Carpool sign-up sheet for school and practice runs

What a week of carpool runs looks like

Three families share the drive to basketball practice after school, in the first full week back from winter break. Each weekday has a drop-off and a pick-up, and each of those runs needs one driver.

How to set up a carpool sign-up sheet

These steps build the example above. The help page on creating and publishing a signup shows each screen.

1. Sign in and choose New signup. If you see “What are you organizing?”, choose “Skip, fill in by hand”.
2. Type a Title like “Practice carpool, week of Jan 11”. In Description (optional), write where drivers meet the kids and how many ride. Then choose Create signup.
3. Choose Fields, then What. Rename it Run, choose List and choose Save. Next, choose Add field, name the field Time, choose Time and choose Add field again to save it. Last, set Group slots by to Date.
4. Open the empty slot. Set Date to Monday, January 11 and Time to 3:15 PM. For Run, choose Add to list and type Drop-off. Skip Option 1, the placeholder the list starts with. Spots is already 1, which is one driver.
5. Choose Duplicate. The copy opens right below it: use Add to list to set its Run to Pick-up, and change its Time to 5:30 PM.
6. Choose Duplicate on Monday's drop-off and change the copy's Dateto Tuesday. Duplicate that copy for Wednesday, and so on to Friday. Do the same from Monday's pick-up. That makes ten slots, in order.
7. Choose Publish and share (on a phone, it's at the bottom of the screen). Choose Copy link (Share… on most phones) and post the link in the team chat before winter break ends, so the runs are taken before Monday.

You can also describe the week in a sentence and have Claude build the runs as a draft for you to check.

Drivers or riders: which set-up suits you?

Drivers sign up when the same kids ride every time and the parents take turns. That's the example: one slot per run, one spot each. With three families and ten runs, each family drives three or four times a week.

Riders sign up when a few parents drive and more families need seats, such as for an away game. Each slot is one driver's run, and its spots are the free seats in that car. Add a Driver field (Short text) with the driver's first name, so parents know whose car it is. A parent with two kids takes two spots.

For seats, count the back of the car, not every seat belt. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says to keep children in the back seat at least through age 12. (NHTSA, checked October 15, 2026) Ask each driver how many kids fit in the back, booster seats included, and use that as the spots. When a car is full, its slot stops taking sign-ups.

One thing to plan for with riders: a driver can't see who booked their seats. The signup page shows how many spots are left, not who took them. You see the names under Responses, so send each driver their list yourself before the day.

What to put in the description

The description sits above the runs, so every driver reads it before signing up. Cover the things parents otherwise ask in the group chat:

• Where to collect and drop off. Name a spot everyone knows at each end of the run, like “the school's front entrance” and “the gym's side door”.
• How many kids ride. A parent with a small car can see straight away whether the back seat is big enough.
• Who needs a booster seat. Drivers without one know to borrow one before their run.
• What happens if practice is cancelled. The signup can't message drivers, so say where you'll post it and by what time. In winter, say whether a snow day cancels practice too.

How do drivers swap a run?

There's no swap button, and you can't move people between runs yourself. A swap is a cancel and a new sign-up. Do it one run at a time, so neither run sits open for long:

1. The two drivers agree the swap in the group chat.
2. The first driver opens the confirmation email for their run, follows its link and cancels. The second driver signs up for that run straight away.
3. The second driver then cancels their old run the same way, and the first driver takes it.

To move to a run that still needs a driver, sign up for the new run first, then cancel the old one. Cancelling first can leave you with neither. If a driver just can't make a run, they cancel it and it opens up again. Ask them to post in the chat too, so another parent notices.

What happens after a driver signs up

• The run shows Full, so the first parent to sign up gets it and nobody else can take it.
• The driver gets a confirmation email that lists the run's Date, Run and Time, with a link to change or cancel.
• They get a reminder email the day before the run. Someone who signs up less than a day ahead gets one about an hour after signing up, though a sign-up on the day itself may get none. Every reminder has a link to stop them. When a parent takes an open run on the day, remind them in the chat.
• After signing up, drivers can choose Add to calendar. The run goes into their calendar at its time on the sheet, as a one-hour event, whatever time zone their phone is set to.
• You see who took each run under Responses, and Download CSV there saves the list as a file. Other parents see which runs are full, not who is driving, so once the week is full, post the drivers in the group chat.

What it doesn't do

• No repeating weeks. Each week's runs are slots you add.
• No closing of past runs. A run whose date has passed still takes sign-ups until you delete it or close the signup. Deleting a run also deletes who drove it, so export the list first if you keep count of who drives.
• No maps, routes or pick-up order.
• No text messages. Reminders go by email only.

Frequently asked questions

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