Allowing another person to move or drive our vehicles is usually no big deal in our society today. Fancy restaurants and casinos, as well as some exclusive shopping malls, hospitals and theaters, offer valet parking at a price. For those of us who drive wheelchair vans that require loading from the side, it is not unusual to be asking policemen, security guards and even nearby pedestrians to step in and move the vehicle so that the lift can be deployed when other drivers park besides us--even though the unloading zones might be clearly marked.

The real difference between the average family car and most wheelchair vans lies in the presence of hand controls, and perhaps even more complex electronics for starting and shifting the vehicle. Another common difference is the price, which can equal that of a luxury sports car. In my last posting I explained how the cost of the van I purchased from eBay had risen to $78,000. That fact alone should make one think twice before letting an untrained individual operate an adapted vehicle.

My van is a full-sized vehicle, equipped with a side wheelchair lift, and has a 9-inch lowered floor so that I can see clearly out of the windshield. It also allows me to haul coworkers or materials to meetings, and to haul my three grandsons in the back seat without crowding. It has a powerful engine, but is heavy and only gets about 12 miles per gallon. Because of that, it is also a bit more difficult to stop.

The charge for shipping my van from California to Virginia was about $1500, but fortunately it was paid by my new employer even though the van did not arrive until about three months after I started my job. After the extended period sitting in the body shop while it was being repaired, and enduring a weeklong trip across country on the back of a transport truck, I once again had to purchase two new batteries. Even so, it was great to have my van back under my control again so that I could enjoy the many museums and scenic wonders in the area without being restricted to public transportation options.

On one of those weekend trips, I had the opportunity to test out the stopping power when using a hand control brake. A vehicle had stopped unexpectedly on the highway in front of me, to make a left-hand turn into a private road, and despite pushing on the hand control as hard as possible I still struck the rear of the car ahead. The result was a ticket for failing to stop, $100 for repairing the dent in my bumper, and an unknown cost for significant damage to the back of the station wagon that was paid by my insurance. Thankfully no one was injured, but the accident also resulted in an increase in my insurance premiums going forward.

Having learned (the hard way) about the difficulty of bringing the van to an emergency stop, I paid another $3000 to have a brake booster installed so that it would require less pressure on the hand control when braking. Even with the booster, trying to hold the hand control brake tight while waiting at a stop light on the steep uphills of Seattle is a real adventure.

In January of this year, I resigned from my job in Washington, DC and moved west to the Washington area where I was raised. That required me to have my van transported by truck once again, this time at my own expense, and if you’re considering such services we should probably talk first. Searching on the Internet, I was faced with the choice of about 100 providers who offered to ship the van for costs ranging from $700-$3000. I contracted for shipping at about $1200, figuring that paying more would result in better service, and paid the nonrefundable $100 fee that was required. Three weeks later, after repeated failures to get anyone from that transport broker to call me back and explain why my van had not yet been picked up, I canceled the order and forfeited the deposit.

I now realize that there are auto transport brokers operating under different company names, sometimes working from in the same office. They simply enter into an agreement to ship a vehicle, collect the non-refundable deposit, then post the information on an electronic bulletin board where truckers who happen to be going the right direction can pick up the vehicle and be paid a reduced fee.

This time I contracted with the moving company that was hauling my household goods, at about twice the cost. I knew they had a great reputation, but I even purchased $20,000 worth of additional insurance in case something happened en route. That seemed improbable, but I am normally fairly cautious anyway. A series of major snowstorms that struck the mid-Atlantic region delayed shipping of my van once again, but about 45 days later I was advised that it had been picked up. We would soon be reunited!

About four days later I received a call from a claims adjuster for the moving company who advised that the driver had called her from Indiana and stated that he had apparently struck an overpass somewhere along the way and the roof of my van was “scraped.” As you probably know, these large transport trucks are usually two levels, so they can hold up to 10 vehicles at a time. It was inconceivable to me that any professional transport driver would depart on such a trip without measuring the height of his load, but that is apparently what happened.

When the transport truck arrived at my home, I found that the entire roof of the van had been collapsed, the front windshield was broken, water was leaking into the van, and two of the front doors would not close all the way. After a $20,000 repair which included an entire new roof and the purchase of more new batteries, I finally am driving my “bargain van” on a regular basis. Unfortunately that cost of independence for this particular vehicle has now risen to about $105,000, but I’m still happy to be driving myself wherever I want to go anyway. I wish that all of my peers were able to do the same.

© 2010 Michael Collins

Thanks to a spinal cord injury in 1988, I now drive a wheelchair van. I consider myself very lucky in this respect, but you can come to your own conclusions about that.

Getting to this point has been a multistep process. While still in the hospital during six months of rehab, I was able to purchase a used van that would allow me to ride as a passenger while others drove. The previous owners lived in Arizona, and had removed all of the cold weather equipment from the engine so that the frigid temperatures in Northeast Washington wreaked havoc on it during the winter months. The repair bills during the five years that I owned it equaled the purchase price. The frustration and fear endured while letting others transport me was priceless.

In 1993 I graduated to a vehicle that I could drive myself. I purchased a new van, and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation paid for the necessary modifications needed for me to drive it. The full-sized van with a wheelchair lift allowed me to travel independently, and to drive seated in my wheelchair without transferring. On the day I got my driver’s license I drove 160 miles to park on a Pacific Beach and unload onto the packed sand. The freedom to travel by myself was exhilarating, and it allowed me to drive extensively for work and leisure.

Early in 2007 a friend called to let me know that he had spotted a vehicle on eBay that looked like something I could use to replace my old van It was a 2006 model with less than 4,000 miles on it and was located in Iowa. Already equipped with a wheelchair lift and hand controls, it seemed like a reasonable deal for $34,000.

After paying an extra $2,000 to have it transported by truck to my home in California, my almost-new van only needed replacement of two batteries to get it running. Oh yes, I also discovered that the lift could not handle the combined weight of me and my heavy wheelchair and the seat was not removable so that I could drive from my wheelchair. There was also the matter of the hand controls, which were a type that I could not use. $15,000 in modifications later, the van had a new lift, a power steering booster, new hand controls, relocated switches and some other changes that made it safe for me to drive. The price of independence was getting steeper.

While the van was being re-modified, I was hired for a job which required me to move cross-country from California. As soon as the “new” van was delivered to me, I visited the local mall to grab a couple of last-minute items I would need in Virginia. The transport company was scheduled to pick up the van the following week.

While I was shopping, another driver decided to ignore the ‘hash marks’ painted on the pavement and parked next to my van. In Sacramento County the penalty for parking in that marked area is over $1000, so I asked mall security to have police called to ticket the car and have it towed away. A well-meaning security guard showed up first, and offered to move the van so I could get in. Following my instructions and operating the van from a standing position using the hand controls, he backed it out of the parking space and I told him to put it in park so that I could go around the front of the van and see if cleasred the offending car so I could get on the lift once the side doors were opened.

Big mistake!

Just as I cleared the front of the van, it suddenly surged forward and struck a car that was parked next to me. Bouncing off it in a shower of glass and chrome, engine revving, the van continued to accelerate until it struck a large concrete pillar next to the entrance of the mall, narrowly missing two shoppers. At that point the security guard struck his head on the visor and fell to the floor while the van rolled backwards, engine not running, into a parked pickup truck.


Even though the security guard was knocked unconscious when the van struck the mall, he was not seriously injured and was hospitalized only overnight. While I hoped that my insurance company would total the vehicle and simply buy me a new one, they insisted it could be repaired in three weeks--for $15,000.

Three months later, after repairs costing $25,000, the van was shipped East by truck again--all the way to Virginia. Thankfully I was working in the nation’s capitol, so public transportation could be used for the daily commute in the interim. With the arrival of my van, even with the $78,000 that had been spent on it already—plus the cost of replacing another two dead batteries--perhaps I would finally be able to enjoy driving it on a regular basis. I should have known by then that this van would not make that easy, as the cost of driving independently would soon rise again.

©2010 Michael Collins