Manage airport pickups with one clear manifest
Forty delegates and speakers need pickups over two days, and one spreadsheet is edited by three people.
The short answer
An airport transfer manifest is the single working list of who is being collected, when, from where and by whom. It holds only what the driver and coordinator need: a name, arrival details supplied by the delegate, party size, a contact route, any assistance request and the assigned vehicle.
Arrival details are entered as the delegate reports them and marked as not verified by the organiser. Journey times and vehicle arrival at the airport are confirmed with the supplier in writing.
What the manifest decides
It decides who owns the list, which columns exist and what each supplier sees. A manifest that tries to be a registration database, a flight tracker and a driver sheet at once ends up with out-of-date copies.
Keep one master held by the transport coordinator. Give each supplier an extract for their own vehicles only.
Columns to hold, and who may see them
| Column | What to record | Share with driver? |
|---|---|---|
| Reference | A short code such as T-014, not the registration record. | Yes |
| Name for the sign | The name as the delegate wants it shown. | Yes |
| Arrival details | Date, time and flight or train reference as reported by the delegate, with the date it was reported. | Yes, labelled as reported |
| Party size and luggage | Number of people and any oversized items. | Yes |
| Contact on arrival | A mobile number or messaging channel the delegate agrees may be used on the day. | Yes, for that day only |
| Assistance request | Whether the delegate asked for a step-free or assisted option, and the agreed arrangement. See accessibility transport requests. | Only the arrangement, not the reason |
| Destination | Hotel or venue name as confirmed in writing. | Yes |
| Vehicle and wave | Which vehicle, which pickup wave. Plan seats with the shuttle seat planner. | Yes |
| Status | Confirmed, changed, collected, no-show. | Updated by coordinator |
Building and maintaining it
- Collect arrival details with one form, as described in airport arrival information collection.
- Copy confirmed entries into the master and mark every unconfirmed one.
- Group by pickup wave and check the seat count per vehicle.
- Send each supplier their extract at an agreed cut-off, and say that later changes come only from the coordinator.
- On the day, one person updates status and is the only person who tells the driver about changes.
- After the event, delete personal contact details from working copies according to the retention rule you set in advance.
Where manifests go wrong
- Delegates change flights and the change reaches a driver by message but not the master.
- The driver sheet shows more personal detail than the driver needs.
- Two suppliers each hold a different version of the same wave.
- No one is named as the day-of contact when a delegate is not found at the meeting point.
- Arrival details are treated as confirmed when they were typed by the delegate months earlier.
Worked example · Fictional example
A manifest for a two-day regional conference
Fictional organisation and figures, for illustration only.
A fictional accounting association expects 36 delegates and 4 speakers to need airport pickups on the evening before and the morning of the first day. The secretariat groups them into four waves and assigns two vehicles from one supplier.
Two weeks out, five delegates change their arrival. The coordinator updates the master, resends the extract to the supplier with changed lines marked and confirms receipt. The driver sheet shows reference, sign name, wave, destination and a contact for the day, and nothing else.
Use this yourself
Airport transfer manifest template
Copy these columns into a sheet. One master, one owner, extracts for suppliers.
| Ref | Sign name | Arrival as reported (date reported) | People | Destination | Wave and vehicle | Assistance arrangement | Day contact | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T-001 | Not confirmed | |||||||
| T-002 | Not confirmed |
Handle it in-house, or bring in help?
Your team can usually handle this when
- Fewer than about twenty pickups from one supplier on a single day.
- One person can own the master and answer changes during the arrivals.
- Delegates mostly arrange their own transport.
Outside planning help earns its fee when
- Several waves across two or more days with more than one supplier.
- Speakers, officials and delegates need separate handling and different contact rules.
- Nobody on the committee can stay reachable during the arrivals window.
Need the manifest run during arrivals?
A conference project lead can set up the master manifest, collect arrival details, brief the suppliers with their extracts and act as the single contact while pickups run. Delegates report their own arrival details, and the supplier stays responsible for its vehicles and drivers. Send your expected delegate numbers and dates. We reply with the level of support that fits.
Questions organisers ask
Should the manifest include passport details?
No. A driver does not need them. Ask the competent party, such as your data protection adviser, before collecting any identity document for transport purposes.
Do we track flights ourselves?
Ask delegates to report changes and ask the supplier whether it tracks arrivals itself. Do not state in the manifest that a flight is on time.
Who sees the full list?
The transport coordinator and the event owner. Each supplier sees its own extract.
What if a delegate is not at the meeting point?
Name the day contact in the driver briefing and agree how long the driver waits and who decides next steps. See the driver briefing pack.
Related resources
Content record: Written by the EventConsultant team to our editorial rules. Sources are listed on pages that rely on them.