A transport run sheet is one row per movement, not one row per vehicle. Each row names the movement, the vehicle assigned to it, the pick-up and set-down points, the assemble time and the departure time as separate fields, the pax count, and the person responsible if the movement slips. Everything else is supporting detail. Hand an operator that document two weeks out and the vehicles turn up in the right place; hand over an email thread and somebody spends the morning of the event on the phone.
Why the transport section is its own document
Your event run sheet is a time-ordered narrative of the whole programme, and transport appears in it as a handful of lines. That is correct for the event, and useless for the operator.
The operator is scheduling vehicles and drivers, not sessions. It needs the day expressed as movements, because a movement is the unit that consumes a vehicle for a block of time. A single line in your event run sheet that reads “9.15am delegates arrive at venue” may be three separate movements from three hotels, or one shuttle loop running from 8.30 to 9.30, and those two options have different vehicle counts, different costs and different failure modes.
So the transport run sheet is an extract and a translation. It contains only what the operator has to act on, expressed in the operator’s unit of work. It should be small enough to print.
Movement types, and why the label changes the quote
Before you fill in a single row, decide which of these each movement is. The label is not cosmetic. It determines how the job is priced and how much flexibility you have on the day.
Point-to-point. One pick-up, one set-down, one departure time. Cheapest and least forgiving. An airport or transfer run can be quoted as a single fixed transfer fare rather than against a minimum hire period.
Hourly as-directed. The vehicle and driver are yours for a stated span and the itinerary can move within it. This is what a roadshow, a multi-site day or a long function evening actually is. Minimum hire periods apply: three hours for minibuses and people movers, four hours for midi-coaches and full-size coaches.
Shuttle loop. One or more vehicles running a continuous circuit between two points at a stated headway. You are buying a frequency, not a set of trips. The row should state the headway, the first departure, the last departure and the loop end points, not a list of individual runs.
If you write “shuttle” on the run sheet but describe three fixed departures, you have written a point-to-point job and you will be quoted for one. Say which you mean.
The transport run sheet, field by field
One row per movement. A spreadsheet is fine; a table in a document is fine. The fields below are in the order an operator reads them.
| Field | What goes in it | Why the operator needs it |
|---|---|---|
| Movement ref | M1, M2, M3 in time order | Everything on the day is discussed by reference. “M4 is running late” beats “the second afternoon bus”. |
| Date | Full date, not a weekday | Multi-day programmes get this wrong constantly. |
| Movement type | Point-to-point, hourly as-directed, or shuttle loop | Determines pricing basis and on-day flexibility. |
| Assemble time | When passengers gather at the loading point | This is the time you publish to delegates. |
| Departure time | When the doors close and the vehicle moves | This is the time the driver works to. The gap between the two is your buffer, and it should be deliberate. |
| Pick-up point | Street address plus the specific loading zone or kerb, not just the venue name | “ICC Sydney” is not a pick-up point. “Iron Wharf Place off Darling Drive” is. |
| Set-down point | Same rule, and name the side of the street if it matters | Set-down location decides how far people walk in the rain. |
| Pax | Expected count, and the number you are committing to | Drives vehicle allocation. Overstating it costs money, understating it strands people. |
| Vehicle assigned | Vehicle class and seat count, filled in by the operator | Leave this blank in your draft. It is the operator’s column. |
| Luggage or freight | Bags, boxes, banners, staging, signage | Underfloor bay capacity, not seat count, is often the real constraint. |
| Accessibility | Wheelchair space, hoist, step-free boarding, assistance required | Must be flagged at booking, not on the day. |
| On-site contact | Name and mobile of the person responsible for this movement | One name per movement. Not a group inbox. |
| Notes | Loading zone access constraints, venue conditions, anything unusual | Where bump-in and bump-out timing conflicts get recorded. |
Two fields carry most of the value and are the two most often merged.
Assemble time versus departure time. If you publish one time to delegates and give the operator the same time, the vehicle leaves late every single time. Publish the assemble time to passengers, give the operator both, and make the gap a decision rather than an accident.
On-site event contact. The driver needs one person who can answer a phone and make a call. A run sheet with an events inbox in that column is a run sheet with nobody in that column.
The manifest is a different document
A delegate transport manifest is a passenger list: names, movement reference, pick-up point, special requirements, arrival flight if relevant. A run sheet is a schedule of vehicle movements. They serve different people and they change at different rates.
Keep them separate. The run sheet is stable and short and goes to the operator and the driver. The manifest is long, changes until the last minute, and mostly stays with you. The only field that must reconcile across both is the pax count per movement, and reconciling it is a job worth doing once, out loud, forty-eight hours out.
Buffers, and where to put them
Padding every row by ten minutes is not a buffer strategy. It inflates the whole day and the padding gets absorbed by the first thing that goes wrong.
Put buffer in three specific places.
Between assemble and departure, because loading a coach takes longer than people expect once bags, name badges and goodbyes are involved.
Before any movement with a hard deadline, which normally means the airport run and the movement into a session with a keynote. Everything else can slip and be recovered.
At the end of a hospitality movement, because guests do not leave on cue.
Do not buffer the middle of the day for its own sake. If the day cannot absorb a delay without a buffer in every row, the schedule is too tight and the answer is another vehicle, not more padding.
Who owns changes on the day
Decide this before the day and write it into the run sheet header, because it is the single most common cause of a movement going wrong.
- One named on-site event contact per movement. Their mobile is on the run sheet and on the driver’s copy.
- The driver takes operational instruction from that person only. Not from a delegate, not from a venue staffer, not from whoever is standing nearest the door.
- A change that affects timing goes to the operator’s operations line, not to the driver. A driver can wait five minutes. A driver cannot add a movement, extend the booked span, or re-sequence the afternoon, because those decisions have consequences for driver hours that the driver is not in a position to assess at the kerb.
- Anything that moves the finish time is escalated immediately. Charter driving in NSW sits inside the heavy vehicle fatigue regime, and a driver’s day is measured from sign-on. A late finish is not a favour that can be granted at 11pm.
- Version control is a date and a time in the header. “Transport run sheet v3, issued 2 Dec 14:00.” If two people are holding different versions on the day, that is the whole problem.
A worked Sydney example
A two day conference. Delegates in two CBD hotels, sessions at ICC Sydney, a Tuesday evening function at a harbour venue. Names and headcounts here are illustrative.
| Ref | Type | Assemble | Depart | From | To | Pax | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | Shuttle loop | 07.45 | 08.00 first departure, 09.00 last, 20 min headway | Hotel A kerb, then Hotel B kerb | ICC Sydney, Iron Wharf Place off Darling Drive | 180 across the loop | Two vehicles. Loop ends when the last departure clears. |
| M2 | Point-to-point | 17.15 | 17.30 | ICC Sydney, Iron Wharf Place | Evening venue | 140 | Two vehicles departing together. Set-down side of street confirmed with venue. |
| M3 | Hourly as-directed | 21.00 | Departures 21.30, 22.45, 23.45 | Evening venue | Hotel A then Hotel B | 140 across three departures | Vehicle held across the span. Staggered return. |
| M4 | Point-to-point | 05.45 | 06.00 | Hotel A kerb | Sydney Airport, Departures kerbside | 24 | Early departures group. Airport set-down only, no waiting. |
Three things in that table are doing real work.
M1 is written as a headway, not as a list of runs, because it is a loop. The operator can then decide whether the frequency needs two vehicles or three.
M3 is hourly as-directed with three named departures inside it. That is what a staggered return actually is: you are buying the span, and the departures are how you use it. Written as three point-to-point movements it would be quoted differently and would give you no room to add a fourth departure at midnight.
M4 sits outside normal office hours at both ends, which is a cost conversation and a rostering conversation before it is a scheduling one. Public holiday and after-hours loading is confirmed in advance and priced separately, so it belongs in the quote, not in a surprise on the invoice.
Where the vehicle goes between movements
This is the part event managers most often leave out, and it is the reason a four hour gap between M2 and M3 is not free.
Coaches cannot sit at a Sydney kerb between movements. The City of Sydney has adopted a policy position that it will not accommodate long-stay coach layover on-street in central Sydney. Transport for NSW operates the King Street Wharf Bus and Coach Layover, accessed via Lime Street, open 24/7 with a 24 hour maximum stay, available to accredited bus and coach operators only and requiring prior registration.
Venue by venue, the constraints are specific rather than general. ICC Sydney takes coach drop-off at Iron Wharf Place off Darling Drive plus Zollner Circuit, and coach parking there is arranged through a dedicated ICC Sydney Event Manager rather than turning up. At the Sydney Opera House, buses and coaches cannot park onsite and large buses must disembark passengers on Macquarie Street, so the walk from Macquarie Street belongs in your assemble time.
The practical consequence for your run sheet: a gap between movements is a staging decision, and it should appear in the notes column of the movement that creates it. Write “vehicle to layover between M2 and M3” and the operator will price and plan it. Leave it blank and you will both discover it on the day.
Wet weather and the contingency column
Add one line to the header rather than a whole parallel document: what changes if it rains.
In practice, three things do. Set-down points move closer to cover, which may mean a different kerb and a longer vehicle manoeuvre. Loading slows down, so the assemble to departure gap needs to widen. And outdoor holding areas stop working, so delegates need somewhere inside to wait, which changes where the on-site contact stands.
Decide the wet-weather set-down point with the venue at the same time you decide the fine-weather one, and put both in the run sheet. Deciding it at 6pm in the rain with 140 people is the version that goes badly.
Frequently asked questions
How detailed should a transport run sheet be?
Detailed enough that a driver who has never worked your event can execute their movements from it, and short enough to print. One row per movement, with assemble and departure as separate fields, is the right level. Session content, catering and speaker timings do not belong in it.
When should the operator get the run sheet?
Send a draft as soon as the movements are stable, well before the final version. The draft is what lets the operator tell you that a movement needs two vehicles rather than one, while there is still time to do something about it. Confirm the final version cut-off with the operator directly.
What is the difference between assemble time and departure time?
Assemble time is when passengers gather at the loading point. Departure time is when the vehicle moves. Publish the assemble time to delegates and give the operator both. The gap between them is your loading buffer.
Who should the driver call if something changes?
The named on-site event contact for that movement, for anything happening at the kerb. The operator’s operations line for anything that changes the schedule, the number of movements or the finish time.
Do we need a manifest as well as a run sheet?
For a conference or a multi-hotel programme, yes. The run sheet schedules vehicles; the manifest tracks people. Reconcile the pax count per movement across both documents once, a couple of days out.
Next step
If you have a draft programme and are not sure how many movements it really contains, send it through and ask for a shuttle plan review. Our operations team will translate the agenda into movements, tell you where the vehicle count changes and flag the venue access points that will affect your timings. That conversation is what corporate bus and coach charter in Sydney should include before a quote is issued, not after. Call 02 9469 6600, or send the draft and a written quote comes back within two business hours.
Sources
- ICC Sydney, “Getting here”, https://iccsydney.com.au/visitors/getting-here/. Accessed 7 September 2026.
- Sydney Opera House, “Plan your excursion”, https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/schools/plan-your-excursion. Accessed 7 September 2026.
- Transport for NSW, “King Street Wharf Bus and Coach Layover”, https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/operations/roads-and-waterways/business-and-industry/buses/operators/king-street-wharf-bus-and. Accessed 7 September 2026.
- City of Sydney, “Central Sydney On-Street Parking Policy”, https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/-/media/corporate/files/publications/policies/central-sydney-street-parking-policy/central-sydney-on-street-parking-policy_0525.pdf. Accessed 7 September 2026.
