44 UKWT Drivers Teams...

[UPDATE: Since I shared about having 42 Drivers Teams, we now, as of 6th August 2025, have 44 Drivers Teams - We have repurposed a Team to support wildlife around Vale Wildlife Hospital and we have started a Team to help wildlife in Southport.]

‘UKWT OVERSEEN DRIVERS TEAMS…’

• This means that we have a WhatsApp Group set up between UKWT & the Wildlife Rescues / Vet Practices: in the WhatsApp Groups are myself, a representative from the Rescue or Vet Practice and the Drivers.

  
  

• Transport Requests are made through the WhatsApp Group, by the Rescue/Practice and Drivers can respond.

  
  

• As I am in the Group, I can be on hand to help if Drivers have any questions & oversee Drivers getting home safe (often Rescues & Practices are too busy providing emergency care to animals to be able to check on a Driver after drop off) and check if they want fuel reimbursed straight after a transport. I can also thank them both privately and publicly, with I think is very important, as everyone is giving up their vehicle and time and should be recognised for their kindness.

We provide this sort of Drivers Team to 23 places (some are substantial & busy & some are tiny & quiet, so it’s still all a work in progress)…

• Prickle Patch Pudsey

• Hedgehoggery

• Prickleback Hedgehog Rescue

• Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue

• Stabbo & Sandiacre Spikey Rescue

• Lowton Hedgehog Rescue

• Hedgepigs

• Croft Hogs Home

• Emily at RSPCA Oak and Furrows Wildlife Rescue

• Hedgehog Help Prestatyn

• Hedgehog Helpline

• Hindley Hedgehog Help

• Medivet Heswall

• Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital

• Pepperfield Farm Hedgehog Rescue

• Anglesey Hedgehog Rescue

• Brinsley Animal Rescue

• Rowe Vets Bristol

• Pype Hayes Vet Centre

• Henlow Vet Group

• Hoggieworts Hedgehog Helpers

• Greatfield Hedgehog Rescue

• Hal’s Urban Hedgehogs

‘DRIVERS RECRUITED / FUEL FUNDED’ TEAMS…

• This is where UKWT has bespoke relationships with each of these Rescues, mostly operating as a recruitment service, while the Rescues run Drivers under their own banner: overall, it’s a simple way of just letting Drivers on our databases (who join through our UKWT recruitment campaigns) know how to apply to these Rescues independently - providing them with links to go to, for example, on their own websites - to drive for them.

  
  

• We run our own UKWT WhatsApp Groups for each of these places, so that our Drivers have a way to still ask us for fuel once they have done a transport job, if they want to. (Even though they are choosing to drive for the Rescue under the Rescue’s banner and totally independent of UKWT, the Rescues are still approved by us as a place that wildlife can be confidently passed to for high welfare care, so we are happy to provide our UKWT Drivers with the fuel to drive for them).

  
  

• We ask Drivers - if they want to - to use the WhatsApp Groups to let us know if/when they’re out on a transport, as often the Rescue is too busy to check that a Driver is home safe and safety is paramount to us.

We provide this sort of 'Drivers Team' service to 5 places (some are substantial & busy & some are tiny & quiet, so it’s still all a work in progress)...

• Wild Things Rescue

• Leicestershire Wildlife Hospital

• Cuan Wildlife Rescue

• Garforth Hedgehogs Rescue

• Urchins Hedgehog Care (York)

'AREA TEAMS'...

These are Teams that are growing in certain areas where it doesn’t suit to have Drivers EITHER allocated to OR recruited for Wildlife Rescues.  In these areas there are still big demands from Vet Practices, however, so we're currently growing numbers in those areas, to meet the demand from them.  [We ideally never provide a Vet Practice with a team of less than 20 Drivers, as that is the healthiest number for over 90% of transport requests to be comfortably filled. We have found that if we provide smaller Teams to most Vet Practices, the working relationship can be quite stressful, because Vet Practices want to move animals on ASAP but sometimes there aren't any Drivers who are free).

Depending on the area, the teams are either very quiet (West London, Kent & Somerset, for example) - while we simply grow the numbers - or they are used to 'coordinate' from, under very special circumstances. The busiest 'Area Teams' are asked to pick up a lot from local Vet Practices, by either myself or collaborators that we're working with in those areas (in Anglesey & North Wales for example, and in Bristol/Bath)...

We have 14 of these 'Area Teams'...

• Anglesey & North Wales UKWT Drivers Team

• South West(ish) Coast UKWT Drivers Team

• East Sussex UKWT Drivers Team

• South Manchester UKWT Drivers Team

• Somerset UKWT Drivers Team

• Kent UKWT Drivers Team

• Hampshire / West Sussex / Surrey UKWT Drivers Team

• Scotland UKWT Drivers Team

• West London / Berkshire UKWT Drivers Team

• South Essex UKWT Drivers Team

• ‘Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital’ Area UKWT Drivers Team

• ‘Animals In Need’ Area UKWT Drivers Team

• Essex / Suffolk / Cambridgeshire UKWT Drivers Team

• Bristol & Bath Area UKWT Drivers Team

• [Around Vale Wildlife Hospital - recently added]

• [Southport UKWT Drivers Team - recently added]