The following procedures are to be followed by all STS drivers to insure that all persons involved have access to up-to-date information at all times.

While Cell Phones are useful, any attempts to use them to allow one driver to directly contact another driver would lead to the very real possibilities of communications problems. Regardless of what the wireless communications companies say in their ads, coverage areas are erratic, at best.

Relying upon one driver contacting another via cell phone could fail if either driver is in a "no service" area.

It is because of this, and to remove the responsible of any driver needing to contact a specific driver, that the following communications procedures are being put into effect and will be used for all STS missions.

Without solid, formal communications procedures, adhered to by all drivers, an STS mission could fail and a driver could find themselves perhaps hundreds of miles from home unable to locate the driver to whom they are to hand off the cat(s). We DO NOT want this happening to anyone, let alone to the cat(s)!

1) A person (or persons on a very long trip) will be designated as the Information Center.

This person will provide a telephone number or numbers, at which he or she can be reached at any time, day or night, during a mission.

This person will be responsible for receiving information from drivers. The Information Center will not be responsible for contacting drivers except in cases of EXTREME emergency, such as an accident in route.

If there is to be more than one Information Center for a long trip, the Information Centers will exchange any information they receive from any drives between themselves. They will contact the to other Information Center(s) whenever they receive information of delays or changes in plans or schedules.

2) All drivers will call the Information Center just prior to leaving for their meeting points, or in the case of the first driver, when they leave home or other starting point with the cat.

If the first driver is to pick up the cat from someone else, they will contact the Information Center when they depart from that location with the cat on board.

In the case of the last driver, he or she will not only contact the Information Center before starting, but will contact the Information Center to report arrival at the final destination.

3) All drivers will contact the Information Center to report, as soon as possible, any situations which will result in more than a 30 minute delay of their schedule.

4) All drivers will wait at meeting points for 45 minutes before contacting the Information Center to obtain any information on the delay.

If no information is available on the delay, or if the delay specified to the Information Center by the delayed driver is exceeded, the waiting driver should again contact the Information Center at 45 minute intervals.

5) If a meeting takes place between 20 and 30 minutes late, the next driver will contact the Information Center to advise as to their departure time at the meeting point.

6) All drivers may contact the Information Center at any time, but the following considerations should be observed.

a) We do not want the Information Center to be fielding too many unnecessary calls.

b) If the information center has no information other than a report of driver starting on their leg of a trip, it is to be assumed that this indicates there are no changes in the schedules, other than any specific information the Information Center may have received from other drivers earlier in the transport.

7) If any driver becomes lost, they should contact the Information Center for assistance unless they are able to get back on route with less than a 30 minute delay.

If a driver gets back on route and the delay will be more than 30 minutes, procedure #3 will be enforce and they must contact the Information Center.

8) It is he responsible of all drivers to remained informed of the transport status, using the procedures given above.

The Information Center, as stated in #1, will not be responsible for directly contacting any driver and should not feel obligated to do so nor should any driver request that the Information Center directly contact another driver - except in the case of emergency - such as an accident in route where one driver needs the other drive to go past the meeting point to come to their location.

Summary

If these procedures are followed, by all drivers, everyone will be informed of any problems affecting them and the mission should be completed successfully or we should be able to resolve any problems efficiently.

It is anticipated that STS will distribute pre paid telephone calling cards to all drivers, thus providing them the ability to use any pay phone to contact the Information System.

To keep costs as low as possible, drivers are advised not to use cell phones if their phone is "roaming" to avoid incurring what at times can be severe roaming charges.

Please submit any comments, questions or suggestions about these procedures to Bob Novell

If there is to be more than one Information Center for a long trip, the Information Centers will exchange any information they receive from any drives between themselves. They will contact the other Information Center(s) whenever they receive information which effects schedules or plans or other types of information of which drivers should be made aware.

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