Pet Transport: Schedule Page & Booking Process

With our imminent move to the UK now is as good a tie as any to clarify how the Transport Process and the Schedule Page work.

I will start with the Schedule Page (https://alstrays.com/schedule) as this should be everybody’s first port of call before they submit a booking form.

This page shows the availability for each transport. We have a limited number of physical spaces both on the van, and that we are allowed to transport into the UK, and if we are to continue to run the transports in the future we must retain the required ‘average’ per space that is needed.

As such each transport has the following capacity:

UK

Dog (TRACES): 4 Large & 4 Medium/Small

Dog (PETS Scheme): 2 Large & 2 Medium/Small

Cat (TRACES): 4

Cat (PETS Scheme): 4

GERMANY, HOLLAND & BELGIUM

Dog (TRACES): 4 Large & 6 Medium/Small

Dog (PETS Scheme): 2 Large & 2 Medium/Small

Cat (Preferred Partners): 18

Cat (Other Clients): 6

When (and only when) I receive a booking form I do the following:

– I update our Transport Spreadsheet with the Details
– I update the Pre Transport Actions & Information Page with the Outstanding Actions, and the Tracking Page with the Location and Contact Details.
– I email the people named on the Booking Form with the link and password to the Pre Transport Actions & Information Page
– I print the Booking Form and on the reverse I print the Delivery Document that we get signed when we drop off the animals.

We DO NOT accept Provisional Bookings, so anybody telling me they might need a space is told we might have a space when they know, but they should check the Schedule Page first.

Anybody wanting a space before they are ready to book i.e. waiting on information required for the booking form can pay for a space to secure it, but they pay in full and it is non refundable.

So until I receive a Booking Form and email a confirmation the spaces are available. Once I email the Confirmation I update the Schedule Page to show the current availability.

With our move to the UK nothing really changes. We currently close the transport list i.e. accept no more bookings at 5pm on the Friday before the Friday departure from Spain. These dates will not change BUT as I will be traveling from the UK to Spain on the Saturday after we have closed the transport list there will 100% be NO EXCEPTIONS. If booking form, or payment to secure space, has not been received by 5pm on the Friday then the animal will not travel. I can’t (and won’t) set off to drive to Spain and rest before returning to the UK only to find that I have to change the paperwork because someone couldn’t adhere to the timescales.

If you have any questions regarding the above please don’t hesitate to contact me! You can read how the move to the UK will impact on the Transport Schedule here, and the reasons for the move over on my blog.