Ha, I remember the grueling hours of the three days I worked for them like it was yesterday.
Many years ago, newly divorced and with child support payments and desperately needing a break from studio work I took a job with an Airport Limo company run by an old friend of mine. My driving record was spotless and as he and I talked one night at a friend’s card game he told me he was struggling to find reliable drivers. I had visions of wearing a black suit and driving a sleek black car with a single very wealthy customer in the back to and from Logan Airport a couple of times a night. I’d made the trip to Boston’s airport many times in the past and I’m always surprised when people complain about driving in, I think it’s the easiest ride to any major airport around.
Visions of my quasi secret service gig melted when I arrived for training on the first day. I wouldn’t be manning one of the town cars I’d be driving a van filled with people late for their flights. My trainee driver was a middle aged man who showed every mile. He wore an oversized windbreaker with the company name on it and he looked like he hadn’t slept of showered in a day or two. As I would find out it had actually been three days without either.
Climbing into the passenger seat he showed me how you had a customer list on a clipboard which you then looked up in an Atlas you bought yourself (GPS was just coming into play at this time) and you would calculate out your best route to pick everyone up and get them to the airport.
Coming back was worse because your list was five times the size of the departure list and you didn’t know who was getting on. So you’d have to prepare for all possible towns and then rework them as people actually got on. Pickups were simple, you’d pull up to the arriving gate and park at the curb outside, then step out and yell the name of the Airport Limo company and wait for whatever suitcase clutching traveler would come running. You’d load the suitcase into the back, check them off your list and then head to the next arrival gate.
Sometimes you’d meet another van somewhere on the road and you’d exchange passengers— maybe you have some that are going North or South or West— and then you’d head that way. My training driver had been doing the job for over 10 years, he loved it. He worked about 17 hours a day and sometimes slept in the van. He loved Flynn’s Truck Stop on Rte 20 in Shrewsbury because they considered the fleet drivers truckers and allowed them to use the lounge which consisted of TVs, video games and showers. He clearly only used the first because I doubt he’d ever played a video game and I know he had an aversion to showers.
Still, he was friendly and upbeat and I watched him collect a lot of tips from the passengers. When the van got full we’d head in or out. I’d never used Airport Limo’s before but it struck me that you might be on this thing for three hours if you were the first pickup as you gathered other passengers. Logan is a forty minute ride from my house.
The company used two way radios and the drivers and dispatcher talked with lingo that sounded like they were making WWII bomber raids. At the end of your shift you were expected to fill up the van (they called them a bus) with gas, vacuum it out and return to base.
The training was pretty simple. I imagine today with GPS it’s even simpler, but I was confident that day two of my training would go smoothly— it’d be my turn to drive.
Continued…