What to Ask in One Telephone Call

The seven

1. How far out is the lot, in miles? Miles are a fact. Minutes are a claim about traffic.
2. Canopy or deck, or open ground? Covered is three different products and they are quoted as one.
3. What hours is somebody physically on the lot, and what happens outside them? The second half is the answer that matters.
4. Are keys held, and if so where? This is the largest single difference between two arrangements and it is rarely the headline.
5. What is the shuttle interval at the hour I will be there? Not the average. Your hour.
6. What time does the last van collect, and what if I land after it? The one that decides a delayed evening.
7. What is the total, and what is added at the gate? Get both numbers, not one.

Why in that order

Because each answer changes what the next question means.

A lot two miles out with a twenty-five minute interval and a lot six miles out with a ten minute interval can produce the same door to door time, and you cannot tell which is which until you have both numbers. Asking about price first tells you almost nothing, which is why it is last.

What a good answer sounds like

Specific and slightly boring. First van at four fifteen. Last collection at eleven thirty, on demand after that, call the number on the ticket. That is somebody who runs the operation and knows it.

What a poor answer sounds like

Reassuring and unspecific. Plenty of shuttles. Always somebody around. Very secure. None of those is a fact and none can be checked when you arrive at five in the morning.

A vague answer is not necessarily a bad operator. It is sometimes a good operator with a new person on the telephone. Ask again, or ask this desk to ask.

The question not to bother with

Whether the lot is safe.

Nobody answers that honestly in the negative, so the answer carries no information. The questions above are all things where a vague answer is itself informative, which is why they are worth the four minutes and that one is not.