PortaPottyBossPro Blog — Event Rentals & Booking

Event Site Contacts: Who the Driver Calls When the Venue Gate Is Locked

The driver arrives at the venue at 7am Friday with three units on the truck. The gate is padlocked. The bride is at work. The planner is not answering. The venue manager's number is in an email somewhere in the office. Twenty minutes later, the driver is still sitting at the gate, and the next five stops are running late. This happens all the time, and good site contacts prevent most of it.

Who Is There When the Truck Arrives

An event job has more people involved than most. In Invoicing Event Porta Potty Rentals: Deposit, Balance and Extra Days on One Clear Bill, the person who matters is the one who pays. On delivery day, the person who matters is the one who can open the gate. They are often not the same person.

Think about all the roles on a typical event:

• The customer who booked and pays
• A planner or coordinator who runs the day
• A venue manager or property owner who controls access
• An operations contact for a festival or race
• A volunteer who meets the truck for a church or club event

Clients, Sites and Contacts

In PortaPottyBossPro, one client can have many sites, and each site can have its own contacts and gate or access notes. For an event, the client is the person or organization paying, the site is the venue, and the site contacts are the people the driver might need on the day.

That separation matters for repeat customers. A festival organizer may run three events a year at three different venues, each with its own manager and its own gate. A planner may book a different venue for every couple. Contacts on the site keep the right phone number with the right place.

It also matters for the office. When a customer calls with a question, the office can see every contact at once and know who is who. A planner who says "call the venue about the gate" does not have to look up the number again, because it is already on the site.

Write Access Notes the Driver Can Use

Gate and access notes tell the driver how to get to the spot in the placement notes. Write them so they work at 6am:

• Which entrance to use, with a landmark
• Gate codes or where to find a key
• Hours the venue is open to deliveries
• Low branches, narrow gates, soft ground, height limits
• Who to call if the gate is locked, with a cell number

A note like "Service gate on Elm Road, code in notes, if locked call the venue manager listed on the site" saves a lot of waiting.

The Day-of Contact

For many events, the most important person is the one who will actually be there. Ask at booking: "Who will be at the site when we deliver?" Get their cell number and add them as a site contact. A parent, a groundskeeper or a festival operations lead is far more useful at 7am than the person who signed the estimate.

Confirm the contact in the night-before reminder: "The truck arrives tomorrow morning. Will Mike be there to open the gate?" A quick reply avoids the locked-gate problem.

On the Way and Arrived Texts

When the driver starts the job, the customer gets an automatic "on the way" text, and an "arrived" text when the driver pulls up. That gives the day-of contact a heads-up to open the gate or meet the truck. Replies come into the office's two-way texting, so if someone writes back "use the back gate," the office can pass it on.

When Nobody Answers

Sometimes the gate is locked and nobody answers. Have a plan. Most operators have the driver wait a short time, call the office, and then either move on to the next stop or leave the units at a safe spot near the gate if the customer agreed to that in advance. The driver can take photos to show the gate was locked. Put your policy in the notes so every driver handles it the same way.

Afterward, the office should follow up with the customer the same day. A short text explaining that the driver came by, found the gate locked and will return at a set time keeps the customer informed and gives them a chance to fix the problem. Most locked gates are an honest mistake, and a calm message usually gets a quick apology and an open gate.

For more on how drivers handle their day, see The Driver's Event Delivery Day: Venue Drops From the Driver App.

Keep Contacts Current

Volunteers change, venue managers move on, phone numbers change. When you book a repeat event, confirm the contacts are still right. Update them on the site so the driver always has the current number. For more on running event rentals, visit the event porta potty rental software page.