Sharing stinks

It's the shared-ride aspect of my para-transit service that kills me.

In theory, it means they pick up other clients on the way to your destination. In practice, the shared rides are why I have been nearly an hour late to work the last two days.

The specifics: I have a daily trip at 7:15 a.m. That means the ride can show up as early as 7 or as late as 7:30. My trip to work takes as little as 20 minutes and as much as 40 minutes. Or it should.

On Monday my driver picked me up at 7:10. Awesome! But then he told me that the next pickup was scheduled for 8:30 and was five minutes away.

Even the driver thought that was stupid so he tried to take me to work first, but chickened out when he saw the highway traffic. He could have made it, I am sure.

We got to the other client's house at 7:30, so I was ready to wait about an hour. Luckily, he came out early, about 8, so I only waited 45 minutes or so since my pickup.

This is problem No. 1: "On the way" means different things to me and to the dispatcher.

Problem No. 2 with sharing rides kept me from really napping while I waited.

The other client rides farther than me, so I get off first. But there is only one entrance and exit for wheelchairs. The driver secures me in to drive to the other client's house. When the client comes out of his house, the driver unstraps me, I get out, new guy gets in and goes to back of van, driver secures him, I get in front and driver secures me. Driver wipes away sweat from all the running around and we start driving. This takes probably 10 minutes.

I was similarly late on Tuesday. My driver showed up at 7:35 and said the next pickup was at 8 (later, he said 8:30) near my work. It was, quite near, but Dispatch didn't drop me first. Instead we picked up another person in a wheelchair. The driver had had me sit in the way back at first so I did not have to get off at this woman's pickup.

She had to get off at my work, which makes things later for her, but I did not really care. See, this is the third problem: You become rivals with the other passengers, wanting to be the one to get dropped off first.

I think it was OK on this trip because the woman was rude. She had the driver turn off the air without even a glance back at me. I sort of sympathize because the person in the front spot gets a blast of the fan right in the back of the head, but you suck it up, because the vans are really stuffy. Especially if the other client has dipped herself in perfume.

And she kept telling the driver: Drop me first, then him. He kept saying no and she would raise her hands in offense and exasperation. She was more exasperated when the driver made her get off at my work so I could get off.

Is it bad the driver and I shared a smirking look?