Hi Kitze, glad you are enjoying the forum!

If you're going to be transporting dogs who are not your daily dogs, or multiple dogs at one time I'd probably recommend going with an over sized crate in the back and that could be a nice extra income for you in itself, pet transport (^_^)

I was thinking that the dogs would be individually crated- but of course if they are going somewhere together, they will get along fine, so only one large crate would be needed. I wasn't thinking outside the box! I imagine most people still just load the dogs up in their car, though, without crates or restraints. Hopefully I can borrow a car to start and get another vehicle when things pick up (ideally a hybrid, Ford Escape seems to rank high for dogs).

Hi @kitze nice idea. I think the main areas of transport to look out for are temperature of the dogs/the cars and making sure the pets are crated. We should get someone to post in here who does this regularly. I'll ask some of my friends, some of them specialize in this.

When you say "safaris", what do you mean?  Trips to a nearby dog park or to farther out trails for walks?

I've only transported client's dogs once, took them to their groomer appt.  I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee and I have it set up to transport my own dogs with a barrier behind the back seat so they can't jump over.  I also have a restraint so that the dogs can't jump out when I lift the tailgate-like my own did the first time they rode in my Jeep! It works well for me whenever I take my own dogs out to go walking on trails. Since I don't offer this service, I don't know what you'd charge for it.  I did it as a favor because the owners are great clients and it was a one time thing with the owner being stuck at work and not being able to get home in time.

If you're going to put crates in your vehicle, you'll need one with plenty of cargo area.  I don't think I could get more than one large crate or maybe two mediums.

@aahpets

re.:
If you're going to put crates in your vehicle, you'll need one with plenty of cargo area.

Great point and temperature is so important too, having cooling mats, the right temperature in the cars, keeping tracks of the dogs tongues etc.

I mentioned above we should get someone to post who specialized in transporting dogs.

We transport dogs daily. We have a chevy astro. It's awesome, but no longer available..i'm holding on to it with all I have. The best vehicles now are the sprinters, but $$ (worth it).  

Excellent points, ColleenS!