Transporting - especially Less than 7 days

I'm sorry I find these threads so hard to follow
I know people get told to reply in the thread if they can't help, but it sometimes appears that the offers for help just get lost.

I think RDR break their routes down into slots which seem to help people and keep a check on what's been offered.

I'm trying to see if I can help as living close to the M56 and Liverpool there are a number of possible runs we might be able to help in.

A lot of the time I don't even know what day they are taking place as we can only really help at weekends I try to focus on them.

I realise that the mods have a lot to do, but maybe the OP could do with an editing facility on their threads.

Hi Alicia, if you find it hard to follow the thread dont worry too much!

If you get a PM requesting your help the link for the request will be in the PM. Click on the link and reply on the post with what you can help with and whoever is organising the run will let you know if you are needed for that particular part.

Hope that helps

No problem with being pm'd, but I also keep a watch on threads and I often find them confusing as others seem to - I've seen the OP miss offers to help and runs collapse.

I think it would be more helpful to be relatively specific about where the run is expected to go either via roads eg.A56, M6 , service stations on Motorways are quite a useful reference.



This is a useful links for Motorway Services
And this for finding places close to Motorway Junctions is also useful 5 Minutes Away

I get a bit frustrated with getting emails that there are replies and it's just people saying 'sorry can't help' rather than anything constructive that I need to see if I'm offering help or querying something. Do these really need to be on the thread?

Also people's signatures are SO big sometimes I end up scrolling past messages. I don't want to turn them off and miss any rescue details. Could size of sig pics be limited? There are a few that are really intrusive.

sorry. This possibly isn't the best place for the signature comment...

Thank you both for your feedback!

Unfortunately we've found in the past by stipulating a specific route and changeover points on longer routes where there are a number of possible routes, we've actually cut down the number of people who might actually have been able to help. Very often we'll post a map to show the most obvious route and very often we get offers of help that might go a different route or require a detour. Some of our members even squeeze in more than one transport run at the same time, so we also need to work with everyone to do what we can to make sure transport is covered.

Alica, thank you for your website suggestions! We always use that motorway services site to help plan routes and there's always a map with directions near the start of each transport thread so volunteers have a good idea where it's going. The 5 Minutes Away one I hadn't thought of before, and I'm sure it's going to come in very useful, thank you!

I agree, Linda, sometimes signatures can be very distracting, but I'm afraid apart from turning them off completely I don't really have any other suggestions as to what to do about them. We did have a discussion about it a while ago. There might be something in there of help? https://rescuehelpersunite.forumotion.com/forum-help-f1/can-avatars-signatures-be-turned-off-t8305.htm

If it's helpful Linda you can also scroll down to the bottom of threads, and on the right hand side after the last post it says either 'Watch this topic for replies' or 'Stop watching this topic'. If you have e-mail notification of replies enabled (click on your profile to check) then you will automatically receive e-mails to tell you whenever someone else has posted. To be totally honest with you I normally click on where it says 'Stop watching this topic', because if I feel I need to keep up to date on something I'll just pop back on the forum and check the thread instead.

I absolutely agree with what you're saying about it being a bit frustrating getting e-mails for every single comment, which is why I have them turned off. BUT at the same time I do have to say that when you're trying to organise a transport run it's really helpful to get an acknowledgment that people who've been PMd have checked the thread and told us whether or not they're able to help. Sometimes you can be sat there, having PMd dozens of people, waiting to hear back and at least if you know those people definitely can't help then you can move on and try to make alternative arrangements instead of hanging around praying that there's a small chance one of them can.

There's also so many people who are involved in trying to co-ordinate these runs that all this type of info needs to be in one place. Very often I get replies from members via PM to say yes they can help, or no they can't. There have been a few occasions where this has happened and I have been away from the site and haven't seen the message in time and as a consequence the transport hasn't gone ahead, which is why we always ask people to reply on the thread.

Also, even when people tell us they can't help, very often we also get a little more information from them, for example, 'I can't help on Fridays because I work but I can normally do weekends' - that helps give us an idea when people might be available in the future, and from experience I can honestly say it's helped us in the past co-ordinate these transport runs.

Crikey, sorry that was so long, but I wanted to make sure you had a proper explanation. Hope it was helpful and all made sense! Any other questions or feedback please always feel free to ask!

Thanks for the explanation! I don't think we need sigs turned off, perhaps just ask people to keep photos to a sensible size.

As for popping back to topics instead of watching them, I have no idea how to find anything if I don't get the emails, plus with my job I don't have a lot of time online to keep randomly checking, but I see your point about some info being useful even if the answer is no. Just keep those sigs down and we'll be away. Now I'm off to the other thread that you linked to, thank you!

Oh, that thread is locked. Should I start another one? The point that the size can sometimes be an issue seemed to be brushed aside and I'd really like to raise it again.

BB_Linda wrote: Should I start another one?

Yes, feel free