bus company, electing to instead use their own personal vehicles instead.
By signing the forms, they agree that no compensation will occur as a result of using their own vehicle and that they are legally able to drive.
Liability is still liability regardless of whether or not you drive a school bus or your own car (we have a bus that I bought 8 years ago). By filling out the documents, we are insured with the State liability policies as an approved school activity.
My old team only allowed district employees to drive students and they needed to have a chauffeur’s license. (Which the school would pay for.)
I don’t remember all the details, but when we qualified for States, the school basically told someone that they’re going to go get their chauffeur’s license, asap (that night or the next night). He took the test Tuesday night, and we left for states on Wednesday.
Yes, I think it is an often unnoticed policy that really affects many teams (though they may not know it yet).
The rules can be complicated but they come down to this.
Students can be transported by one of the following:
Their own parents
On a school bus driven by a school district employee with appropriate licenses/training
On a charter bus driven by a licensed charter bus driver
I would advise all teams to at least look up these policies to make sure they are in compliance. Skirting the rules of your school district can have serious consequences! And, after all, we should put safety first ::safety::
If you don’t have school employees from a student’s given school going on the trip I guess they can’t attend? I would think there is some recourse here, like being able to have a heart to heart with the policy maker. But I’m not familiar with the situation.
Yeah, we don’t have any school/district employees willing to travel with us so . . . I guess we lucked out policy wise
Yeah, it looks like it. If our school had that policy we wouldn’t be able to attend any competitions. Probably could have managed on my previous team (we had much more district support), but it would have been a challenge.
My team of about 35 students and six or seven mentors that travel with us end up having to take a charter bus to regionals. Last year we traveled to the Western Canada regional which is about a ten hour drive for us. We usually rent a U-Haul to transport the robot, pit, tools, and of course food for the trip. This system has been pretty effective for us.
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.
This is pretty much what 1923 does. In the past, we’ve had team parents with horse-trailers (power washed first!) take the equipment, but with our travel increases for districts we would rather not ask the continual wear & tear on their personal vehicles.
Instead, we get a 12- or 16-foot Penske to hold our pit, tool chests, bagged robot, etc. If there’s enough room we also bring students’ suitcases in the truck to save room on the bus.
(In our case, our school says we need a hotel for anything more than 45 minutes away, so on ‘pack-up night’ we also have to do luggage checks on the students and load them somewhere for storage until the trip, so it’s a one-shot deal if we put their bags in our truck)
School buses are our norm, although for our District Championship this year we got a charter bus for the longer ride/bigger capacity for parents and siblings. Normally we ask the non-chaperone ‘fans’ to come on their own time, but for DCMP we bring everyone on the bus since it’s kind of a haul.
