Principal Rents Van, Enterprise Sets Pickup Location
Teaching new skills, handling loss, and practicing good sportsmanship should be the focus for parents, not managing transportation logistics. Kat Shaw, principal at Howard Gardner Community Charter School in California, faces exactly this logistical nightmare. She has been on day seven of trying to secure vans for student athletes, a process that has proven frustratingly difficult.
The SUV Shuffle
The current setup is inefficient. Shaw explains that she and a staff member use their SUVs to shuttle students back and forth to a nearby practice field. With 18 students to move, several have to wait while the adults make the second trip. The principal argues that student athletes deserve the same access to sports as those at local district schools, though charter-school funding creates a different situation.
Shaw tried to rent two vans through Enterprise and Hertz. These companies listed options for roughly $75 a day. Shaw booked two vans through Enterprise first. She planned to pick them up at 1 p.m., give the students a snack, and make it to football practice by 2:30 p.m., but then Enterprise called.
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Booking was denied. “We don’t carry those vans,” she recalls.
Booking Denied
Shaw tried Hertz next and scheduled a 1:30 p.m. pickup. After arranging a ride and heading to the rental location, she ran into the same problem. “Oh, sorry. We don’t carry those vans. You gotta go to the airport,” they told her.
Shaw questions why booking websites allowed her to reserve vehicles that neighborhood locations did not carry, or why they did not direct her to the airport sooner. “I have 18 kids that I need to get to the field, and eventually to the games,” she says.
Something has to change. Shaw is calling on local heroes to help the school through a series of TikTok videos. In the first video of the series, she explains that sixth to eighth graders participate in volleyball, football, and cheer.
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Funding and Logistics
Shaw currently has a fundraiser with a goal of $50,000, though it sits at zero as of this writing. New passenger vans are expensive.
TrueCar shared a list of five passenger vans with starting MSRPs ranging from about $50,000 to $60,000. At that average, two new vans would cost $110,000 to $120,000.
Shaw says discussing budgeting is a separate issue. The rental mess is part of her TikTok series aiming to get San Diego businesses and community members to help secure two vans during the week.
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Rental companies can occasionally lack the cars they have promised. A reservation does not always mean a specific vehicle sits with the customer’s name on it. Rental companies have historically allowed customers to book without prepaying or providing a credit card, making it easy for people to cancel or simply not show up. This leaves companies to estimate how many reservations will turn into actual pickups. Reports indicate that rental companies accept more reservations than they can fulfill because they expect some customers not to arrive. In 2018, one outlet estimated that about 1% of reservations were not honored because no car was available.
Overbooking is not the only factor. An unexpected surge in demand, customers returning vehicles late, and cars being pulled for maintenance or repairs can all leave a branch short. The outlet recommends confirming the reservation the day before, arriving on time, and keeping a written confirmation. If the reserved class is unavailable, a free upgrade is a common industry practice.
Community Response
Commenters generally offered well wishes for the endeavor. One person wrote, “This makes me so upset… you guys do so much, this should be the last of your worries, man!! I love all coaches for their dedication.”
