The Blue Van Blues

The other day i saw blue Super Shuttle van I-5.  Made me mad all over again.

See, I drove for Super Shuttle between 2002 and 2004 in Sacramento when the company switched its drivers status from employees to independent contractors. This resulted in all expenses, including maintenance, dispatcher services, insurance, lease payments, uniforms, taxes and airport fees, amounting to about $6000 per month, being passed on the to driver, including a requirement that drivers commit to a minimum of 60 hours on the job six days a week for a 10-year period.  In the words of a black cabbie I knew, "Sounds like life on a plantation."

We were not allowed to take the 10-year contract out of the Sacramento office for review by an attorney, even though the Los Angeles office encouraged drivers to seek legal counsel before signing.  A further stipulation required that the independently owned contractors' vans, not those leased from Super Shuttle, be no more than four years old, and that the contractor pay Super Shuttle the cost of the van's paint, livery and decals -- all at inflated prices.  Super Shuttle also had a pipeline to Ford, Chrysler and GM dealers for new vans at a fat markup.

As for maintenance, Super Shuttle mechanics in Sacramento would replace drive wheel tires with recaps, which is illegal for vehicles used for public transport in California, and resulted in one van being totaled on I-5 from tire failure. I picked up the frightened but uninjured passengers.

There in no limit to the greed of Super Shuttle's Phoenix-based owner/owners.  The company's compensation plan is based on the employment laws of the misnamed "right to work" state of Arizona with its union busting statutes.  A class action suit was filed by former drivers for back wages in 2008. The drivers won.  My share was $500, a token amount considering what I'd paid for employment with Super Shuttle -- the worst company I've worked for in my 50 productive years before my blessedly slothful retirement. 
'
I've noticed that nowadays most of Super Shuttle drivers seem to be recent immigrants with little knowledge of English and even less of labor rights. God help them. God help their passengers, and I thank God I'm an atheist

Maybe things would have worked out better for me if I had been a Blue Man for a Blue Van. 

Naaah.  Super Shuttle owns the rights to its special blue paint.  I would've been charged a monthly user fee.  

-oOo-

E-mail comments, critiques and snarky corrections to tomatomike@aol.com

Whoopie!  Another insight into your past. Blue vans, super shuttle, limos, taxis and who knows what else, Sky Taxi?  Good to hear another story and thanks for including me. -- Kent

Thanks for reading it  MB

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Sometimes you just have to say something.   Well seriously.   I'm sorry that integrity isn't a mainstay with everyone, and that the bottom line is not the same across the board.  No one should have to be forced to do the right thing, either.  Writing this stuff down should be therapeutic at least, and hoping for poetic justice or something else satisfying is understandable. I've SO been there.  So what do we do now?  I will join forces with you against 'em or bring something fun and inappropriate to take our minds off.   Send instructions. -- Zoey

Just vote with your business, your cash and your credit card.  -- MB

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I get up and check my email and what do I see?...an email from my friend Pomidoro Mike!....Have a great day ok Mike?...you tomato man you :-) Qbman

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If I see these in operation around here, I'll put the word out.  This should never have been allowed to happen in the first place and I am sorry it did to you.  -- Rusty

Well, that Asian driver might be supporting his and his wife's parents plus his own offspring. Super Shuttle's fares are still less than half what a Seattle-Tacoma airport taxi charges for a trip to either city. I used SS even after I left the company.  Got to meet some old buddies and catch up on company gossip. -- MB

Right to left.  Don Simons, Karen Simons, and a slightly unstable bald guy in a vanity cap wondering where his bifocals are, at the Weatherstone Coffee House in Sacramento, 2014.  

The Simons hijacked the bald guy a year later and moved him, lock, stock and bifocals to San Diego in a U-Haul truck.  Being San Diegans themselves, they considered the move as protective custody, installing Mr. Bifocals in a secure condominium with no sharp edges they just happened to own, in exchange for a very token rent and occasional service as a house and dog sitter when they are out of town.  

They also leaned on him to be a tuxedoed usher for live performances at the university theater and as a guest at the outdoor venue in Balboa Park, occasionally hauling him off to lunch and/or bringing relief supplies from In 'N Out Burgers, which is the finest fast food chain in the known universe and probably beyond.

Okay, the condo is great, the San Diego climate worthy of paradise, my blessedly quiet neighbors have an amazing ability to mind their own business, and anything I might think I need is within 5 miles.  Hell, I don't even have to drive to get it.  If it's small enough it will fit in the basket of an electric scooter the Simons gave me.  

But there is a downside to scooter travel. Being an ex-biker, I'm well aware of the hazards of two wheeled travel in traffic where aged motorists tell the cops, "I dunno, officer.  He just came out of nowhere" as the biker's flattened remains are rolled up and stuffed into a rubber bag.

The only other problems I've had were self-inflicted.  Still are, and ain't that always the way?  I've managed to kill off not one but two tropical fish by not reading the directions that came with the water purifying chemicals for the small aquarium.  That oversight purified the aquarium of fish as well as algae. Twice. So now I have a low maintenance fishless aquarium that looks rather nice, a light illuminating the multi-colored gravel along with the plastic grotto scenery.  I'll suppose I'll get another fish and seek the fish person's counsel about proper care and feeding, but not today. 

The latest crisis occurred yesterday when the ghost of a previous tenant and maybe a troublemaking banshee hid the keys to my condo, my car, my storage locker and what remains of my mental balance.  The bill for the locksmith, the locks and replacement keys has me on a bland diet with headache and constipation supplements.

Well, it could be worse.  I could be fishless in Sacramento where the triple digit August heat makes mere breathing an Olympic event.  So here's to the better weather and good friends in San Diego.

                                              -oOo-


Address comments, critques and snarky suggestions to tomatomike@aol.com

If all else fails, let the muck take over the aquarium and raise frogs or salamanders. Say you did it deliberately.  -- Brat
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As always, a nice thing to get mail from you.  It seems as though my friend Mike has appropriate thankfulness for a pretty good life.  I really appreciate the thought of you being in nice digs with good people around you, and events of the days making your brain workin' good and your heart laying back warm.  I say that "brain workin' good" stuff in spite of your lost keys portion and for a very good reason.  I, too, have lost my keys and my little packet of ID cards, debit cards, health cards, irretrievably vanished into thin air.  I refuse to chalk that up to any sort of brain fade so I can't accept that for you either . Instead, I prefer to think of these things as a life challenge and character builder, and right off, an exercise to see how many expletives I know.   Keep the words coming, Mike, and be well, keep California Dreamin'.  -- Zoey
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Awww love it! -- Julisari
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I, too,  am glad you're out there, but still no report on their famed zoo. I also want a review of that "In 'n Outburger place which I've heard so much about. We don't have one here.  Are they as good as their hype?  Take care and keep writing. me.  -- Linda

As far as I know, In 'n Out burgers are geographically limited to California.  And  yes, they're very good.  -- MB

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Sounds like you are doing swimmingly and, as for the fish: highly overrated unless they're plated.  Always good to hear from you!  -- Ellen