Norma Sanchez has been part of a vanpool for 11 years, 9 of them as a volunteer driver. Before ever joining a vanpool Norma like many of us would commute in a single passenger car.
After hearing about the benefits of vanpooling she decided to give it a try. She vanpooled for two years before hearing about CalVans. The vanpool group held a meeting to determine if they would stay with the company they were with or switch to CalVans. The decision came down to a couple of choices; comfort and were they willing to continue to pay more for their captain chairs in their current van or sit in bench seats that came standard in a CalVans vehicle? Half of the vanpool joined CalVans with its bench seats and quickly realized they were saving more, and still very comfortable.
This week (Norma) Vanpool 236 welcomed a returning vanpooler. Denise Vasquez, who’d ridden with CalVans in the past, when it was known as KART (Kings County Rural Transit). A change in jobs had forced her to leave the vanpool.
For the past 3 years Denise had been working in Fresno, without access to vanpool. When she heard about a new job opportunity in Downtown Fresno she decided to apply. Denise says that “A huge part of my motivation to apply for the job in Downtown [Fresno] was because I already knew there was a vanpool going downtown and I said, I’m going to apply and maybe get on that vanpool!” Denise got the job and was a perfect match for the vanpool 236 schedule.
The process is simple, Denise gave us a call letting us know she was interested in joining a vanpool, we put her in touch with the vanpool that best met her needs and the connection was instant!
Norma has had different people join her vanpool and commented that they’d all been good people to vanpool with. Norma says, “I am fortunate to have a good group, they all pitch in $2 to help pay for my part of the ride.” She, like the vanpool riders, appreciates the service and personnel “they are very helpful.” Norma doesn’t see herself leaving the vanpool life anytime soon, “once you ride in a vanpool, you never want to go back to driving your car!”
If you’d like to join a vanpool our staff is ready to help you find your perfect match or you can also start your own vanpool! We’re here to guide you every step of the way. . We have a very useful cost calculator at http://www.calvans.org/why-us/cost-calculators/monthly-van-cost to help you make the decision. Give us a call at 1-866-655-5444.