Ground and freight
Once the flights are booked there are still two questions: how does everyone get from the airport to the hotel, and how does the gear get there at all. This page covers both.
Rental cars
Rental cars live on an event’s Travel tab, below the roster.
- Press Add rental car
The section is headed Rental cars. If there are none yet it says No rental cars booked for this event yet.
- Give it a name
A box titled New rental car asks for a Label. Something like Staff Car #1 is plenty.
- Fill in the details
Click any row on the car’s card to edit it: Rental Company, Renter Name, Confirmation #, Size, and Total Price.
Press Suggest rental cars at the top of the roster. It groups people whose flights land (or leave) close together, and picks a driver for each car — the earliest arrival on the way in, since they collect the car, and the last departure on the way home, since they return it.
You set Seats per car and a Wait window (minutes), then press Apply seating. Note that applying replaces the current seating for both directions.
Seeing who rides with whom
The roster has three views: By staff, Arriving, and Departing. The last two group people by the car in and the car home, so you can see at a glance who has a seat and who is stranded.
The menu on each person’s row lets you move them: Run in, Run home, Make driver, Move to…, or Not in a car.
Rides that are not rental cars
For one person specifically — a rideshare, a shuttle, a lift from somebody local — open that person’s assignment from the roster. There is a section headed Ground transport.
Choose an existing Group from the dropdown, or press New group and fill in:
- Label — for example Rental Car 1
- Type — Rental car, Rideshare, or Shuttle
- Cost (optional)
Underneath, Riding with lists everyone else in that group.
Freight and trucks
If you do not see the pieces below, it is not in your plan yet — ask us.
Freight is not a menu item of its own. It hangs off three places.
Zones and warehouses
Set these up once, in Company settings.
Zones are geographic regions covered by freight drivers. You assign states to a zone and name a primary driver who covers events there.
Warehouses are pickup locations for event equipment. The idea is simple: your driver flies into the nearest airport, picks up the truck at the warehouse, and drives it to the venue.
The Equipment card on an event
On an event’s Overview tab there is a card headed Equipment. It shows the freight zone for that event and who is hauling the truck.
If the card says No driver yet — assign a Truck Driver in the roster above, that is exactly what it means. The zone has a usual driver, but nobody is actually booked until you put a Truck Driver on the event’s roster.
Planning how the driver gets there
Drivers rarely take one simple trip. They fly somewhere, take a rideshare to the warehouse, then drive the truck for two days.
Inside the Equipment card, press Plan travel. Then press Add leg for each part of the journey.
Each leg has a Type:
| Type | What it means |
|---|---|
| Flight | Airline booking |
| Rideshare | Uber, Lyft, taxi |
| Truck | Driving the company truck |
| Personal car | Their own vehicle |
| Other | Shuttle, train, bus, anything else |
Then From, To, Depart, Arrive, Provider, Confirm #, and Cost. Truck legs also let you pick a Warehouse.
If you delete a travel plan you are told: This removes the plan and all N legs. It doesn’t cancel any real-world bookings — you’ll need to handle those manually.
Same as everywhere else in Herding Cats. Removing a record here never rings the airline for you.
What your drivers see
Freight drivers do not get the normal staff portal. When they sign in they land in a driver portal built for the cab of a truck.
Their home page greets them by name — Hey, Sam. — and lists their upcoming events, each showing the zone and the load-in time. If there is nothing yet it says: No events scheduled for you yet. When dispatch assigns you to a zone or overrides you onto an event, it’ll show up here.
Tapping an event gives them the event name, the dates, a Deliver by countdown, and cards for Venue, Travel, Warehouse, Hotel, On-site contact — with a Call button that dials — and Notes.
When you invite a driver, tick Invite as freight driver on the invitation. That is what routes them to this portal instead of the ordinary one. See Invite your team.
Drivers do not see flight costs and do not see the rooming board — only their own legs, their warehouse, the hotel name and address, and who to call on site.
What to do next
- Flights — the flights those cars are meeting.
- Hotels and rooming — where everyone ends up.