The first call is the part of your service a family remembers without quite being able to say why. It happens at the worst hour, in a living room or a nursing home hallway, and whoever walks through that door is standing in for your funeral home. Bay to Bay Mortuary Transport makes that arrival on behalf of Tampa Bay funeral directors.
We provide first call and removal service 24 hours a day, every day of the year, across the Tampa Bay area. Dispatch answers at 727-542-4321.
Our response time is 90 minutes within our service area.
What happens when you call
A first call is a sequence, not a pickup. Ours runs the same way every time, so your director knows what is happening without having to chase us for it.
- You reach dispatch directly, at any hour, and give us the location and the authority releasing the decedent.
- We confirm what we need before we roll: access details, whether the family will be present, whether a medical examiner or law enforcement has released the scene, and anything specific your funeral home wants handled a particular way.
- Our team arrives dressed for the setting, works quietly, and speaks to the family only as much as the moment calls for.
- The decedent is transferred into our care with documentation completed and chain of custody recorded.
- We deliver to your funeral home, your crematory, or wherever you direct, and confirm the handoff back to you.
Where we respond
Every setting has its own rules, its own staff to satisfy and its own way of being difficult at three in the morning. We work in all of them.
- Private residences, including home hospice deaths where the family is present throughout
- Hospices and nursing homes, working to the facility’s release procedure rather than ours
- Assisted living communities, where discretion in front of other residents matters as much as the transfer itself
- Hospitals, including morgue releases and the paperwork that comes with them
- Medical examiner’s offices, on their schedule and their terms
- Funeral homes and crematories, for transfers between facilities
Why funeral homes hand us the first call
Most directors do not outsource removals because they want to. They arrive at it after a stretch where the same two people covered every night for a month, or after a vehicle needed work in the same quarter the roof did. Handing us the first call buys back the overnight hours without giving up control of how the family is treated.
We work as an extension of your team rather than a vendor with its own name on the door. Families rarely know we were involved, which is the point.
Overnight, weekend and overflow coverage
Some funeral homes route every first call to us. Others keep their own removals during business hours and hand us the nights, the weekends and the holidays. Others call only when two families need attention at once. All three arrangements are normal, and none of them requires a volume commitment.
Beyond the first call
The removal is usually where a relationship starts. We also handle hospice and facility transfers, crematory runs, and airport shipping and receiving of human remains for families whose loved one is going home to another state. Full details are on our mortuary transport services page, and we provide deceased pet transport for veterinary practices and pet crematories as well.
Where we cover
We respond across Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee, Sarasota and Polk counties, including Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Bradenton, Sarasota and Lakeland.
Reach dispatch
Call 727-542-4321 at any hour, or set up a partnership so your staff has our number before they need it. Bay to Bay Mortuary Transport is licensed and insured, and serves funeral homes throughout the Tampa Bay area.