FAQ - Valley Motor Escort

For funeral homes: to order our services you can hold your mouse over the “Services Provided” menu item to the left then click on the flashing link for the area your funeral home resides. There you will find a fillable PDF formatted version of our request form. This can be filled out and emailed or faxed to us.
For non-funeral homes: Typically the arrangement of funeral escorts is done by the funeral director of a funeral home that is arranging the funeral service. However, there are times where a family member of the deceased is doing the arrangements for obtaining funeral escorts. For non-funeral home related requests you can hold your mouse over the “Services Provided” menu item to the left then click on the flashing link for “Non-Funeral Home Requests”.

A rule of thumb is 2 escorts minimum for the first 6 to 20 vehicles that are planned on being in the procession and an additional escort for every 10 vehicles afterward. However, the route taken must also be considered. For instance, if the procession will be going through areas where there are many traffic signals, such as at every block in a big city downtown location, 3 to 4 escorts will be needed for 15 to 20 vehicles. If the route taken will be in a more rural area, where the traffic signals are a mile or more away from each other, 2 to 3 escorts can safely accommodate 50 to over 100 vehicles.

Valley Motor Escort’s team of escort riders is specifically trained in traffic control techniques required to move a large number of vehicles from one location to another and keep them together as best as possible while minimizing the impedance of non-procession traffic. Many drivers unknowingly cut in and out of a funeral procession as they are unaware of the reason a group of vehicles is traveling at a much slower pace than the posted speed. These actions by unknowing drivers can cause the funeral procession to become split up resulting in not all procession participants arriving at the cemetery together and in an orderly manner.

Your choice of funeral homes for arranging your loved one’s funeral services is your choice. Valley Motor Escort will work with any funeral home you decide to use; however, some funeral homes do not use Valley Motor Escort exclusively, and therefore, should you wish to use Valley Motor Escort specifically, you may need to inform the funeral director that is arranging the funeral.

The best time to submit a request for our services is as soon as you decide you are going to use our services. This allows us plenty of time to arrange the riders for your service.

Yes and no depending on your definition of “escorting a procession”. YES – The PGR’s can escort a funeral by riding in front of, behind, and mixed in, with the other procession participants. NO – PGR’s are not allowed to control any traffic unless they have a “Funeral Escort Permit” through the cities that require a permit.

Yes and no: YES – All funeral procession vehicles can proceed through a red traffic signal light as long as there is an escort in that intersection controlling the traffic. NO – If there is no escort in the intersection controlling the traffic then ALL vehicles, procession or non-procession, must obey ALL traffic laws.

Typically, vehicles in a funeral procession will not receive a red light violation ticket as long as there is a funeral escort in that intersection, visible on camera, controlling the flow of traffic and that vehicle has a “Funeral” sticker visibly affixed to their vehicle on the front.
If an escort is in the intersection and your vehicle has a funeral sticker affixed to it and you still receive a red-light violation you may contact the funeral home whom may be able to provide proof that you attended the funeral by your signature in the guest book and you can attend a traffic court hearing to explain the circumstances.
If there was not an escort in the intersection or your vehicle did not have a funeral sticker affixed to it and you received a red-light violation you may contact the funeral home whom may be able to provide proof that you attended the funeral by your signature in the guest book and you can attend a traffic court hearing to explain the circumstances.