Wheelchair Getaways keeps customers rolling

Oakland Tribune, Nov 12, 2008 by Janis Mara

Barbara Jackson taxis her electric wheelchair up to the Wheelchair Getaways van, then presses a button on the remote control. The right-hand passenger door slides open, a ramp folds down, Jackson drives the wheelchair up the ramp into the passenger area. Finally, her husband, Jim, secures her wheelchair to the floor.

"This makes it so simple," the Daly City resident said. "You can be like an average person if you can get around and go where you want to go."

Not everyone would describe Jackson's boarding procedure as simple. But Wheelchair Getaways, a national wheelchair-accessible van rental franchise operated in San Mateo by Audrey Ribero, literally goes the extra mile to simplify travel for the disabled.

"We'll drive to their houses to pick up our customers, or wait for them at the airport," said Ribero, a paraplegic who learned of the Everett, Wash.-based service when she needed transportation on a business trip.

"I was injured in a car crash in May of 1996 and was paralyzed," Ribero said. "I was working at Genentech at the time. They sent me to a training course in Boston and I was thinking, 'How am I going to do this? How will I get around?'

"Genentech's travel agent told me when I arrived, someone would be there to meet me. I thought they were going to take me to the hotel, but the owner of the franchise met me at 10 p.m. He brought the van to me. I said, 'This service is so great, why don't they have it in the Bay Area?'"

Two years later, Ribero opened her own franchise in Hawaii, following up with a Bay Area franchise a year later. Now, 10 years later, she still charges $110 a day to rent one of her 30 vans, $95 a day for weekly rentals and $85 a day for monthly rentals.

Ribero's husband, son and father make the deliveries, her two daughters and sister-in-law manage the administrative office, her mother does the bookkeeping "and my nephews even help out with washing the vans," she said.

The service isn't just for travelers. For example, when Sheryl Litchie of Las Vegas visits her disabled aunt in Santa Clara, she rents a van to take her aunt out for lunch, or to a concert or theater performance.

"How would they go shopping, how would they go just to take a ride otherwise? Sheryl's coming from Las Vegas to see her aunt, but she can't go to Enterprise and rent a car because her aunt can't get in with a wheelchair," Ribero said.

Ribero's two franchises pulled in $750,000 in revenue in 2007, but the current credit crunch is having its effect on the business, she said.

"Right now, to get a business loan it's crazy, it's completely hard to get," Ribero said. "Last year all I did was call Chrysler and say, 'I'm going to buy five vans,' she said. Vans cost about $50,000 apiece. This year when I went to make a purchase, they cut my credit line from $500,000 to $100,000 and I had to provide tons of paperwork, though I've never made a late payment. It really stunts your growth," Ribero said.

Despite these challenges, Ribero is optimistic, depending on repeat customers such as Jackson, who has used the service for more than six years, to keep rolling.

"It's a wonderful resource," said Jackson, who worked for San Mateo County for 40 years as a rehabilitation counselor. "These vans opened up all kinds of vistas for us. It's so nice when you can have the feeling of doing what the rest of the world does." She said Wheelchair Getaways is especially useful for trips, as opposed to flying.

"It's unbelievably complicated. They will transport the wheelchair for you, but the power chair runs on batteries and they don't want batteries on the plane," Jackson said. "There's all kinds of things on the wheelchair that come off and can get broken. If you arrive and the footrest has come off, you're in a real mess. It's much more convenient to drive," she said.

"I don't use it myself, but some of our higher-ranking people in the disability community who come here on visits from Washington, D.C., get good service from Wheelchair Getaways," said Chris Mullin, transit outreach specialist at the Berkeley Center for Independent Living.

"Wheelchair Getaways is one of those places that has been accommodating to all chairs. They have as good or better a reputation as just about any of the van rentals," Mullin said.

Janis Mara can be reached at 925-952-2671 or jmara@bayareanewsgroup.com. Check out her Energy Blog at www.ibabuzz.com/energy.WHEELCHAIR GETAWAYS-- Franchise founded: 1998- - Franchise Owner: Audrey Ribero-- Franchise locations: Northern California, Southern California (with the exception of San Diego), Hawaii-- Product: Wheelchair accessible van rentals-- 2007 Revenue: $750,000-- Phone Number: 800-638-1912-- Web site: www.wheelchairgetaways.com-- E-mail address: GetawaysCAandHI@aol.com