Your Right To Drive Is Under Attack


hand-controls

In May I reported on adaptive van dealerships no longer making rental vans available with hand controls. I called out the nation’s largest wheelchair accessible van dealer, MobilityWorks (61 stores), as a major offender. When our right to drive is restricted by a company’s policies, it is not only offensive, it may be illegal.  However, according to MobilityWorks’ director of store operations, Trevorr Jurgensen, his company is sympathetic to our needs — it is their insurance carrier that is calling the shots.

Jurgensen says that PSA Insurance and Financial Services, the leading insurer for adaptive van dealers across the nation, requires the prospective driver (renter) to provide an “updated prescription or certification from a certified driver rehab specialist” identifying the type of adaptive controls to be installed and proof that the driver is qualified to use this specific type. Jurgensen says that none of the MobilityWorks stores has wheelchair accessible rental vans available with hand controls installed. They do not even stock hand controls. If a driver presents the required documentation, the hand controls must be ordered, purchased, shipped and installed prior to renting. The process would take a minimum of one to two weeks.

As onerous as this policy is, a more restrictive requirement is engaging the services of a certified driver rehab specialist (CDR) in the first place. Six states do not even have CDRs within their borders. Fifteen states have three or fewer CDRs. Entire geographical regions are very poorly served. A few states are exceptions. California, for instance, lists 15 CDRs, but almost all of them are confined to Southern California or the Bay area.

Even if you succeed in engaging the services of a CDR, you must then pay out of your own pocket to become certified. Expect to pay at least $500 to $1,000 for a “current” certification. All of this in order to rent and drive a wheelchair accessible van with hand controls. Your driver’s license or years of experience driving with hand controls are no longer sufficient to prove you are qualified.

How did we regress to this sorry state? Rampant consolidation and buy-outs. Local family-run businesses are being taken over by major national corporations whose policies are more about liability and less about service.

NEW MOBILITY readers Felix and Vicky Gutierrez used to rent vans with hand controls from a small company in northern California. When MobilityWorks bought them out, the Gutierrez family had to rent a car with hand controls from Hertz (no ramp or lift). In this month’s letters they write: “One has to wonder why a commercial car rental company can provide hand controls, while a company that specializes in wheelchair accessible vehicles is so short-sighted and insures with a company that does not allow renters the independence they should be entitled to.”

At the same dealer, Chuck McAvoy was not allowed to test drive a van he was considering buying since he had no CDR certification. Is driving with hand controls under attack? Is our right to drive our personal vehicles next? What can we do to protect that right? Post a comment or send an email to tgilmer@unitedspinal.org.

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