Plan shuttle trips and seats for each arrival wave
Delegates arrive in waves, and you need to know how many trips the confirmed vehicles can cover.
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The short answer
The planner divides each passenger wave by the usable seats of the vehicle and rounds up to get the trips. It then fits the trips to the vehicles confirmed, using the cycle time you enter for each wave.
A vehicle on one trip cannot start another until its cycle ends. The tool flags any wave that has to wait or runs past the latest departure you accept.
What to gather first
- Per vehicle type: the usable seats and the number of vehicles the operator has confirmed in writing, and any times they are available.
- Per wave: the pickup point, the number of passengers as a count (no names), the first departure and the latest departure you can accept.
- A cycle time for each wave: the round trip from leaving the pickup point to being ready to load again, from the operator or a trial run.
How trips and unused seats are worked out
Trips for a wave are passengers divided by seats, rounded up. A wave of 100 on 45-seat coaches needs 3 trips and leaves 35 seats unused, because rounding up is what makes the last trip partly empty.
Unused seats are a planning signal, not a fault. They show where a smaller vehicle, a merged wave or a changed departure time might fit better.
Why vehicles cannot be in two places
The tool treats each vehicle as busy for the whole cycle time you entered. If two waves at different pickup points both want the same single vehicle at 09:00, the second wave waits until the first cycle ends.
When that wait pushes a trip past the latest departure you accepted, or past the time the vehicle is available until, it is shown as a schedule conflict. A blank cycle time is treated as unknown, so that wave is not scheduled and the plan is marked incomplete.
Limits
The planner holds no seat counts, journey times or loading times of its own, and it does not check driver hours, road rules or licensing. Those belong to the operator and your team to confirm.
For the departure schedule you give to drivers and delegates, continue with the event shuttle departure schedule, and plan transport into the venue with the event venue loading access notes where vehicles share an entrance.
Worked example · Fictional example
A fictional morning arrival
Fictional organisation and figures, to show the calculation.
A fictional association has one 45-seat coach and two 12-seat vans. Hotel A has 100 delegates with a 40-minute cycle, the station has 30 with a 30-minute cycle, and Hotel B has 20 but no cycle time entered yet.
Hotel A needs 3 coach trips with 35 seats unused, and the second and third trips leave after the latest departure the team accepted, so two conflicts are flagged. The station needs 3 van trips, and Hotel B's coach trip is left unscheduled until a cycle time is entered.
Use this yourself
Shuttle wave worksheet
Fill one line per wave, then work out trips and unused seats by hand if you are not using the tool.
| Wave and pickup | Passengers | Usable seats | Trips (round up) | Unused seats | Cycle time | Latest departure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Handle it in-house, or bring in help?
Your team can usually handle this when
- There are one or two pickup points, one vehicle type and plenty of vehicles for every wave.
- The operator has already given a written timetable and your team only needs to check seat arithmetic.
Outside planning help earns its fee when
- Several waves share a small fleet and each pickup depends on flights, sessions or venue release times that keep moving.
- Operators, venue access and delegate communications all need one person to reconcile changes against the timetable.
- Late changes to passenger counts mean seats, trips and departure times must be re-planned quickly and communicated.
Want the shuttle workstream coordinated?
A conference project lead can take on the shuttle workstream: collecting the passenger waves, agreeing seats and cycle times with the operator in writing, and keeping the timetable and delegate instructions in step as numbers change. Send us your waves and event brief. We will reply with the level of support that fits and what it would cover, while decisions on vehicles and spend stay with you.
Questions organisers ask
Does the tool know how many seats a coach or van has?
No. You enter the usable seats the operator has confirmed, and the tool uses only those figures.
What happens if I leave the cycle time blank?
That wave is not scheduled, because travel is never assumed to take no time. Trips and unused seats are still worked out, and the plan is marked incomplete.
Why does a wave show a wait?
The vehicle it needs is still on an earlier trip, so the wave leaves when the vehicle is ready again. The tool shows the wait in minutes.
Related resources
Content record: Written by the EventConsultant team to our editorial rules. Sources are listed on pages that rely on them.