Part 4 of four
The Van Is the Product
A driver spends four minutes on the ground and twenty in the van. The ride is the part of this arrangement that is actually experienced, and it is the part quotes describe least.
The four questions
| What this part buys | A vehicle, a driver, fuel and a schedule, running whether or not anybody is aboard. |
|---|---|
| What makes it move | Frequency, above everything. A van every ten minutes and a van every twenty-five are not the same service and the second one costs half as much to run. |
| What to ask when you call | The interval, and the interval at five in the morning specifically, which is not always the same number. |
| What cannot be promised about it | A journey time. Traffic on the corridor west of the city is not something an operator controls or a desk can promise, and a quoted minute figure is a claim about a good day. |
Frequency is the whole thing
Everything else about a shuttle is detail. The interval decides your morning.
At a ten minute interval you walk out of the lot and get on a van. At twenty-five you stand, and standing in February at five in the morning is the single most common thing people remember about a parking lot they will not use again.
So the number to ask for is the interval, and the number to ask for specifically is the interval at the hour you will actually be there. Some operations run a tighter schedule during the morning bank and a looser one midday. That is sensible operating and it is also the difference between two experiences of the same lot.
On demand means something specific
It usually means: telephone from the lot and a van comes.
That is an excellent arrangement at eleven at night when nothing is scheduled, and a poor one at six in the morning when four people are calling at once. Ask which hours are scheduled and which are on demand, because a lot can honestly describe itself as both.
Coming back is the harder direction
Going out, you control when you arrive at the lot. Coming back, you arrive when the aircraft arrives.
Ask two things about the return: where the pickup point is, and what happens after the last scheduled run. The second question is the one that matters on a delayed evening, and the answers range from a call and a twenty minute wait to nothing at all until morning.
An operator that answers the second question clearly is telling you something good about itself.
Why the ride costs more here than in some cities
Because the field is a genuine distance west of the city and off airport lots sit along that road rather than beside the terminal. A van covering four miles each way with a driver aboard is a real cost, running from before the first bank to after the last.
That is a fact about this geography rather than a complaint, and it is why the ground being cheap out there does not make the whole arrangement cheap.
Practical
- Ask the interval, at your hour.
- Ask where the return pickup is, precisely.
- Ask what happens after the last run.
- Allow for the van in your own timing, not just the drive.