Chauffeuring the Children : Busy Parents Rely on Van Services to Ferry Their Busy Youngsters

The day Suzette End first took her daughter to the ice rink, the girl’s ankles were discovered to be remarkably straight. End was soon to discover that her boss was equally unbending.

End, a single mom in Calabasas, had to give up her job when it became clear that 9-year-old Chantel was a potential Olympian who would require four hours a day on the ice. Someone would have to take her to the rink each afternoon. Someone who didn’t have a full-time job.

Luckily for End, the dilemma lasted only six months. She solved it by hiring a children’s shuttle service called VanGo.

Such services are treasured by harried parents torn between the need to transport children and to keep their jobs. Those who can afford it--and it isn’t cheap--increasingly hire children’s vans to ferry children to school, day-care, the orthodontist. “There is nothing like this service,” said End, who pays VanGo $275 month and is back to work as a marketing representative.

The service is becoming so popular that VanGo’s owner, Neil Eisenberg, has expanded his fleet from one van to 25 in just over two years. But success has its price: Not only is Eisenberg feeling the heat from copycat competitors, his business has drawn the attention of the state Public Utility Commission.

“This is so different from what we’ve traditionally expected in child transportation, no one has had the opportunity to give it much thought yet,” said Emy Youngsmith, safety enforcement attorney for the PUC.

Caught unaware by a flood of applications of what it terms “tot toters,” the commission is seeking to draft new regulations to ensure safety. The PUC staff has drawn up a long list of proposed rules including one that would require licensed day-care providers to be on board with small children. “You need someone to watch the kids and make sure they are not choking on a toy,” explained Fred Patterson of the PUC.

Eisenberg says these rules could boost his costs so high that it would put him out of business. “We were hoping that this would be the year we would make some money,” said Eisenberg. “This scares me to death.”

Similar issues are being debated nationwide. There are 240 private child-transport services throughout the country--most started within the past couple of years, according to the National Child Transportation Assn., a trade group formed earlier this year.

Most of these services have started within the last two years, driven by the needs of parents whose work schedules don’t allow driving their youngsters and who don’t want their children walking. A growing tendency for parents to eschew public school buses has also fueled the trend.

“No way I would feel my son was safe on a school bus,” said Fran Ginsberg of Santa Monica, mother of a 9-year-old boy who rides VanGo 35 minutes each way to a private school. The van service costs about $250 per month.

Ginsberg, whose husband is a doctor, said she would rather not work full-time in her husband’s private practice, but said she must because managed care has cut into his earnings and he can’t afford to pay extra staff.

Children’s van services are in such demand that many companies say they can’t keep up. Eisenberg says VanGo now transports about 300 children a month and has a waiting list of at least 200 names. Leslie George of Seal Beach started a franchise called Kids Kab earlier this year, and now transports 75 youngsters per month, with another 100 on a waiting list.

“You don’t want the people [who make] over $150,000, because they have a nanny at home who drives,” George explained. “I want that crowd who is at around $80,000, where they have a little extra money.”

So far the state has been licensing child-transport businesses on an ad hoc basis. Some operators, such as Eisenberg, have virtually the same licenses as charter bus operators. Others, such as George, have several different licenses, including one similar to those held by airport shuttles and one tailored to school activity buses.

But faced with a growing number of these applications--14 are currently up for review by the PUC--state officials are looking to create a new regulatory category just for children’s vans.

Suggested regulations include required maintenance programs and criminal background checks of all those working with children. Also being considered are rules that would allow shuttles to transport children younger than kindergarten age only if they are accompanied by a parent or guardian--unless a child care provider licensed by the state Department of Social Services were also present.

And there is talk of banning the transport of adults who are not accompanying children, and requiring a minimum for 10 hours classroom training and 10 hours of behind-the-wheel training for drivers.

“The hardest part with something like this is that you don’t know who people are,” said Youngsmith, the PUC attorney. “For me, as a mom, it’s a frightening concept. I would hope that the government could ensure a more stable and safe situation for a child.”

But Eisenberg says many of the proposed rules are already observed by the industry, while others would curtail his business. He says he already does background checks, requires commercial vehicle drivers’ licenses, trains drivers in CPR and first aid and has vans built to spec for safety.

He’s especially troubled by the child-care provider requirement. Requiring additional child development training would force him to pay higher wages to drivers, who are now paid $6.50 per hour and up, he said.

Additionally, Eisenberg is concerned that the rules would prevent him from taking out adult parties on weekends--a growing segment of his business--and he is afraid the PUC might limit his hours or the distance he can travel, measures that have been considered for some applicants. “The logistics of this are already just such a nightmare,” he said. And overhead is high.

For example, insurance costs more than $4,000 per year per vehicle. Eisenberg has invested $500,000, and although he may make a profit this year, he has lost money the last two years, he said, adding: “I’m dealing with things I never thought I [would] have to deal with. I never thought I would have to deal with children throwing up in my cars . . . I never thought I would have parents yelling and screaming because I want to pick up their child at 7:30 and they want 7:25.”

At the same time, though, Eisenberg and others say the industry could benefit from some regulation, especially with all the newcomers seeking to cash in. “An accident involving children would be terrible for the whole industry,” said Gene O’Neil, vice president of franchise operations for Kids Kab International in Troy, Mich.

Accordingly, many services have embraced seat belts, driver’s education and first-aid training. George, of Kids Kab in Seal Beach, said she agrees with the majority of the PUC’s recommendations and has even sought child care training for her drivers.

“Ninety percent of what they’ve proposed should in fact be enacted,” said Kelly Stratico, owner of KART Inc., a children’s van service in Santa Cruz. “Some of it is just carrying it a little too far.”

The PUC seeks written public comment on the issue by Oct. 11. It will then hold a public hearing.