Where the job starts in prep
A transportation coordinator usually starts a few weeks into prep, often before most of the shooting crew. The first pass is a read of the script and the shooting schedule with a pencil, looking for anything with wheels or anything that has to be hauled: picture cars, a school bus in Scene 31, a night exterior on a highway shoulder, a week at a ranch 40 miles out. From that read the coordinator builds an equipment list and a transportation budget, then gets bids from truck and trailer rental houses.
The list for a mid-size feature tends to look like this:
| Unit | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Camera truck, grip truck, electric truck | Department equipment, driven by drivers or hyphenate crew |
| Production van or wardrobe trailer | Rolling department space |
| Honeywagon | Bathrooms and small dressing rooms at base camp |
| Star trailers and cast trailers | Cast dressing rooms, sized by deal memo |
| Hair and makeup trailer | Makeup stations |
| Crew shuttle vans | Moving crew from parking to set |
| Picture cars | Vehicles that appear on camera |
| Water truck, fuel truck | Wet-downs and generator fuel on location |
Each line gets a weekly rental, a delivery or mileage charge, and a driver. A coordinator who prices the trucks but forgets the driver on the honeywagon for the 8 days at a distant location will be explaining that variance on the cost report.
Planning base camp and company moves
The coordinator walks locations with the location manager on scouts and on the tech scout. At each stop the questions are practical. Where does a 48-foot trailer turn around? Is there room for base camp within walking distance, or does the crew need a shuttle? Does the street need a parking permit for the trucks the night before?
A company move is where transportation plans get tested. Say Day 12 has three pages at a diner in the morning and 2 4/8 pages at a house 6 miles away after lunch. The coordinator and captain work out which trucks move together, which stay put, and who leads the caravan. If the camera and grip trucks can leave while the cast trailers stay at the diner lot, the 1st AD may get the next setup lit sooner.
During the shoot
Once cameras roll, the transportation captain runs the drivers on the day, and the coordinator shifts to the office side. That means approving time cards for the department, handling rental swaps when a generator trailer breaks down, keeping up with fuel receipts, and reading every call sheet and advance schedule for changes that affect vehicles. A night added to the schedule, a location swapped for weather, or a cast member flying in all mean vehicle and driver changes.
A realistic day for the coordinator on a shoot in Los Angeles might run from a 6:00 a.m. check-in with the captain, to the production office by 8:00, a vendor call about a replacement trailer at 10:30, a scout for next week's locations at 1:00 p.m., and the next day's transportation plan finished once the call sheet is approved in the evening.
Wrap and the paperwork
At wrap the coordinator returns every rental and checks it in against the original condition reports. Damage claims, missing gas caps, and a van returned with 900 more miles than expected all land on this desk. The final transportation costs go to the production accountant along with purchase orders and rental agreements.
The documents the coordinator touches most:
- The transportation budget and weekly cost reports
- Rental agreements and certificates of insurance for vendors
- Driver deal memos and start paperwork
- The daily transportation plan built off the call sheet
- Picture car lists cross-referenced against the script breakdown
Pay under Local 399
On union productions in Los Angeles, Teamsters Local 399 covers the coordinator, captains, and drivers. The 2024 to 2027 Local 399 wage schedule lists the transportation coordinator as a weekly classification at a studio minimum of $4,305.60 per week effective August 2, 2026. On a 10-week feature (4 weeks of prep, 6 of shooting) at that minimum, the coordinator's base line in the budget is 10 x $4,305.60 = $43,056 before fringes. Local 399 also publishes separate schedules for distant location, episodic, basic cable, and low budget theatrical work, so check the right sheet for your show on the Local 399 site.
How people get the job
Most coordinators come up through the department as drivers and then captains. Union shows hire from Local 399 members, and the Industry Experience Roster run by Contract Services lists Teamsters Local 399 among the unions whose members may receive hiring preference. On non-union indie shoots the job often gets folded into the UPM's or a production coordinator's work, and the budget line may be a few van rentals and a stake bed.
Where Storiara fits
Storiara pulls vehicles from the script into its Assets module (it lists animals and vehicles alongside props and wardrobe), and the Locations module holds the real address for each setting. That gives the coordinator a starting picture car list and a set of addresses from the script instead of building both by hand. See the locations feature for how addresses attach to scenes.